Kinsmen support local scouts troop
Once again, the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Club has come through for a youth organization looking for financial support.
The club presented the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Beavers and Cubs a cheque for $2,000 at the Kinsmen Sportsplex on Saturday afternoon, a donation that will go a long way to helping the club when it comes to their regular camping excursions this summer.
“That money goes towards our camping gear for the rest of the year, we just bought eight tents and some camping equipment, and that money will also help some of the kids go to camp in the summertime,” said troop leader Xeing Bronson just prior to the youngsters taking part in scuba diving and snorkeling courses in the Sportsplex pool.
“We have a lot of events coming up and it’s always pretty busy,” Bronson said.”We do a lot of fundraising, too. Last year we did some harvesting and worked with Mosaic and helped the food bank and did some tree-planting, too. So we’re very busy.”
Moose Jaw Scouting recently re-activated after many years of hibernation, with the group re-forming three years ago and seeing rapid growth ever since.
They now have 16 Beaver Scouts (age five to seven) and 12 Cub Scouts (eight to 10) and unfortunately have ran out of room for expansion due to a lack of volunteer leaders.
“We can’t accept any more members without volunteers because of the ratio (volunteers to members),” Bronson explained. “We have more than 20 people on the waiting list, that’s a lot, so if we can get more volunteers we can have more kids joining up.”
The fact the club is thriving at this level is largely because of the Kinsmen, who have been there with a donation since Moose Jaw Scouting,s re-inception. “Every year the Kinsmen have helped us and we really appreciate it,” Bronson said.
It’s all part the organization’s mandate and one they’re more than proud of, said Kinsmen member Allen Proust. “We’ve always looking forward to helping and support youth groups who come to us for funding in the community,” he said. “We can see the importance of young kids and we know they’re the future of volunteers and will be the backbone of the community so we like to support ideas like that.”
That means lending support to dozens of clubs to the tune of over $75,000 a year.
“We have more groups coming up and asking for funding all the time, so that makes us creative in looking for new fundraising ideas to create new revenues,” Proust said.
“It all goes to good causes in the community, though, and that’s what we want to see.”