Scouts send care packages to soldiers

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ROCK FALLS -- At the Rock Falls American Legion headquarters, Boy Scouts of various ages scurried around cardboard boxes, packing up items that ranged from travel-sized soaps and shampoos to Crayola crayons and yellow suckers. The packages are to be mailed this week to soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait, including at least four from Lee and Whiteside counties. Troop 902 Assistant Scoutmaster Bill Doering led the annual project, which started roughly five years ago when the Illinois National Guard asked the troop to send care packages to some of their guardsmen. The troop decided to take out an ad in the paper to get donations, and collected enough goods to send 13 care packages. Within months, people in the neighborhood had gotten wind of the project, and made requests for friends and families. Online forums like marineparents.com and online social sites helped spread the word. "I'd meet people who'd say, 'My son would like a care package, or my cousin or my boyfriend' ... so I just kept a list," Doering said. To date, the troop has sent about 250 care packages. "It's just been snowballing, basically... Since Christmas, we've sent almost a hundred (packages) overseas." One soldier said that many of the children his unit encounters want crayons and pencils, so Doering decided to reach beyond local donations. "So," Doering recalled humbly, "I'll just write some Internet companies that makes pencils and crayons and things, see what I can get." Some companies responded by giving the troop as many as thousands of pencils, and hundreds of erasers, rulers and other small supplies. Local groups like the Rock Falls American Legion and VFW also played a large part in the project, mainly through donations that helped curb the packages' shipping cost. Community residents, local businesses and churches have donated supplies, and most of the shipping costs have been paid by the Rock Falls American Legion and VFW. "The hard part is getting money to send (the packages) over there," Scoutmaster John Larson said. The outpouring of donations and the boys' effort to collect them all play into the selfless nature of the Boy Scouts, which Larson said stays with its members long after the program is completed. You don't have to look far to see this sense of duty stretch beyond the scout years, Larson said, and Sterling's Sam Zigler is living proof. Pvt. 1st Class Zigler, a former Troop 902 Scout who graduated from Newman Central Catholic High School in 2007, was to attend the Milwaukee School of Engineering after graduation. Instead, he decided to serve with the Marines in Iraq, where he is stationed. "He's really outgoing," Doering said. "He was in a lot of Newman (High School) plays. He's just a real outgoing young man." "He's a good kid," Larson said. The sense of character the troop instilled in Zigler and boys like him is one of the central aims of the Boy Scouts. Projects such as collecting and assembling care packages help achieve that goal, Larson said. "This is real to these kids. They send these over, they get letters coming back, and people appreciate what they've done," he said. "In the society that we have today, how often do people do stuff for others and not look for something in return?" And what drives the sacrifice of adults like Doering and Larson, who between them have a total of five-plus decades as Scout leaders? "It's really neat to be able to sit back and watch these kids mature," Larson said. "That's the reward I get." Reach Chase Castle at 815-625-3600 or 800-798-4085, ext. 521.