Recognizing the growing financial demands on the families of its members, Scouts Canada has upped the financial aid available through its No One Left Behind program to $450,000, up from $250,000.
The program helps children who have financial difficulty paying for the cost of participating in Scouts.
Last week’s announcement was welcomed by Elmira Scouting commissioner Brian Soehner.
“In the past couple years we haven’t got anything from them [Scouts Canada] and we’ve relied on help from Canadian Tire Jumpstart, but they’re broke, too, right now,” Soehner said. “We’ve been having to do it internally on our own. There are always probably three or four parents in Elmira that do need help.”
Scouting celebrated its 100th anniversary in Elmira in 2012. At that time, people were offering small donations, so they opened up their own little ledger in the account to help. He says that fund hasn’t grown as much as they’d like, but when someone comes to a leader seeking help they’re never turned down. The most common way was to get one third of the required funds from Jumpstart or Woolwich Community Services and the group would help them as well for a third.
“It isn’t just registration. We have Christmas trees we’re going to sell soon again. We draw some money from that. Anywhere we can get money to use for more than just registration. Uniforms, camp, whatever it takes to get that child looked after,” Soehner explained.
Soehner said all of the local Scouts are looked after for the year, but if another parent comes needing help, they’ll definitely apply to the national fund.
He notes there are other ways Scouts can help themselves, such as the popcorn program where they sell popcorn and can keep some of the proceeds for the Scouts group.
“I’ve been scouting in Elmira for 45 years as a leader. We’ve never turned anyone down. We just take it as it comes.”
The Scouts will be selling Christmas trees in Elmira, as they do every year. The trees are arriving this Saturday, all 335 of them. They’re all number-one grade trees, so they do cost a bit more than your average Christmas tree from a grocery store.
“Last year was the first year Food Basics was in town for Christmas. They had to sell some trees because they’re in their flyer, and we had a struggle with that. They came up with a fantastic solution. They only brought in a token amount because their trees are obviously cheaper. They gave us the money. They’re doing that again this year,” Soehner said.
The national program was established in 2007 and helped 2,668 Scouts across the country last year.
“We’re happy to see this. Scouting in Elmira numbers have been going up quite steady the last few years. There’s just no way we’re going to leave anybody out,” Soehner said.
