Cub Scouts Help Care For School Gardens

On a recent Saturday at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, ten boys spent the morning throwing around dirt.

But there was no playing involved.  The ten boys, all members of Cub Scout Pack 1761, were working to spread mulch around the gardens and trees surrounding their school.

For the past five years, this Cub Scout pack and their parents have mulched and weeded the school grounds each September.

"We use the school facilities a lot," said Chris Brown, Pack 1761 Committee Chair.  "This is just one way of saying thanks to them."

The pack meets in different classrooms throughout the school year and once a month the Cub Scouts hold a pack-wide meeting in the school's multi-purpose room, said Brown.

On Saturday, Sept. 11, the ten boys shoveled mulch from a 5-foot tall pile into wheelbarrows in the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School parking lot.  Parents watched and tried to help the boys get the wheelbarrows to the garden without dropping too much mulch on the ground along the way. 

In the garden, the parents did the heavy lifting and trimming, while the boys pulled weeds and spread mulch through the flowerbeds in front of the school building.

After four hours of work, the flowerbeds and tree bases were covered with a fresh layer of mulch and cleared of weeds.

"It's a lot of work, but we can talk and work at the same time," said Maxwell Rosenthal, a Bear Scout who is in third grade.

The pack will get back to work on the garden in the spring.