Girl Scouts build Little Free Pantry at Batavia church
To this day, my wife will on occasion recall her youth in mentioning an interesting place her Girl Scout troop visited or a project it took on.
To this day, I love Girl Scout Cookies and buy a fair number of boxes each year.
As such, we have high regard for this national youth organization first formed in the U.S. in 1912. More than 100 years later, girls in communities across the country continue to earn their badges through any number of interesting projects and tasks.
Eight girls from Louise White Girl Scout Troop 1675 in Batavia know all about this. The girls recently built a micro pantry - or Little Free Pantry - at the Unity of Fox Valley Church, 230 Webster St.
It operates under a simple premise. People can take what they need and leave what they can. It operates much like the "Little Free Library" stands that pop up in various neighborhoods for book sharing.
Building the micro pantry was one thing, but the girls went a step further in mounting a food drive to help stock the pantry for its initial opening last week.
The pantry, aside from being a nice gesture for the community, resulted in the girls earning their Bronze Award.
"Since COVID-19, there has been a shortage of food, so we built this so people can take what they need," said Louise White fifth-grader Emily Ozsvath.
The girls understood that the project had to reflect what their organization and the Girl Scout law was all about.
"We were kind, helpful, responsible and made the world a better place" in creating the pantry, said Lindsey Perez, also a fifth-grader at Louise White, while classmate Munroe Wing noted, "There wasn't very many pantries in the community, so this is a smart, convenient way to help people get what they need."
The girls opened the pantry last week, filling it up with toiletries, personal care items, paper goods and school supplies - all items that should hold up during the current heat wave.
In addition to Ozsvath, Perez and Wing, other girls involved were Alexandra Angelov, Rachel Carlson, Sienna Lux, Olivia McKay and Maeve Newman.
"This project was above and beyond the normal troop activities and required a minimum of 20 hours (of work) per girl," said Susan Ozsvath, the troop's leader. "Despite the challenges of e-learning and COVID-19, the girls were able to meet via Zoom both as a troop, as well as with community leaders to make this happen."
The pantry accepts donations of nonperishable boxed or canned items, toiletries, personal care items, paper goods and school supplies. Those who want to contribute can simply stop at the micro pantry and place the items inside the cabinet at any time, Ozsvath said.
These are challenging times for a number of reasons, and it is certainly uplifting to see that area Scouts continue to complete tasks that help our communities.
<h3 class="leadin">Back to the drive-in:
Imagine the various thoughts and emotions going through the mind of Jeff Kohlberg the past few months.
Kohlberg, owner of the Cascade Drive-In movie theater in West Chicago, has to be kicking himself over having to shutter this once popular drive-in in early 2019 because the concept was simply fading into yesteryear - and now seeing how popular drive-ins have become in the age of COVID-19.
It's why Kohlberg mentioned a couple of months ago that he was pushing to have the Cascade come back to life. Even though he sounded pretty positive about reopening, he also knew there were a lot of hoops to jump through to make it happen.
If it makes any difference in planning, it would not be a stretch to believe that many people would consider a drive-in movie the only option they would consider for seeing a movie. And that would be for the next few years, at least. Plus, think of all the new, young fans that could develop a drive-in habit at this time.
<h3 class="leadin">Another drive-In option:
The St. Charles Park District joined the latest back-to-the-future trend, with a twist, in offering Drive-In Concerts from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 20 at the James O. Breen Community Park on the city's west side.
Reservations to attend the event are required by 4 p.m. the day of the concert through the park district website. For $5, two parking spots are given for each vehicle - one for the car, the other for families to put up chairs, lay down blankets and have a picnic.
Park district officials remind attendees that there isn't any shade in the parking lot, and the blacktop could be hot.
But there is this: Charlie Fox's pizzeria will have a pizza drive-through set up on site for those wanting to purchase a pizza, pop or water for the shows.
All of the pandemic safety guidelines are encouraged for attendees.
dheun@sbcglobal.net