Cub Scouts Pack 73 spent the last few months preparing to make a donation to ForKids, and they donated more than 350 brown paper bags full of groceries this week.

“This has been an annual event for the past few years,” said Cub Master Dan Boehning. “What we do around the holidays, after Christmas, we solicit grocery stores for paper bags. Places like Farm Fresh, Food Lion and other stores are a big help. We maintain a great relationship with them.”

Almost 50 registered Cub Scouts with Pack 73 spent a Saturday delivering empty paper bags to their neighbors. Each Scout had 50 bags to deliver, and they delivered a total of 1,700 paper bags to be collected.

Those who were given paper bags were asked to fill them with groceries and put them back on their porch to be picked up at a specified time by the Scouts and their parents.

“This morning, we unloaded 350 bags full of groceries at ForKids. That didn’t count the additional bags we had to consolidate into others,” Boehning said.

When they get the chance, the pack also will try to make monetary donations and donate clothes to ForKids. Their rule is to donate whatever could be useful for the homeless community.

Doing this fundraiser is an important part of what the Cub Scouts do every year.

“One thing our pack pushes is community service and giving back. Maybe some of the people they play with are the same ones that need these bags,” Boehning said. “We encourage that anytime they have the opportunity to give back, that they need to do that.”

Part of the community service Pack 73 participates in is Clean the Bay Day. They participate because they adopted, with Troop 73, Lake Meade behind the North Main Street Farm Fresh. Both groups participate in clean-ups twice a year to give back to the community.

“They look forward every year to get together with their buddies and get to know their neighbors,” Boehning said. “They are incredibly encouraged by the feedback they get from the community.”

“It’s neat what we do, and if we could expand on it more that would be great,” Boehning said. “If there are any kids ages 6 to 20 that can come and join, it would be great. We help them grow and develop positive life-long characteristics.”