Scouts pitch in to help sandbag

On Aug. 24, as the Des Plaines River rose, residents in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights, sent out the call for volunteers.

Boy Scout Troop 401 in Buffalo Grove, under the leadership of Jim Scanlan was pressed into action. The troop meets at Kingswood United Methodist Church and is chartered by the Men's Club.

Ron Zaremba, assistant scoutmaster and former National Guardsman, called Scanlan around 3:30 p.m. that day asking for help in sandbagging his neighborhood near River Road in Mount Prospect. Fourteen Scouts and about seven adults from the troop showed up to help. On hand to assist the residents, about 50 Naval personnel from Great Lakes Naval Station gave aid. Village workers, public workers, and officials from Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights also were around to lend a hand.

Some residents, like Jackie Zaremba a committee member for Troop 401, started filling sand bags at 11 in the morning.

But before the sandbags were able to be used, a concrete barrier, a little under a half-mile long, was created to hold back the Des Plaines River. The wall was on River Road from Woodview Drive to Milwaukee Avenue. First, plastic was carefully cut and laid on the ground, then the concrete barriers were placed on top of the plastic, and finally the plastic was wrapped around the concrete.

Once that was done by professionals, the residents, Troop 401, and the rest of the people began a line to sandbag around and on top of the barrier. Work was finished around 8 p.m.

A local McDonald's donated about 200 double cheeseburgers and both villages donated bottled water to the workers.

The concrete barrier was up until Aug. 29, when it looked like the Des Plaines River was behaving again. This is not the only time the troop has helped. In July 2004, the troop helped sandbag in Wheeling when the river rose out of its banks.