Scout Champions the Environment One Drop at a Time

I am always fascinated by the mechanisms by which our Scouts serve their communities. We often see Scouts who have a love for the outdoors, enjoy helping the elderly, or are driven to gather food for the needy.

But it’s not often that you find a Scout serving his community with barrels.

Scout Alex Sivak of Clarendon Hills, Illinois, is using rain barrels to take a unique approach to water conservation.

Alex Sivak, member of Boy Scout Troop 51, stands with one of his rain barrels at Sloan Triangle in Downtown Clarendon Hills // Photo courtesy of Chuck Fieldman/Sun-Times Media

For his Eagle Scout project, Alex launched a convincing campaign to help businesses understand why rain barrels are so important to the environment. (For instance, did you know that a quarter inch of rain falling on an average roof yields more than 200 gallons of water?) Thanks to his efforts, business owners bought recycled barrels and set them out on their premises to capture rain water.

Alex has since acted to lobby local organizations and promote water conservation tactics, referring individuals to a website where they can buy rain barrels. He has also purchased six rain barrels and donated one to a different local school to help promote a barrel decorating contest in his community.

Remember the Chicago cows that suddenly appeared on Windy City streets in the summer of 1999? Think of this campaign as the Clarendon Hills barrels. It’s really catching on – and much faster than Alex anticipated.

As much fun as Alex has had promoting his barrel campaign, he still thinks back to the adventures and life-changing experiences he’s encountered since his first days as a Cub Scout – camping, cave exploration, even glassblowing. “Those are things that I never would’ve done if I never joined Scouting,” he said.

Thanks to Alex’s innovative thinking and his tremendous perseverance and leadership, his home community is really “barreling along” to conserve water. Way to go, Alex!

Conservation efforts are important to our future, so it’s wonderful to see how innovation can create novel approaches to keeping our environment protected. What innovative thinking have you seen among the young people you work with to be stewards to the environment? Share your stories with me!

Thanks!

Wayne