By William Smith
Community Editor
For early spring, temperatures in Burlington were still chilly Saturday morning, March 19.
That didn’t stop Cub and Boy Scouts from Southeast Iowa and west-central Illinois from picking up bags of donated food from area porches.
“I normally get up this early anyway,” said 13-year-old Brock Gilpin of Boy Scout Troop 25.
More than 10 local troops from the Mississippi Valley Council scoured Burlington for bags they had left on doorknobs the week prior. It was the culmination of the annual Scouting for Food drive.
The bags left on doors were gentle suggestions to donate. The scouts took care of the actual hunting and gathering.
Scout Troop 25 member Kasey Moss, 14, has participated in the annual food drive since he was a Cub Scout in first grade.
“It’s usually rainy every day we pick up the bags,” he said, unimpressed that the rain was replaced with a winter-like chill.
Moss and other members of Scout Troop 25 met bright and early at Bethany Lutheran Church Saturday morning, then spread out to residences around Madison Avenue to start collecting.
It wasn’t always fruitful. Moss checked several houses as his mother trolled beside him in a large pick-up truck, finding neither food nor the plastic bags he left a week prior.
But he eventually struck pay dirt and started loading canned goods into the back of the truck.
The boys and their parents convened back at the church with the donated goods in tow.
“We were down this year. I think it was our best year ever, we got about 700 items. This year we got about 250 items. I think we had 300 last year,” Scout leader Doug Peters said.
As they do every year, the boys left the food, which will be used to help the less fortunate, at the church.
The boys themselves had a whole Saturday in front of them, with visions of spring campouts in their heads.
“This gives me life experience, and I get to do things I wouldn’t normally do,” said 16-year-old Clay Gilpin.
The Mississippi Valley Council operates in 13 counties in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, serving 1,700 youth.