Number of donations up in Scouting for Food drive

Local Boy Scouts were kept busy Saturday morning, as local residents left out thousands of cans of food to be collected for the annual Scouting for Food day.

This year's totals showed continued improvement, said Bill Crowell, senior district executive for the Boy Scouts in the Cape Girardeau and surrounding area, which includes Perry, Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties, and parts of Scott and Stoddard counties. "We have a few communities to report in, but we'll easily pass 52,000 this year."

Last year's district totals were 45,500 cans.

Local totals show about 20,200 cans from Cape Girardeau, up from 16,500 a year ago, and almost 9,000 cans in Jackson, up from about 7,700 a year ago.

Boy Scouts had placed food sacks at houses throughout their areas the Saturday before.

"You never knew where you'd find a food pickup," said Jerry Siemers, who was a participation coordinator for the event. "We'd find sacks for food at five or six houses in a row, then skip a half-block without finding any food sacks."

Siemers took his Troop 8 Scouts on food-pickup duty before winding up at the 4-H Barn, where they joined other volunteers in unloading incoming vehicles.

"This is fun Scout duty," said Alex Bettinger, a member of Troop 8, sponsored by Trinity Lutheran School.

The Scouts had plenty of help unloading and delivering the food at the 4-H Barn at Arena Park in Cape Girardeau Saturday. The collection process for the Scouts Saturday started with collections from homes at 9 a.m. Members of two fraternities, Lambda Chi Alpha and Alpha Phi Omega, helped unload the trucks and vans at the 4-H Barn, as well as members of the Sea Scouts, Ship 16 and students from the Division of Youth Services.

About 800 Scouts participated locally in the drive.

During the past 16 years, Boy Scouts have collected more than a half-million cans of food, designated for food outlets throughout the area. In Cape Girardeau, the Salvation Army, FISH, Gibson House and Safe House are recipients of the food. In Jackson, the food goes to the Jackson Ministerial Alliance and the Revival Center, Crowell said.

The local Shawnee Council of Boy Scouts of America drive is a part of the Greater St. Louis Area Council campaign where more than 40,000 Scouts participate in the two-weekend drive. The St. Louis Council includes St. Louis, 27 counties in eastern Missouri and 10 counties in Southern Illinois.

Scouting for Food was founded in 1985 by the Greater St. Louis Area Council and has grown into the nation's largest single-day food drive.

rowen@semissourian.com

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