SJAFB Scouts raise $400 for earthquake relief effort
By Kenneth Fine
Published in News on April 22, 2010 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MICHAEL BETTS
Cub Scout Pack 911 members T.J. Hampton, right, and Aidan Taylor play on the see-saw at Herman Park. Pack members are children of men and women serving at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
T.J. Hampton could tell you all about the coins he collected outside the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base commissary March 20.
And Aidan Taylor remembers the dollar bills -- how he earned them for the boys' cause by holding up a sign.
But ask the two 6-year-olds just why they were collecting money that day and you get the sense they still don't quite understand. They just know it was to help someone else.
"Haiti," Aidan said in response to the question -- even though it will likely be years before he can fully comprehend all that happened there in January.
Members of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's Cub Scout Pack 911 recently raised more than $400, money they say will go toward the ongoing relief effort in Haiti.
They took on the project as a way to help those in need, and knew from the beginning that the money they were collecting was for a cause greater than themselves.
"They were out there for four hours, walking around with signs," Cubmaster Hope Coleman-Rutter said. "Knowing the whole time that (the money) was going to other people."
And while most are still too young to grasp the magnitude of the disaster, some got a sense of the state of the country via images on TV.
Like 8-year-old Kaine D'Eredita, who knows "a big, strong earthquake" created a situation requiring help.
Or 10-year-old Nathan Amon, who characterized the wreckage footage he saw as "kind of weird," and said he knew some people "lost a lot."
So finding a way to contribute -- if only a few hundred dollars -- made the boys proud.
"It feels good," Nathan said. "(Haiti) would have helped if it happened here."
Those interested in having their children join Cub Scout Pack 911-- comprised of first- through fifth-graders who meet on Seymour Johnson during the school year -- can e-mail nomaddereditas@aim.com.