Scouts all smiles at spring cleanup

By Benjamin Joe

Senior Contributing Writer

On Saturday, April 24, Cub Scout Packs 833 and 824 were at the Frontier Fire Co. on Liberty Drive to participate in the 35^th annual Liberty Drive Cleanup.

The Scouts were helped out by Precious Plate, a business on Liberty Drive, which supplied doughnuts, cookies, coffee, drinks, gloves, safety vests, grabbers and garbage bags.

The cleanup was coordinated by the Town of Wheatfield Councilman Larry Helwig. Niagara County Sewer District provided the dumpster.

According to Annemarie Evans, the Cub Scout Master of 824, the Scouts “had fun,” and “did their job,” despite rainy weather the day of the cleanup.

Evans said the cleanup was part of the beginning of making the young Scouts aware of the environment around them.

“It’s part of the requirements for rank advancement, and because they have fun doing it, that’s how we get them started (looking after the environment). Then it just becomes natural,” she said.

Evans also noted how the inclusion of female Scouts has affected the pack. In 2018, the Boy Scouts of America allowed girls to join Cub Scouts.

“The girls and their enthusiasm sometimes keeps the boys going, too,” she said. “It’s become a little bit of a competition – a friendly competition.”

Evans’ own two sons also participated in Scouting, and both achieved the highest ranking of Eagle Scout.

“I just hang out for the other kids,” she said of her current position and laughed. “It is amazing, with all the kids. Watching as they mature and to look back when they were little as Cubs or joining the troop at 11 years old. And you look at them at 18 … we really see what they learned in Scouts in the rest of their lives, whether it’s work or personal.”

Evans said the rain and the “gross” stuff the Scouts cleared out didn’t deter the young kids. They found wrappers and small bottles of alcohol this year, but Evans remembered finding parts of a store dummy at another annual cleanup.

“A few years ago, we found the upper part of a mannequin, so they had a lot of fun with that,” she said. “It’s great watching these kids do this dirty work and still have a good attitude about it.”