Homeless boys find opportunities in Scouts

[fgoodwin]

Homeless boys find opportunities in Scouts

 

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051215/NEWS/512150371

http://tinyurl.com/ct4am

 

Teen earns place in Hall of Fame of Caring Americans for founding Wilmington pack

 

By JENNIFER BROOKS

News Journal Washington Bureau

12/15/2005

 

WILMINGTON -- Anyone who has ever wondered whether one person really can make a difference in the world should drop by the Ministry of Caring on Tuesday nights, when Cub Scout Pack 506 meets.

 

"I promise," the Scouts chanted in unison, "to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people and obey the law of the pack. ... " They trailed off, exchanging mystified looks as they tried to remember what came next. "With liberty and justice for all," one boy burst out.

 

It wasn't the traditional Cub Scout pledge. But this isn't a traditional Cub Scout pack.

 

The Cubs scattered, giggling, to work tables piled high with planks of wood, power sanders, hammers, nails and safety goggles. They were making Christmas mangers to take home -- to whatever space they call home this week.

 

Cub Scout Pack 506 may be the only troop in the nation for homeless children. Its members, who range in age from 7 to 11 and numbered 15 this week, live in Wilmington-area shelters, temporary apartments, condemned buildings and even cars. They move from shelter to shelter and school to school, unable to hold on to friends or join ordinary after-school groups.

 

Until a Scout named Greg Sweeney came up with an idea that changed everything.

 

"I wanted to give these kids the stuff they don't normally have," said Sweeney, who was 12 years old, barely out of Cub Scouts himself, when he had his big idea.

 

Already a volunteer at Ministry of Caring, a Wilmington nonprofit that serves the city's homeless, Sweeney suggested that somebody ought to start a Cub Scout pack for the boys who had nothing to do and nowhere to go in the evenings. Good idea, he was told. Why don't you do it?

 

"Why? Because I'm 12, that's why!" Sweeney remembers responding. But with the help of his parents, his friends and a committed group of adult volunteers, he founded Pack 506 and kept it running for the next five years.

 

All that hard work earned Sweeney, now an 18-year-old college student and Eagle Scout, a place in the Hall of Fame for Caring Americans in Washington, D.C. The Caring Institute, a nonprofit chaired by former Sen. Bob Dole, annually chooses adults and teens who promote the values of caring, integrity and public service.

 

"I don't know if I should get this award," he told the crowd at his induction ceremony earlier this month. "I think I've gotten more out of this experience than the Scouts have."

 

But the Scouts seem to be getting a lot, too.

 

"I like the atmosphere here," said 14-year-old Rasaan Gouldbourne, smiling around the noisy, sawdust-filled meeting room. "I like the projects we do. I like participating. It's genuine here. A lot of the people here, they're nice."

 

At the next table, 7-year-old Tyriq Bernard carefully signed his name in orange marker on his wooden creation. It was the first thing, he said, that he'd ever made with his own hands.

 

Beside him, Billy Jervey sat meticulously sanding the wooden planks the Cubs were turning into mangers. He designed the winning car in the pack's annual mini-Soap Box Derby for the past two years, and his mother said he's now dreaming of a career as an engineer or a designer.

 

"It's been a great opportunity for him," said Stephanie Jervey. "It gives these kids an opportunity to do the sorts of things inner-city kids don't usually get to do. It gets them out of the inner-city mentality that there are things they can't do."

 

Neither the Boy Scouts of America nor the Delmarva Boy Scout Council could say for certain that Pack 506 is the only troop of homeless Scouts in the nation.

 

Always there for them

 

Sweeney spent hours every week planning Cub Scout meetings; arranging hikes, field trips and guest speakers; recruiting volunteers; tracking his Cubs and making sure they had a ride to each week's meeting. He lined up donors who provided uniforms and scout handbooks and made sure all the trips would be free.

 

"I like Greg because when I first came here, he showed me around, helped me," said 11-year-old Khayree Johnson, who has been scouting since he was 7.

 

When families had to move from one temporary home to the next, Sweeney helped carry boxes. When it was time for the boys to graduate to Boy Scouts, he lined up sponsors to defray the cost of new uniforms.

 

"If it wasn't for [Greg] and the Scouts, I don't know what we would have done," said Mary Malandruccolo of Claymont, who fell ill, fell behind in her rent payments and found herself living out of a car with her grandson, Anthony, then 10 years old. "It was so rough. I cried a lot."

 

Inspiring others

 

Two years later, Anthony is still scouting, and making plans to be an Eagle Scout, just like Greg.

 

"He heard you even get a hand-written letter from the president when you make Eagle Scout," his mother said. "He likes that idea."

 

Sweeney started college this year and handed off leadership of the troop to two younger Scouts and the rest of the volunteers.

 

"A lot of people ask themselves, 'Is there anything I can do about the great problems of the world like hunger, poverty?' " Sweeney said. "Well, the answer is yes."