Pack 799 Tigard, OR Cook Park Cleanup
Our scouts, families, friends, and neighbors all use this park. It is the primary park for the southern portion of the City of Tigard. We have a great relationship with the city and use this park quite often for many of our pack activities. We decided to give back and conduct a SOLVE cleanup at the main portion of the park used by 100s of people per day, as the city is also doing construction and creating a new playground area for kids to enjoy with added safety in mind.
Our Pack leaders coordinated with the City of Tigard to gain approval and get the needed supplies for our pack to do the work. On the day of the project, we had our adult leaders and some older Scouts BSA scouts from Troops 423 and 218 lead the event and assist the young cub scouts and their families. During this process, the older scouts emphasized the Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace Principles to help connect our actions with the ideals of scouting.
The benefits to the community are significant in the sense that 100s of people use the park daily, including very young children. There is also a very diverse eco-system consisting of multiple animals that live in the park and constantly rely on the park as a natural habitat.
Having a place that is clean and safe for use by people and animals to thrive in is key to maintaining a good quality of life.
Through this project, our cub scouts had an opportunity to learn about the scouting ideals like Leave No Trace and the Outdoor Code. The older scouts had an opportunity to learn and develop their leadership skills while also getting some practice in conducting and organizing a service project that impacts a whole community.