Boy Scout Troop 23 working to pitch in for community
If you’ve been downtown recently during early Sunday mornings, you might have noticed a group of young men working up and down Cotton Row picking up garbage and trash.
Boy Scouts of America Troop 23, led by Lee Havens, Scoutmaster for the Cleveland group for the past seven years, said it’s a community activity that’s been done for some time but has “picked up” considerably this past holiday season.
“The troop has always volunteered during ‘50 Nights of Lights’ to test the lights before the actual tree lighting event,” said Havens. “But, this year we wanted to help out even more. During the period of ‘50 Nights’, the downtown area gets littered with the traffic and the many more visitors we have in Cleveland. The City itself does a great job keeping it clean during the week but, on the weekends, sometimes the area got really cluttered when the City workers were off duty.
“So, we all decided to help out by getting out on Sunday mornings to clean the downtown green strip and sidewalks,” said Havens. “It’s a conservation project for our troop.”
Havens said the troop started the Sunday morning cleanings — which began at 7:30 a.m. — on November 17, the first Sunday after the tree lighting, and continued all through the “50 Nights of Light.”
“We chose that time to give us ample ability to get to church and before the stores downtown would open,” said Havens. “Each week, we had at least 3 scouts scheduled to help. Several Sundays, in fact, we had many more who took part in the clean-up.”
A sign-up sheet was provided to give every scout in the troop a chance to participate in helping out, said Havens.
“Although it wasn’t a requirement for the troop, it was encouraged,” he said. “The scouts do have to participate in service projects for each rank advancement. They can complete service projects for our community as a whole, as well as at schools and churches.”
Havens said his scout troop is made up of about 30 Boy Scouts and most all of them participated in the 6-week Sunday morning clean-up project. “The scouts picked up trash for an hour each morning for a total of about 30 hours for the community service,” he said.
“BSA Troop 23 of Cleveland has always been very active,” said Havens. “We’re 101 years old and have had many Eagle Scouts through the years. I’m very proud of these young men.”