Boy Scout Troop and Crew 690 held a clothing drive recently at St. Mother Theodore Guerin Parish and St. Celestine Church in Elmwood Park, collecting items as part of a fundraiser to help scouts and the troop get needed items.
The clothes from the clothing drive are stored in the troop’s scout shed and later will be taken to Goodwill, where they are sold per pound.
Hector Molina, assistant scoutmaster and father of two of the kids in the troop, said that some of the troop’s tents are over 10 years old and are starting to leak. The money from the clothing drive would go towards that.
Another project that needs funding is the scout shed, where the troop holds gear and camping food. Molina said that the shed is self-sufficient through solar power, and they hope that the money will help them make charging stations for portable chargers as well as benches and a self-sufficient garden that will use rainwater.
Also, each scout gets funds to help buy the uniform and boots, which leaders say can be expensive. The pants alone can cost over $45, according to Molina.
“Most boys never leave their town,” Molina said about activities the boys get to do as part of the troop. “This allows them to go out while actually learning new experiences, whether it’s cooking, starting fires, working with leather, or welding.”
Zach Molina, a 15-year-old who has been in the troop since second grade and now holds the title of troop instructor, said his favorite memory was his first time going camping and meeting new friends through the troop.
“I’ve gotten a lot closer to many of the older scouts who moved on past Eagle. That was my first camping experience that kept me going for Boy Scouts,” Zach Molina said.
Financial struggle is one of the main issues the Boy Scout troop faces.
Francis Tayupanta, fundraising chair of the troop, said clothing drives like the one Saturday are helpful.
“Our biggest challenge is fundraising because all these campaigns are very expensive. The minimum to go camping per kid is about $300,” Tayupanta said. “If you have two or three kids, it starts adding up.”
Tayupanta said the troop recently had to decline a trip to Tennessee for financial reasons.
Justin Lis, a 15-year-old scout who joined the troop in first grade, said he joined because his older brothers used to be scouts and it looked fun.
“The camping trips are really fun,” Lis said. “Last summer, I went to the Jamboree in West Virginia. There were thousands of scouts there, and there was so much to do, and it was a lot of fun.”
Currently, there are 41 kids in the troop and Cub Scouts combined, which is significantly less than before the COVID-19 pandemic, when there were more than 50 kids. The annual fee to be in the Boy Scouts troop is $135 per year, but half of it goes to the district, and each troop has to raise money, organizers explained.
“After the pandemic, a lot of the scouts stopped coming, so it hurt us [financially],” Molina said. “We’re hoping to get the word out more so that we can get more people joining us.”
Tayupanta is also mother of one of the boys in the troop and an owner of Ashley’s Cafe. She said the troop “rely solely on fundraising.” She encourages Elmwood Park businesses to sponsor the Boy Scouts troop, similar to how it’s done for Little League baseball teams.
“The Little Leagues have bigger funding, we don’t. We rely on our family, friends, neighbors,” Tayupanta said. “If we had that [level of] support from Elmwood Park and the community businesses to sponsor a troop, we would do bigger campouts and be able to provide scholarships for kids.”
Amina Sergazina is a freelancer.
