Can Drive for Cub Scouts

David and I went out Saturday afternoon to pass out flyers for his can drive fundraiser. We walked down three streets and passed out 66 flyers! Took us three and half hours... David was very good and didn't whine, but cheerfully worked for most of the time we were outside. At the very end he slipped on some ice and hurt his foot. He said it hurt, but despite the pain he finished out the street while we waited for Jonathan to come pick us up.

We took one break about half-way through and stopped in at Kroger for a snack and treat. We both appreciated the warm store and getting out of the cold wind!

Today we drove around the streets again collecting the donated cans. After just one street we'd filled the car to capacity and had to stop at the bottle return place before we could pick up the other streets' donations.

 David was so enthralled with that machine! He thought it was pretty nifty how it scanned the cans and bottles and rolled them into a storage bin in the back. I guess for a boy heavy machinery is a pretty fascinating thing. :)

After getting almost $70 for those cans we headed off down the other streets.

Again we filled the car to capacity, but we weren't able to turn in those cans yet. We'll have to make a stop by WalMart tomorrow to deposit those, Jonathan needed the car to get to the church tonight.

I'm very proud of how hard David has worked on this fundraiser. He was very worried before starting that no one would take his flyers. I coached him to say, "Hello! I'm doing a can drive for Cub Scouts. May I leave this flyer with you?" He was afraid everyone would say no. In the end only one person we talked to said no, they didn't like Cub Scouts. Instead most doors we knocked on happily took a flyer, and a number of them said they'd have cans for us.

David asked me today why the one man said he didn't believe the Cub Scouts did good things. I told him that some people just disagree with the program and how it is run, but that's okay. People are allowed to think differently than us, it does not make them bad people. He thought about that for a bit, then said, "I like Cub Scouts. I think it does good things." And I agree. I also believe it has helped him a lot, too. Since being involved with the program, any work Cub Scout related has been met with enthusiasm and cheerfulness. He doesn't complain that it is a hard thing to pass out flyers, or to work on projects, or build his pinewood derby. His usual sullen attitude is markedly more pleasant when we are doing anything Scouts. I hope it sticks, because I firmly believe that Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts builds good men and good leaders. The best boss I had was a firm believer in the good Scouting can bring, and I'd place money on him learning some of his leadership skills through Scouts. (He also always had an emergency preparedness kit in his trunk, I wonder if he still has one there...)

Anyway, I'm excited to see the fruits of David's labors as we get the final tally's on our first weekend can-driving. We're going to go for one more weekend at the end of this month. I hear it is the opening day for baseball here soon... ;)