LOCAL BOY SCOUT TROOP WINS TOP NATIONAL AWARD FOR BEST COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT
Brookfield Clothing Drive for an Alaskan Village
Takes First Prize in 31st Annual Colgate Youth for America Campaign
NEW YORK (June 2004)—A Wisconsin Boy Scout troop has won the top
national award in Colgate-Palmolive's 31st annual search for the country's best
community projects by young Americans. Potawatomi Area Council Boy Scout Troop
71 in Brookfield helped create and stock a clothing thrift store in a very
remote Alaskan village, and their efforts have taken top honors in the 2004 Colgate
Youth for America campaign.
The troop's project was chosen from among more than 2,000 entries nationwide
and was recognized with a $1,000 first prize in the Boy Scouts of America division.
Each year, U.S. clubs and troops of six national youth organizations—Girl
Scouts of the USA, Boy Scouts of America, Camp Fire USA, Girls Incorporated, 4-H,
and Boys & Girls Clubs of America—are invited to enter their best community
service projects for consideration. The effort was launched by Colgate-Palmolive
in 1973 to encourage community involvement among young people, and cash grants are
awarded for the best projects in each of the organizations annually.
Troop leader Jeff Sinclair said, "One of our troop members visited a relative
in a part of Alaska where nearly one-third of the population lives below the
national poverty level and the nearest clothing store is a $200 airplane ride away.
Residents needed to order clothing from mail order catalogs, but the cost of
shipping items to this remote village made buying winter clothes very
expensive."
The troop implemented a clothing drive in Brookfield and shipped about 4,000
pounds of clothing to the village, where local students there organized and opened
a thrift store. Proceeds from the sale of clothing at the Alaskan thrift store
helped pay the shipping costs of additional donated clothes.
To donate items or learn more about this project or about Boy Scout Troop 71,
contact Jeff Sinclair at 262-783-6854.