Eagle Grove has a strong tradition of scouting which continues today, stronger than ever, as our scout troops (for boys, and for girls) carry-on a record of achievement that is, quite frankly, pretty much unheard of everywhere else. And, while Scoutmaster Rick Dawson of the boys troop is quick to give all the credit to his fellow Scoutmaster of the girls troop, Craig Voss, there’s another factor that plays into their success, and it’s the same factor that plays into anyone’s success, at anything: money.
For years now the Eagle Grove troops have been funding their educational, character building adventures that have turned several local teens into Eagle Scouts – an achievement that tends to lead to more opportunities in life – primarily with recycling used beverage containers. But now the city has new recycle carts that hold a lot, and deposit recyclables are allowed.
And that’s driven donations of empty aluminum cans and glass bottles, “way down,” according to Dawson, “way, way down.” Sure, Dawson noted, anyone throwing their deposit recycling into the recycle bin are basically throwing that money away, “but sometimes people are lazy,” or just in a hurry, he said. “Those bins are going to hurt us,” he concluded, that is, unless the city were to ban putting deposit recyclables in them.
It comes at a bad time for the scouts. A generation of the older scouts who’ve been with the troops for years are growing up, which has led to a stunning series of Eagle Scouts coming out of the Eagle Grove troops over the past few years. And that had begun to hollow out the ranks of the local scouts, until several newer, younger scouts came aboard just recently.
For these new scouts the goal remains the same, so far as Dawson and Voss are concerned: to shepherd them through the experiences and ranks of scouting and towards a better future with more opportunity and more personal skills, just as they’ve done with so many scouts so far. And the question was, how to pay for it. Especially with their recycling drive drying up.
Enter the Eagle Grove Sports Boosters, who came to the rescue by selling the scout troop their under-used donut fryer, which makes mini-donuts fresh, while you wait. When it came to a solution to the scouts’ fundraising problem, Dawson explained, this was a delicious one! Just the thing to help the new scouts fund their scouting journeys, while learning new skills and learning to be responsible.
New scouts like twelve year old Emily Hovland and her sister, eleven year old Annamae Hovland, who were staffing the donut stand on Saturday, as it was set up in the parking lot of Johnson Law Firm, which gave them use of the space and donated the utility hookups for the event, and even gave 10% off coupons to their other family business, The Boone River Coffee Company, just down the street. Creating what Dawson joked was, “the world’s longest drive-through” between picking up your donuts, and then getting your coffee – with drive-through service available for both.
The young sisters were working right beside Wright County’s first female Eagle Scout, Renee Withers, who is the second Eagle Scout in her family after her older brother Dwayne, and whose younger sister Anna, who was also staffing the stand, and younger brother Eli are both closing in on achieving the rank of Eagle Scout too. Undoubtedly, their parents have the same high hopes for the Hovland sisters, as Dawson and Voss certainly do.
For themselves, the sisters said they’re looking forward to camping, and horseback riding, among the many experiences that scouting will afford them. But Dawson knows how hard it is to achieve some of those goals. “You’re killing me,” he laughed at the mention of horseback riding, “do you know how hard it is to find a Merit Badge counselor for that?” To Renee he asked, “what did it take, five years, to find you a counselor for that badge?” Withers agreed, but pointed out that now she can be the merit badge counselor for the younger scouts.
That’s how it is with scouting, time marches on. And challenges march along with it. And as the past gives way to the future, the kids whose futures they’re building grow up, and seize their futures. And then they pass the torch, and in Eagle Grove, they tend to pay it forward. Helping the next generation achieve what they’ve achieved. Which means, it’s looking pretty good for the Hovland sisters, and the rest of the new scouts that are joining the Eagle Grove troops.
As for the present, the Hovland sisters aren’t alone in enthusiastically liking the scouts’ new donuts. The whole town seemed to turn out, and order big. Running the fryer, Dawson could barely keep up, as the scouts bagged the donuts as fast as he could fry them.
“I guess it’s super cool that everybody wants to help,” an exhausted Dawson said of the high demand. “You know, I could have picked something (else) to support here in town, of course. But Still everybody came out to help.” For which he was gratified. “After the long hours of work and preparations and attention to detail,” it was great that they, “saw a lot of great people today. That came out to support the troop.”
In the end the scouts raised $1,049.28, with a little over 2,600 donuts made, of which thirty were donated to a care center. “What an amazing day,” Dawson concluded.
The scouts will continue to cook donuts once a month, and are hoping the community will continue to show such strong support for the scouts – and their own sweet tooths. Next time, will be the boys’ troop’s turn.
