Scouts go scouting for food, find a bonanza for Key Peninsula food bank
My plan to cover the Key Peninsula Lions Club-sponsored BSA Troop 220’s Scouting For Food Drive for 2020 was frustrated at the delivery site. The KP Community Services Food Bank’s torn-up entryway and parking lot was filled with huge road repair and moving equipment revamping the facility’s accommodations. Somehow, thanks to the magic of Troop 220’s food drive leader, Amy Turk, the scouts got to go where no one else was permitted.
Fortunately, thanks to good friend Amy, not only was a lot of food delivered from our generous community thanks to Troop 220 efforts, the job was covered photographically and scouts provided their thoughts on the annual activity for this column.
Troop 220 hasn’t met for its weekly person-to-person meetings since the COVID 19 shutdowns first started in the spring. “However,” said Amy, “we did not want to miss our annual food drive, ‘Scouting For Food!’ The Troop has been involved with this for years and we know that the need to support our local food bank is greater now more than ever! Kyong Bertsch was our contact at the food bank,” Amy said, “and she was wonderful to work with.”.
This year Troop 220 met at Gateway Park on Sunday, November 29, to hand out bags and flyers and assign neighborhoods to hand out the bags. Troop members worked from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., finishing with the bag drop just before sunset as they had run out of bags. “We made sure that for both bag drops and food pick up we were wearing masks and social distancing so that we were good examples for the community,” emphasized Amy.
First class scout Nicholas Keeney, 13, said, “It was lots of fun! Even though it was cold. We worked hard and collected about 2500 pounds of food. Thank you for your donations!”
Landon Olson, 11, a WeBeLos II, said, “I enjoy doing the food drive event because it helps people who don’t have food during the holidays. It makes me feel good to help people who are less fortunate.”
Neighborhoods covered were Palmer Lake, Lake Holiday, Emerald Shores, Wind N Tide, and Lake Minterwood
”We returned the following Saturday, December 5, for the food pickups in those neighborhoods,” explained Amy.. “It was so great to see the community really show up in a big way this year; one house even had 27 bags of food!! We picked up probably three times as much this year as we did last year. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday and we worked in small groups of two to three scouts or just family pods and finished hours before we anticipated.
”At around noon, we showed up at the KPCS food bank in Home and unloaded and weighed our donations,” said Amy. “Our Key Peninsula community donated 2,375 pounds of food originally, but we missed some and ended up picking up 125 more pounds the following day for a total of 2500 pounds!”
First Class Scout Dominick Meeker, 13, enthused, “I think that it’s amazing! It’s fun seeing how generous the community is and it’s really great that we get to take it to the food bank and donate so much to help people.”
Second Class Scout Titus Colvill, 12, said, “I’m proud to be a part of Troop 220 and happy to serve my community. It was a great team effort!”
Troop 220 scouts and leaders who participated in the project were Landon Olson and Jason Olson, Dominick Meeker and Pam Meeker, Cian Quill, Chris Quill, Sarah Quill and Robert Quill, Titus Colvill, Les Colvill and Nancy Colvill, James Smith, Faith Smith and Diana Smith, Nicholas Keeney and Amy Turk, Austin Mayger and Mark Burres.
First Class Scout Austin Mayger, 15, offered “Thanks to all my friends in scouts and the community who donated all the food this year. We were able to have a very successful Scouting For Food!”
“We were very impressed and heartened to see our community pull together to do what they could to support each other in this time of need,” added Amy Turk.
Troop 220 is doing its next fundraiser on Saturday, January 9, 2021. “We will be collecting Christmas Trees that are left out by your curb for pick up as well as any donations that will help support our scouts in their 2021 ventures,” explained Amy. “If you’d like to schedule at PICK-UP just email us at: KP220trees@gmail.com.