Community Service
Good Turn for Nature – service project
The council’s Fall Service Project – Good Turn For Nature – is right around the corner. This is a great opportunity to engage your scouts with the outdoors and teach them the importance of caring for nature!
The project runs from September 28 to October 27 and it is not too late to sign up. We are now in the process of matching units with host organizations. If you have not submitted your commitment form, please do so as soon as possible.
Click here to fill out the online form.
The following organizations are still unmatched and would love to partner with your unit:
- Cope Environmental Center
- Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
- Bitternut Woods Nature Preserve
- Shakamak State Park
- Lieber SRA
- Terre Haute Parks & Rec
- Whitewater Memorial State Park
For more information and a complete list of host organizations, check out the community page.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Stephanie Marron | Activities Assistant
Developer, Harmony, Empathy, Belief, Responsibility
7125 Fall Creek Road North, Indianapolis, IN 46256 Phone: 317-813-7123
Don’t Forget! Saturday May 26
Please see the following two posts on service events for Scouts on Saturday, May 26:
Memorial Weekend Grave Dressing
500 Festival Parade Setup
Thank you for all you do for Scouting, and for your greater community!
Scouts – Your Service is requested at the INDY 500 Parade!
On behalf of Bill Hodgson, North Star District 500 Festival Parade Chair:
REMINDER!
Please recall North Star still is scheduled to set up 500 Festival parade chairs on Saturday, May 26.
Scouts in uniform should arrive to set up chairs at the 300 block of North Pennsylvania, between New York and Vermont Streets.
Please arrive between 8:30 to 9:00 AM. Good for 5 service hours!
Yours in scouting,
Bill Hodgson
Troop 73
317-560-0597
Scouts at the JCC Annual Earth Day Celebration 2018
On behalf of North Star District Executive Jessica Hofman:
North Star had the opportunity to host a few stations at the Jewish Community Center’s Annual Earth Day Celebration. Volunteers from Troop 18 and the Council ran a rope bridge, a fire starting station, and a catapult station for thousands of families to stop by and enjoy.
Through surveys done at the event, we were told that our stations were a crowd favorite! This event could not have been possible without the help of great volunteers! Thank you to Ray and John Matutes from Troop 18 for taking time out of their Sunday to help!
Required Unit Reporting of District Service Hours
On behalf of North Star Program Chair Mark Pishon:
ISSUE: Two separate reporting databases
The national website, accessible through my.scouting.org, reports directly to National Council and is used for your unit’s national statistics such as contribution to the World Movement of Scouting’s billion service-hour challenge, but not Journey to Excellence scoring.
We know this is a problem because many of our largest and most successful troops have reported zero service hours on one or both of these websites. At the same time, these units have had Eagle Scouts reporting hundreds if not thousands of service hours. The scouts are getting proper credit, but it is not passing on to the units.
Journey to Excellence has a separate scoring for service hours which can receive a separate gold-level recognition.
ACTION ITEM:
Make sure your unit secretary or registrar is reporting the same service hours to both National BSA on my.scouting.org as well as to the Crossroads BSA website (service hours form found here).
To prevent this being a problem in the future, our District will be reviewing these statistics quarterly. For troops, we will be looking at Eagle project reports against unit reports. Discrepancies will be pointed out to units.
For Cub Scout Packs, we will be looking at zero-hour reports as needing updating.
Remember, we are part of a world-wide effort to demonstrate the value of scouting to our communities. Your reports help that marketing effort.
Memorial Weekend Grave Dressing 2018 [Update below]
Memorial Day is fast approaching. The American Legion would like to invite all of the North Star District for breakfast. The district will make a short trip to several local cemeteries and put decorations on veteran’s graves in honor of their service. In past years this has wrapped up before lunch.
Your service is Requested:
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2018
Start time: 7:00 am
Breakfast location: Broad Ripple American Legion Post # 3, 6379 N College Ave, Indianapolis, IN
Teams will be formed at breakfast to serve the various cemeteries.
Units will be asked to provide adult and youth headcount as well as a point of contact in the event updates need to be made during the morning.
