Scouts return to collect bags of food

DESLOGE – The Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America along with the local Ozark Trailblazers district, which covers six counties – : Madison, Reynolds, Washington, Iron, Ste. Genevieve, and St. Francois – collected non-perishable food items for local food pantries on Saturday.

Norma Franklin, scout leader for Troop 549 collected items in Desloge and said they got half way down the first block before they got their first bags of food items.

“I think we are down in collections from previous years,” said Franklin.

Franklin said they had some say they didn’t receive bags or had the wind blow they away because they weren’t tied down tight enough. If that’s the case you can contact your local boy scout troop to donate food items for the Scouting for Food Drive.   

Franklin’s troop collected 2,100 pounds of food Saturday morning and it was delivered to the Immaculate Conception Church in Park Hills.

Members of the troop who collected bags Saturday for the Scouting for Food were Mikel Blunt, Chase Cook, Matthew Hall, Lukas Balleydier, Dakota Kimbrew, Jakob Balleydier, Drake Balleydier, Zakary Balleydier, James Conover, Patrick McDowell, Noah Stark and Matthew Evans. Their troop leaders are Norma and Greg Franklin, Chris Balleydier, Krista Sedgwick, Scott Reid and Tyler McDowell.

If you would like to contribute to this year’s Scouting for Food and didn’t receive a bag you can contact Franklin at 631-6354 or Ozark Trailblazers District Executive William Lindman at 573-335-3346. They can contact your boy scout or cub scout troop to collect your donations to make sure they get to the correct food pantry.

William Lindman, executive director of Ozark Trailblazers said the local Boy Scout troops collected 38,028 cans of food during their Scouting for Food drive Saturday. He said the numbers were down by about 1,000 cans.

“I was pretty impressed overall with this year’s food drive,” said Lindman.

Lindman said the scouts are always willing to help and there is no deadline on the food drive.

Maridee Lawson is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 756-8927 or mlawson@dailyjournalonline.com.