Editor:
On Saturday, April 6, the First Southwest Burnaby Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers held a bottle/can drive to support their programs and activities.
Like many in our neighbourhood, I put out a few boxes of refundable items at the door, clearly labelled “Scouts.” Surely this is the least we can do to help children participate in organizations that foster good life skills, interaction, activity and citizenship.
Even through a modest bottle drive, these young people learn that not everything is given to us without effort and that working - even for a few cents on a bottle – is how life unfolds for most of us.
I am also fully cognizant that the world would not run without volunteers, whether it be those leading Scouts and Brownies, coaching children’s sports, serving hot lunches in schools, working at hospital gift shops, driving cancer patients to their appointments or teaching music to the underprivileged.
The world is a better place because of selfless giving and support, at whatever level.
It is no surprise, then, that I was not only exceptionally angry, but deeply chagrined when I spotted an elderly couple coming down my driveway and helping themselves to the empty cans which had been clearly left for the Scouts.
What possesses people to take what is not theirs, to hijack an altruistic bottle drive for their own gain and, in the process, reduce the financial support necessary to help organizations that focus on the young subsist? What grandparents can commit such a deed and not think a) it is immoral, b) what would this teach my grandchildren and c) what will the repercussions be when a group like the Scouts does not meet its financial goal and is forced to cancel activities?
Let us all take a minute to remember how crucial our example – every day of the week - is to our children. How we live, how we choose to help and volunteer, and what we offer to those who are struggling are indeed the only tools we have to make of this world and better and more loving place.
Ramona Luengen, Burnaby
