Scouts nearing fundraising goal for summer jamboree
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Inuvik (May 04/01) - No beaver, cub or scout was even remotely as tall as the mountains of bottles and cans collected on Saturday's fundraising drive for Scouts Canada.
A very conservative estimate would put the total number of empty beverage containers collected at well over 3,000.
And it only took the three Inuvik troops about three hours to mobilize, take advantage of the town's generosity and amass the impressive stash.
"The community is very supportive," said Dave Tyler, a scout leader since December 1999. "All of these (bottles and cans) come from residents and businesses in the community."
Money from Saturday's bottle drive will be deposited into the jamboree account and will go towards a $40,000 goal that will land 16 scouts and two adults in P.E.I. this summer for a jamboree held only once every four years.
Although Tyler didn't give an estimate on how much money was raised during the afternoon, he did say it will certainly bump up the current jamboree savings of $31,000.
"Normally money from our bottle drives goes towards running the overall operation, but everything from this one is for the jamboree," he said.
Recyclables are eventually taken care of by the generous folks at North Star Trucking, who give the scouts money in exchange for bottles.
Cub Andrew Fehr, isn't eligible to go to P.E.I, but had no problem lending a helping hand, guessed that the number of bottles collected could be the most ever.
"We have been very busy since around one o'clock, I think today might be a record for collecting bottles," he said, standing among seven palates stacked seven layers high with boxes of bottles.
The 10-year-old Fehr isn't going to the jamboree because he is a cub and only scouts will make the trip.
"It doesn't matter (if I can't go) because this gets me out of the house, I get to play with my friends and it's actually kind of fun."
Inuvik's Scouts Canada membership has a healthy 17 beavers, 22 cubs, 17 scouts and about 10 leaders.
