Chicken, beans, bread, and salad: It’s a meal fit for a king. And this meal, a fundraiser for Boy Scouts Troop 87, will be available May 15 in the CVS parking lot in Orcutt. The barbecue will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and costs $8 a meal.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will be split 50 percent between the individual scout who sold the ticket and the troop. For the scout, the profit will help pay for summer camp this year at Camp Chawanake, where troops from all over the region camp at the same site. Proceeds saved by the troop itself will be reserved to pay for camping fees and the cost of summer camp for chaperoning adults.
“Kids love going to this summer camp, but sometimes not all of the kids can make it,” assistant scoutmaster and fundraising chairman Doug Seer said. “So, with this fundraiser, we try to make sure that a kid will not miss the summer camp regardless of their money situation.”
The cost of summer camp is about $300 per scout, but the troop covers about $50.
Based on Seer’s enthusiasm for the activities at the camp, it’s worth the money.
“At the camp, there are a lot of activities for the scouts [to] do for their merit badges,” Seer said. “The scouts can work on activities such as horseback riding, archery, and rifle and shotgun marksmanship.”
The latter is for the older scouts, though.
“Every boy has something that is offered to him at the camp for his merit badge,” he added.
This year’s barbecue, however, may not be as much of a financial success as previous years’ events, since Seer remarked that there might not be as many lunches sold.
Remember: What lunches do sell will provide Troop 87 with the raw materials needed to build memories that will last the boys a lifetime.
Intern Henry Houston compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 6, 2010.