Feel Good Moment

[cajuncody]

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/PersonOfWeek/story?id=1213805

 

Eagle Scout Gives Homeless Kids the Gift of Friendship

(ABCNEWS.com)

 

Oct. 14, 2005 Six years ago, Greg Sweeney had a radical idea. While volunteering to read at a child-care center for homeless kids, when he was just 12, Sweeney realized how few male role models homeless boys have.

 

"A lot of them live with their moms in the shelters or transitional housing," he said. "Not many of them lived with their dads or older male adults and most of the shelter workers and volunteers are women."

 

So Sweeney got more than a dozen volunteers and started Cub Scout pack 506, exclusively for homeless boys.

 

He had no problem finding boys eager to join. But he did face unique obstacles.

 

"Some weeks we'd come and there'd be 18 kids and the next week we'd come and there wouldn't be any at all," he said. "Mostly because their moms lived in homeless shelters or transitional housing so their family's lives were kind of hectic. So they really physically couldn't get to the meetings, not that they didn't want to come."

 

With attendance erratic, volunteers started dropping out. Salvation came in the form of a $2,000 donation.

 

"The money allowed us to pay a driver to come on every Tuesday night, go around to all the shelters, and pick up all the kids bring them here and drive them back," said Sweeney. "So no matter how far away they moved after they left the shelter, they could still come to Scouts."

 

Sweeney is now 18 and a freshman at the University of Delaware.

 

This week, for bringing scouting to the lives of more than 100 homeless boys, he received the National Caring Award.

 

Scouting has helped the boys in ways he had not foreseen.

 

"This mom told me her son was in four different schools between September and December because they were moving around the city so much," he said. "So he really didn't have any place to make friends beside cub scouts. He'd come in every week and he'd give everyone a hug and laugh and he was probably one of the nicest kids we've had."

 

Sweeney's life is rooted in scouting. Following in his brother's footsteps, he became a Cub Scout at 6 and an Eagle Scout at 16. As important as scouting has been to him, he says that it means even more to these boys.

 

"It seems to be a lot more important in their lives because they don't get too many chances to make accomplishments like that where everybody recognizes when they get a merit badge or a rank and there is a court of honor," he said. "I don't think that's an experience they get anywhere else, you know, where people are clapping for them, and say 'good job,' you know? They look at their badge and they say, 'I got this. I earned this.' And that's something special."

 

ABC News' Bob Woodruff filed this report for "World News Tonight."

(This message has been edited by cajuncody)

[Lisabob]

This is why I support scouting. All bsa politics aside, this is what it's supposed to be about. Thanks for the article cajuncody!

 

Lisa'bob

A good old bobwhite too!