The United Nations Foundation’s Nothing But Nets, a grassroots campaign to prevent malaria by sending long-lasting insecticide-treated nets to families in Africa, announced today that the Boy Scouts of America has joined the malaria-prevention campaign as part of its 100th Anniversary Celebration. Throughout the year, Scouts from around the country will work within their communities to raise awareness about malaria, a leading killer in Africa.

BSA Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca and Nothing But Nets Director Adrianna Logalbo launched the life-saving partnership today during a malaria workshop at Detroit Edison Public School Academy. Bill Gates Sr., Distinguished Eagle Scout and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Honorable Dave Bing, Mayor of Detroit and Deron Washington of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, joined Mazzuca and Logalbo at the workshop to teach more than 65 local Scouts about malaria and how to help prevent the deadly disease.

“Every single day, in almost every community across the nation, Scouts are doing their part to make this world a better place by becoming good citizens. But our concern for others doesn’t stop at our borders. We are global citizens,” Mazzuca said. “Even during a challenging economic recession, it’s hard to imagine that nearly 3,000 people die every day from a preventable disease like malaria. We’re pleased to work with the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign to help make a positive difference for the children in Africa.”

I’m all in favor of supporting this cause. It reminds me of that Ashton Kutcher drive a while back where he was trying to get nets to help prevent malaria.

I just wish people would stop opposing the use of DDT so that we could save the lives of the tens of millions of Africans who perished because of the bad reputation the pesticide received. Even if it had some bad side affects I find it difficult to believe it would have been worse than allowing the population of several small cities to die from an almost completely preventable reason. Don’t take my word for it, though. Even the World Health Organization thinks so. Still nets will help. It’s unfortunate that it will still allow hundreds of thousands to die each year.

Title 4 Section 8 (k)
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

So, burning isn’t even required, much less who does it. The destruction needs to be dignified. That’s it. There are some grand traditions that have developed out of this instruction and I’ve attended some retirements that brought tears to my eyes, but I finally figured out that I can and really should have my Girl Scouts participate in the proper method of retirement of the flag. I feel that it encourages love of country. Heather Kays at newsleader.com feels the same way, I guess, because she posted a story about Jessica Owens performing a flag retirement for her Gold Award project.

Harold Harris, 83, of Staunton and a member of VFW Post 2216, spoke to the group of Girl Scouts following a flag burning ceremony Sunday.

“Do you know what happens to them now?” Harris asked, as he moved the ashes of an American flag around with a stick. “They are put into a container and buried. Then that spot is sacred.”

Harris, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, said that he has attended dozens of the ceremonies and never tires of them.

“I live to teach these kids to be respectful of the flag,” Harris said.
About 30 people gathered around the fire at the VFW Post 2216 on Frontier Drive on Sunday afternoon for the flag burning ceremony.

The ceremony, conducted on Flag Day, was part of 18-year-old Jessica Owens’ Gold Award project. The Gold Award is the highest honor offered by the Girl Scouts and is the equivalent of the Boy Scouts Eagle Scout rank, according to Barbara Powell, leader of Troop 567.

“For their first time, they’ve done a beautiful job,” Harris said after the girls read passages about the importance of the proper ritual to dispose of a flag. “Of course, they learn as they go.”

I’ve got a giant flag donated by my former employer just waiting for the right opporunity for the girls to perform a retirement ceremony. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t.

Peter spends 45 nights just like this, in a sleeping bag his grandmother made. His humble efforts have raised $85,000 for those without homes. A Cub Scout lecture in first grade inspired the effort.

Peter Larson: “The money I raise goes to a community organization called Interfaith Outreach in Community Partners.”

Jill Kohler, IOCP Development Director: “That’s what Interfaith’s about, trying to maintain stability for families so they can move ahead and advance into a better life. Peter this year has become sort of our poster child of what one person can do.”

Dan has more info on his site including a video where you can see the “Prince of the Sleepouts” and a family he has helped.

By Claire Conditt

The eighth-graders of Girl Scout Troop 3226 greeted soldiers arriving at the D-FWAirport for the holidays with cookies, cards, smiles and handshakes.

The 167 faithful men and women who were stationed in Iraq, coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, had a very long trip home – flying from Iraq to Germany, stopping in Atlanta, and finally landing at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
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The Girl Scouts were all set up with their cookies and hand-made cards to hand out, as well. A couple of minutes later, the plane landed and everybody cheered when the first soldiers walked through the crowd.

It really meant a lot to the girls in our troop and our leaders, because we had never experienced this before, and we were all excited to share what we had with the exhausted soldiers who are coming home for the first time in many months.
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Claire Conditt of Richardson, an eighth-grader at North Junior High School, is a member of Girl Scout Troop 3226.

By Mitchell T. Gray
Fourth Grade, Moraine Elementary School
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I don’t help as many people as Martin Luther King Jr. did (I probably won’t even get close), but I still help people. I’ve helped other people by putting stickers about not polluting over storm drains all throughout my neighborhood. I also put flyers about not polluting in mailboxes all throughout my neighborhood. I do can-do drives which are when you go around a neighborhood and ring peoples doorbells and ask if they want to donate canned goods for people who need food. I also do a thing called Toys for Tots which is when you buy and donate a toy for a kid who can’t afford it and would love a toy. I’ve picked up a lot of garbage. I’ve pulled weeds at my school. Many of the above are things that I do through Boy Scouts and I really enjoy doing them. However, the best way to inspire others is to be kind and respectful to everyone. If we all would be welcoming to other people, families, cities, states, and countries, then the world will be a better place. If we all work together and live peacefully, I bet that Martin Luther King Jr. would be happy and proud.

