SCOUTS AMASS 11,000 CANS OF FOOD LOCALLY

Unlike a year ago, Saturday brought with it no tremor of an earthquake projection to throw off the annual Boy Scouts of America's "Scouting for Food" effort here.

Area Boy, Cub and Explorer Scouts turned out in chilly, drizzly weather Saturday to collect bags of canned and boxed goods from homes as part of their national food collection effort for the needy. The scouts distributed the bags last Saturday for residents to fill.

Scouts in Cape Girardeau collected about 11,000 units of food, said Tony Smee, staff adviser for "Scouting for Food" for the Boy Scouts' Shawnee District, which includes Cape Girardeau. Smee called the local drive a success.

A collection total was unavailable Saturday for the Boy Scouts' Southeast Missouri Council. But Mark Wappel, scout executive for the 14-county council, said the council's scouts were expected to collect about 200,000 cans of food, more than double the 97,000 cans they collected last year.

The council anticipated doubling the amount of cans collected this year because it had distributed 40,000 bags, or twice as many as last year. Plus, he said, the council felt the drive would double its take this year because in 1990, due to the projection of an earthquake along the nearby New Madrid Fault, the food that was collected was probably half of what it could have been.

"Now that the earthquake scare is beyond us, we feel people are more free to give," said Wappel. "(Last year) for the same reasons that people were very interested in giving to us, they also needed to support their families as well, if there would have been a disaster. They did basically the Boy Scout motto, and that's `Be Prepared.'"

The late New Mexico climatologist Iben Browning had projected that there was a 50 percent chance of an earthquake occurring along the New Madrid Fault on Dec. 3, 1990. The quake never came.

Wappel said collection efforts also took place Saturday in Jackson, Scott City, Chaffee, Fredericktown, Leopold, Marble Hill, Perryville, Advance, and Kelso. The communities are also part of the Shawnee District. The district runs from Fredericktown to the west, the Scott City area to the south, and Perryville to the north, Wappel and Smee said. Wappel estimated that close to 2,000 scouts from the district participated in the food drive.

The food collected Saturday will go to the communities' ministerial alliances and food banks, said Wappel.

Workers with the organizations of FISH and the Salvation Army worked steadily Saturday at Cape Girardeau's collection drop-off point in Arena Park, pulling bags of food from vehicles. Food cans dully clanked against each other and table tops as workers readied them for boxing and transportation to food pantries.

Cub Scout Rob Carr, 8, dropped off 10 to 12 bags Saturday afternoon, with the aid of his mother, Karen Carr, who drove him to the collection point. He is a member of Pack 21, Den 10, at Clippard School in Cape Girardeau.

Rob, dressed in a dark blue Cub Scout shirt and neckerchief, said people seemed pretty willing to donate food this year.

"I needed a weight lifter. I couldn't carry all of it," he said while hefting his arms up along his sides. "One house had three sacks."

Karen Carr said Rob collected the food from homes in Chateau Manor Subdivision off Mount Auburn Road. She estimated one out of three households donated food, with a couple of them each donating more than one sack of food.

Another scout who brought food to the drop-off point, Brian Hogan, 13, said maybe a few more people donated food this year than last.

"They had commercials about (the food drive) this year. I don't think they did last year," said Brian of Boy Scout Troop 16, who was accompanied by his father, Richard Hogan.

The coordinator of the food drive for FISH, Jim Sanderson, said Saturday afternoon that the drive was going well compared to last year, when it seemed that both participation and donations dropped. He said he thought the Boy Scouts had worked more this year at advertising the drive and getting participants.

Smee said the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity at Southeast Missouri State University also helped pick up the food bags Saturday, in addition to distributing the bags last week.