Troop 24 is planning a volunteer opportunity repackaging food at the Greater Chicago Food Depository on Wednesday, February 3. Scouts must be at least 13 years of age to attend. Each scout attending can earn 3 service hours. We will leave from Riverside Presbyterian Church at 5:15 p.m. and return to RPC by approximately 9:30 p.m. There is no cost. The permission slip is due by Thursday, January 21. Scouts should wear their Class A uniforms without hats or neckerchiefs. We need one parent for every 4 Scouts attending, so if you are interested in driving and chaperoning, please sign up. Contact Dawn Gmitro with any questions

Peter’s Eagle Project will take place December 11 and 12. The project involves painting two bedrooms at the Ronald McDonald House near Loyola Hospital. The walls in the rooms are chipped and in need of painting. The rooms are occupied by parents of children receiving treatment at the hospital, or adults receiving treatment themselves. The project will take place over two days on December 11 (5:00pm to 7:30pm) and 12 (9:00am to 11:30am, 11:30am to 2:00pm, 2:00pm to 4:30pm). The volunteers will prep the room, move furniture, spackle, and paint the two rooms, working for approximately two hours on Friday night, and eight hours on Saturday. Thirty-four volunteers are needed to work in teams throughout the two days. Please contact Peter at falk05@comcast.net to sign up for one of the shifts or to work out rides to and from the Ronald McDonald House at the shift changes. Please make sure you return a signed permission slip.

For scouts who want to earn service hours, the Troop has an authorized Service Project available–a fundraiser/dance at Ames School.  The fundraiser is for a first grader at Ameswho has been diagnosed with a rare disease called Giant Axonal Neuropathy (GAN), a neurodegenerative disorder.

The Service Hours are for cleaning the gymnasium after the event, starting at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, December 11.  It is estimated that the clean-up will only take about an hour,  and we need four or five  boys.  The clean up will consist of:

– light cleaning of the floor, like cups, napkins, etc.
– helping to fold up the four (4) folding tables
– sweeping the gymnasium floor
– no work that involves heavy lifting or is precarious

The boys should be able to enter through the back doors at Ames from the parking lot.  If for some reason they are closed, the boys can enter from the front.

Liz Gomorczak will be our contact for this event.  Please contact Liz with questions, or to sign up.

This week is our last week of the canned food drive. Can you help? If you can, please bring a can (or two) to the Troop meeting on Thursday. (Boxed items, other than pasta, are also welcome.) Do what you can!

Hello once again-

This past Saturday was a great success and I’m hoping for another successful Saturday of work this Sat, 10/24. If you are available to help from 9 am to noon, please e-mail me at louthenej@gmail.com We will be meeting at the Water Tower and going around town to hang up the students’ artwork.

Thanks,
Elliot Louthen

The Girl Scouts are sponsoring Riverfest this weekend, and the Boy Scouts will be helping them construct a corn maze. We need 6-8 boys on SUNDAY at 9:00 am at the triangular park behind the water works. We expect this should only take about 1 to 1.5 hours, but we have from 9:00 to noon to get it done. The corn maze we will be building is for smaller children to go through. All the materials will be there for us. The plan is to have an area about 10 to 15 feet by 10 to 15 feet and about 6 feet tall. Please contact Ray Rogers with questions, or to volunteer.

This Saturday, October 17, I will be conducting my Eagle Project from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Riverside Town Hall. For those who do not know, my project is running the local Halloween Windows program. Instead of participants painting directly on the windows, there is going to be an art day at the town hall. I am looking for help throughout the day from scouts. I know there is a conflict outing that many scouts will be attending, but it would be great if those not attending could help. If you are able to help, please email me, with the times you could work. I am looking for scouts to work 2-hour shifts, but any time that can be given is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions feel free to email me.
Elliot

A Take Pride in Riverside community work day will be held from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday, October 17. Meet at the Quincy train platform (planting beds behind the Arts Center & Metal Mites) to help install weed block, plant & remulch the garden beds along the train parking lot. Bring gloves, rakes, shovels, and clippers if you have them. Dress warmly. Contact Terri Lynne-Culloden with any questions.

Our Troop’s Chartered Organization, Riverside Presbyterian Church, is conducting a canned food drive during the month of October. The donations will be taken to the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago where the food will be distributed to needy families. We would like to help them by contributing food to their effort. We would appreciate it if you would contribute what you can. You can bring food to Troop meetings. A bin will be located just inside the door going up the stairs. You can also drop off food during the day at the Church Office lobby (door marked “Preschool”). Thank you in advance for your generosity. Contact Mike Gmitro with questions.

All scouts are invited to participate in any of the Village’s forestry clean-up projects.  This work would qualify as service hours toward rank advancement.  TODAY, at Turtle Park, a group will be working to remove garlic mustard, buckthorn, etc.  If you are available to help, please meet at Turtle Park after school today.

On Saturday, there is another volunteer day scheduled for the triangle park at Longcommon & Dowling.  For that event, please meet the Forester at 9:00 a.m. at the triangle park.

If you participate in any of the Forester’s volunteer days, please be sure to introduce yourself to Mr. Collins and tell him that you are from Troop 24.  All volunteers need to sign a waiver, and scouts under 18 need to have the waiver signed by a parent/guardian, in order to participate. The waiver is available here.

It would be helpful, if you have them, to bring gardening gloves and hand gardening tools (although he may have some available if you forget or don’t have them).