[scouts] Maple Leaf Weekend

[John Richards]

Dear Folks -

I am writing because we need your help. Our troop has two major fund raising events, the Maple Leaf Festival and the Thomas the Tank weekends. These two events provide the troop with its operations budget (utilities, phone, equipment maintenance and repair, training costs for youth and leaders), the purchase of all of the badges, patches, pins, ribbons, and other awards that your boys earn, and for the transportation costs to troop activities and high adventure trips. 

Before we added Thomas the Tank, the troop used to add a transportation fee to each scout activity that required travel by vehicle, usually 5 to ten dollars per trip. However, because we added the Thomas the Tank weekends to the Maple Leaf weekend, we have been able to remove these fees. Most troops continue to charge for transportation, frequently totaling more than $150.00 a year per boy. We don't have to do this because we have these valuable, but crucial, opportunities to raise money.

These fundraisers work, but only if parents are willing to help out. Our lives are enormously busy, and I know how difficult it is to find time to help out. Believe me, there are lots of things I could be doing other than scouting, but because I believe that scouting plays an enormously positive role in the development of youth, I gladly give my extra time to it. We don't ask much from our parents, but this weekend is one where we must. We need people to help with all of the activities we do: running our troop food booth, parking cars, and working on trash pick up. You need not do all of these, but you should do one of them. 

Scouting can work but only if parents are willing to help out when they are needed, and now is one of the times we really need you to help. So please step up and contact Nanette Kraus by calling her at 594-2466 and volunteer for a shift at one of these activities. We especially need people to help with car parking. Every dollar we make goes directly to the troop. We also need folks to work the food booth. Trash is pretty well staffed because so many of the older boys sign up for it. 

Thank you! 

John Richards
Scoutmaster of Troop 65