Good turn for America hours...

[gcan]

I'm trying to figure out if some of our activities can be included. The obvious ones (litter clean up, needy collections, tending an elderly womans' yard, ect) have been recorded.

But what about our Council Conservation Project? We 'beautified' a section of scout camp property that had become a dumping ground for passing cars. BUT it went toward our council conservation award- however, nowhere on teh Good Turn website does it mention that projects must be solely for the purpose of Good Turn hours (which, IMO, defeats the purpose of convincing people to do a good turn as part of thier daily life anyway). And it wasn't on public property, so techincally wasn't for the good of everyone, just scouts. but it wasn't scout trash, lol.

and what about hosting a Christmas party at the retirement community? We entertain the residents, but don't really do a 'service'- do we?

We counted our clean up of the Veterans memorial, but what about participating in the Memorial Day services? The boys did 4 services, honoring the fallen at each one. They raised the flag, led the salute, ect, but didn't techincally 'help' anyone. But it does include "Place American flags on grave sites for Memorial Day", which I assume to mean seperatly from the actual service.

 

any ideas?

 

[RememberSchiff]

Relax. Let your scouts do their good turns and learn to feel good about helping others without expectation of reward.

 

Don't worry about tracking hours, quantifying projects, maximizing awards for time spent, make-work paperwork...enjoy with your scouts giving help to others.

 

My $0.02

 

 

[sheldonsmom]

IMO hosting a party at a senior center is abosolutely a service! The help may not be tangible (like picking up trash) but it is a service to the hearts of people involved. The same is true of flag ceremonies. It is a good turn that is being recorded not how much junk boys can pick up! Maybe I view the word help differently but those actions you mentioned are just as valuable to those who receive them as any cleaning or repair project ever could be! The boys should be taught that those projects have high value!

 

I will get off my soap box now.

[gcan]

thanks for the feedback! I just wasn't sure if that coounted towards those house, you know?

 

Honestly, the boys do all this stuff anyway, just as part of being a scout and 'giving back'. There is no reward-per-project for each and everything they do (although they all insist on doing elderly residents' yard work way more than we need to because they get rewarded with cookies and brownies, lol). We don't tell them "ok, guys, you just earned X hours", but they do get the rocker bar at the end of the year for "all the good things you've done this year", and they got a kick out of being honored at council with a certificate with 'real gold on it and everything', lol.

They are proud of the fact that they did all those hours, and like to tell people about all the service projects they do. Why not give them something else to be proud of- "we did X hours all last year and helped x different people". I don't want to take that away from them- anything that inspires them to be helpful is a positive in my book!

[SctDad]

I am thinking about contacting the Ronald McDonald House near our local childrens hospital. When my daughter was a newborn and in the hospital, they were great to me and my wife. I talked with the parents and they thought that helping was a great idea. So we are talking about helping them by cooking a nice meal for all the residents. Of course the parents would help. You know have the boys in uniform and make it special for the parents going through hard times. Maybe spending time with the kids who are staying there also.

 

That is one thing that we are planning on.

 

See if there is something that youcan do at a Habitat for humanity Project. And maybe check with your troops and OA and see if there is something that you can help with.

 

 

[Karen_216]

I think it's great to record hours on the good turn site for all the helping you do. Our pack does the scouting for food and an auction for charity. All the dens do "trash" hikes and I told all the den leaders to let me know about all their services so I can record. We had one family clean a stream in their neighborhood- I said let me know. My den gardens in the spring at the elementary school plot I adopted for the pack. We put in several den meetings weeding and planting.

[Pack212Scouter]

"I am thinking about contacting the Ronald McDonald House near our local childrens hospital. When my daughter was a newborn and in the hospital, they were great to me and my wife. I talked with the parents and they thought that helping was a great idea. So we are talking about helping them by cooking a nice meal for all the residents. Of course the parents would help. You know have the boys in uniform and make it special for the parents going through hard times. Maybe spending time with the kids who are staying there also."

 

That is actually a great idea that I hadn't thought of! We were one of those who was glad to have access to RMH facilities for in between time in the NICU (two stints with two babies). I think it would be even more special for my son who was in critical care in the NICU for 3 weeks and is now a healthy Bear.

 

Just for anyone curious...my newborn son in the NICU in 2000

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g145/Coaster-BRIG-/Aug0610.jpg

 

My son at our fall campout as a Wolf

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g145/Coaster-BRIG-/DSC00178.jpg

[SctDad]

I got hold of the RMH today finally.

 

There are some rules that have to be followed. and that made me have to change how we would help the RMH.

 

No children under the age of 10 can be ing the kitchen, 10-18 y/o can be in the kitchen with a adult:kid ratio of 1:4.

 

The kids are also not allowed to carry anything too hot or something that has knives on it.

 

They must also be given a clean bill of health. This is due to the patients at the RMH that may have lowered immune systems (ie Cancer, leukiemia)

 

All that aside, I talked with the worker and she suggested something.

 

Our Charter Org has a kitchen that we can probably use. I am checking with them about the reliability of the equipment.

 

What we will do then is to prepare the food at the CO and take it to the RMH. They said that would be a great idea and that all the other requirements will not be needed if the boys are only gonna be there for the delivery.

 

I think that is what we are going to do.

 

Hope this helps.

[gcan]

wow, your DS sure came a long way! I'm glad he is doing so well after that scariness in the beginning.

 

FYI, though...

we volunteer at the RMH outside of scouts. the reason we haven't gotten the cub scouts involved is because our RMH tries to limit the number of kids that come with the adults!

 

for anyone looking for ideas, we also do 'work' at the library, are washing fire trucks, and basically helping people that help everyone else! The kids seem to like that best, and often come up with some ideas I never thought of (like spending a whole meeting writing TY cards to the police department, the fire department, the librarian, and anyone thier little hearts could think of). Not 'good turn hours', but IMO they got the point we were trying to teach!