Hometownlife.com has other submissions from kids in the Northville Public School District, including Girl Scouts doing their part. Do we have some great kids, or what?

Following are the competition results from the Brainerd Lakes Area Salvation Army 2008 Red Kettle Bell Ringing Campaign.
Service clubs/volunteer organizations

1. Noontime Brainerd Lakes Rotary Club; 2. Brainerd Kiwanis Club; 3. Garrison Lions; 4. Knights of Columbus; 5. Sunrise Sertoma; 6. Boy Scout Troop #75; 7. Lake Hubert Grange; 8. Masons; 9. Noontime Sertoma; 10. Cub Scout Troop #74; 11. Pequot Lakes Rotary; 12. Baxter Lions; 13. City of Nisswa Volunteer Firemen; 14. Boy Scout Troop #14; 15. National Guard.

Brian Watt: The budgets for the floats in this Rose Parade were done 10 months ago. So, on the sprawling floor at the Fiesta Parade Floats workshop in Irwindale, volunteers trim thousand of fresh roses. Staffers build scaffolds to the ceiling, so decorators can put finishing touches high up on floats that are just as audacious as any other year.

Sue Sundberg: The mother zebra’s head moves. Both elephants’ heads move. It has four waterfalls, which will be operating.

Watt: Sue Sundberg supervises the decoration of the float from Rain Bird, the irrigation company based in Azusa. This is part-time, seasonal work for her. She’s a full time nurse who decorates floats more for the artistry than for the wages.

She started years ago as a volunteer with her daughter’s Girl Scout troop. There are plenty of volunteers helping out this year – but Sundberg knows of some the tough economy has kept away.

While it’s true that the girls were paid for their work, it was something like fifty cents per hour. We consider it more a community service and fun opportunity to be part of a huge local event that is viewed all over the world. There are many, many Girl Scouts from different troops who participate. Who knows? Maybe the flowers our girls were helping to separate and categorize made it onto the float of our Girl Scout Rose Queen.

I got a chance to wander around and see the floats as they were being assembled. What I didn’t realize is that they take parts from last year’s floats and use them on this year’s if they have something in common. Still, there was a lot of heavy-duty welding going on. There were rough sketches, small models, and full-blown floats all on display in the same area. It was neat to look inside where the drivers sit for the floats. I didn’t realize they had so many controls.

Girl Scouts and leaders from Kewaunee, the Luxemburg-Casco area and Algoma recently collected $980 in phone cards and 96 pounds of candy, cereal bars and bubble gum to send to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The collections were sent to five area soldiers: Sgt. Andrew Murphy of Kewaunee, Sgt. 1st Class Eric Peil of Sturgeon Bay, Sgt. Josh Fameree of Casco and Spc. Justin Schulz of Green Bay, all serving in Iraq, and Staff Sgt. John Klein of Green Bay, serving in Afghanistan. They were asked to share the phone cards with others in their platoons and hand the candy out to children “so that they know that the American children care about them,” said Kim Tuttle with the Luxemburg-Casco Girl Scout troop.

Peil wrote back to thank the group for their efforts.
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“We have to be very careful when we throw candy to children when passing by — we don’t want them to get used to getting near our vehicles for accident reasons. I can assure you that we will make some special stops on the route to deliver your message and gifts to the children of Iraq that you have sent halfway across the world to brighten one’s day!”

Sisters across the world making multiple kinds of connections. Awesome!

Alex Manson, from Troop 440 of Monroe, helped feed thousands of people for his Eagle Scout project. Alex organized over 70 volunteers for a gleaning at Lawrence Farms in Newburgh on Nov. 2 with the help of Stiles Najac, the food safety officer for the Orange County Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Gleanings are coordinated volunteer events where farmers donate the crops that are leftover in their fields after a harvest. The volunteers pick the remaining produce and pack it up to be donated to soup kitchens and food pantries.
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Everything really started to take off when Alex approached Robert Lawrence, owner of Lawrence Farms, who told Alex that he was excited to participate in a project like this that could help so many people.

After Alex lined up all of the supplies and enlisted the volunteers, everything was set for Nov. 2. On the day of the gleaning, volunteers picked apples, beets, broccoli, peppers, cabbages, squash and collard greens.

In total, they collected more than 3,200 pounds of produce which is the equivalent of over 4,300 servings of food.

Once the food was all picked, it was packed onto trucks to be stored overnight. The next day, Alex, along with Najac, Assistant Scoutmaster Jack Rallo and his father, Jeff Manson, distributed the food to four food pantries, two soup kitchens and the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, which in turn distributes food to nearly 360 member agencies in six counties in the Hudson Valley.

Wow! 3,200 pounds of potentially wasted food. My mom would have had a fit! Good thing Alex was there to be thrifty and helpful.

“Old Blue,” is the name Danny Etter gave an old bus that used to shuttle kids around for his church events.
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“Instead of it just sitting in the parking lot collecting dust, I’d rather it be transporting children,” said Etter.

After doing a little research on the Internet, Etter decided to honor his Native American roots and donate the bus to school children of the Navajo Indian tribe in New Mexico who are in need. But first “Old Blue” was in need of a facelift.
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After raising more than $11,000 Etter restored the bus with new wheels, brakes, and seats. He and his father, the former bus driver, will drive it to Flagstaff, Arizona to deliver it to its new owners. The bus will not be showing up empty because it was filled with dozens of backpacks, school supplies, and blankets. The items will be donated to hundreds of Native American children who are in need. “I am really proud that he would think that much, and not just drop off a bus,” said father, Jim Etter.

He’s still getting donations, too. It’s nice to imagine the bus eventually getting to the same state as Philmont. Maybe the high adventure base will see old blue tooling around someday.