The Cranbury scouts rallied the community in an effort to help individuals who have fallen on hard times.
This effort by both Boy and Girl Scouts has been annual occurrence for more than 20 years and was held through two drives earlier this month – Scouting for Food and Scouting for Hygiene.
“As an estimate, I would say 25% of the households in town give to the drives. This is total community effort,” said Tim Brennan, scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 52.
Scouting for Food collected items including frozen turkeys, cranberry sauce, soups and rice. Items went to the Holiday Food Basket Drive organized by the Board of Deacons through the First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury.
Hygiene items were collected for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Toothpaste, tooth brushes, soap, deodorant, combs, brushes, razors and shaving cream were some of the items sorted and boxed.
Boy Scouts Troop 52, Cub Scout Pack 52 and several Cranbury Girls Scouts all participated in the gathering and sorting of goods to help others enjoy the holidays.
Cub scouts handed out the bags a week before the Nov. 2 collection date and delivered them to every single home in Cranbury. There were two bags hand delivered, one for the Scouting for Food and the other for Scouting for Hygiene.
“The Boy Scouts go around to every home in town in one morning collecting the items from about 2,000 homes. We pick up all those goods and bring them back to Fellowship Hall inside the Presbyterian Church of Cranbury,” Brennan said. “The Girl Scouts then take the items and sort them inside Fellowship Hall. They get everything all boxed up on the same day.”
He said this is one of the events the scouts look forward to each year.
“For us as troop, it is one of the few times the community gets to see the faces of the scouts. This is one of those events where the community gets to see the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts working together for one cause,” Brennan said. “The boys get a lot from this especially when they see the thousands of items that have been collected. They realize that they are part of a helping system for those in need after they see the community’s response.”
He said he experience something new during the 2019 drives.
“One of the things that opened my eyes this year, is that we we have scouts from around neighboring towns and a lot of them have parents who came from a country where they grew up very poor. They have instilled in their child the idea of helping others,” Brennan said. “For the kids to see that people do need help and we are helping them is important.”
He said he hopes people in town continue to understand the need for helping others.
“We want to take care of the people in our town and surrounding areas. It is our responsibility to take care of each other as human beings,” Brennan said. “Whether we are rich or poor, we are all on this planet to take care of each other to make sure we have the best life possible.”