*UPDATE* Please RSVP to Rees Morgan at bfbronc58@yahoo.com.
THANK YOU for your Service!
Need Service Hours? Volunteer Opportunity in Hendricks County!
This was passed along to us from Sarah Wolf, Park Naturalist and Volunteer Coordinator for Hendricks County Parks and Recreation:
[UPDATE as of April 26: The area of greatest need would be help with parking; this would be best to do with mature Scouts + parents.
The sign-up site is here: Sign-up Genius for McCloud Park Anniversary .
Thanks for considering!]
We have URGENT volunteer needs on Saturday, May 5 for McCloud Nature Park’s 15th Anniversary! Some of the opportunities would be perfect for scouts to do with their parents’ or Scout Leaders’ supervision. See the links below for more information and to sign up to volunteer.
McCloud Nature Park 15th Anniversary Celebration Announcement
Hendricks County Volunteer Sign-Up page
We appreciate any help in spreading the word on this – Thanks!!!!
Sarah Wolf
Park Naturalist and Volunteer Coordinator
765-676-5437 McCloud Nature Park (Tuesday-Saturday)
317-718-6188 Parks department office (Monday-Friday)
McCloud Nature Park Physical Address: 8518 Hughes Road, North Salem, IN 46165
Weather Hotline: 317-718-6111 for information on programs impacted by possible weather
Scouting for Food: March 12 – April 9, 2018
Please complete the Unit Commitment Form [<== linked here] by March 12, 2018!
Scouting for Food is a national Boy Scouts of America community stewardship project aimed at addressing the problem of hunger in local communities. Crossroads of America Council participates in this annual spring food collection program with all proceeds staying in central Indiana. In partnership with Kroger and the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, Scouts collect approximately 75,000 pounds of food through door-to-door collection or pre-packaged grocery bags in participating central Indiana Kroger stores. This campaign generally occurs between the months of March and April. Units can pick the time that best fits their calendar during this time frame and can submit for the participation patch at any time with the link provided. Participation in Kroger Scouting for Food counts toward service hours.
Our North Star Community Service Chair and contact for Scouting for Food is Mike Faulk (mythreesons08@att.net).
See the LINKS below for online forms and key documents:
- Online sign-up to collects items at a Kroger store (Saturday, March 24);
- Patch request form;
- Recording of service hours;
- CAMPAIGN PACKET;
- GLEANER’s NEEDS flyer;
- KROGER handouts; and
- CAMPAIGN FLYER .
How close can we get to 100% participation this year? In 2017 only two North Star units participated in Scouting for Food. Let’s see if we can get more units to participate in this effort to reduce hunger close to home. Looking forward to a great Scouting for Food campaign with our District!
Thank You on Services Hours Reporting
Thank you to our units that responded to our request for more service hours reporting at the National website. As of the October district JTE report, we were down nearly 0.45 hours per scout year over year to 2016. Now in the November report, we are up by nearly an identical amount!
That has made us Gold in that category based on meeting a minimum plus slight improvement. The national goal is 10 hours per scout average. We are showing an average of 6.14 hours per scout right now. It may be too late to boost that average much more, but please help us try.
Please login to the National website (using your Internet Advancement login and password) and make sure that your unit’s information is up-to-date.
Service Hours Reported to Date for 2017
I hope that all Packs, Troops, and Crews report more than 100 man-hours per year.
In light of that expectation, here is our best understanding of the units that have met that expectation of reporting more than 100 man-hours for 2017. This personal expectation is strongest for scout troops.
Packs 18, 72, and 358;
Troops 18, 56, 69, 72, 174, 180, 269, 343, 358, 512, 514, and 804.
The top five units for reported hours in 2017 to date are:
- Troop 174 with 2,861 hours reported
- Troop 358 with 1,301 hours
- Troop 514 with 486 hours
- Troop 804 with 422 hours
- Troop 18 with 404 hours.
An honorable mention to Pack 18 for the highest number of hours reported for a Cub Scout Pack with 118 hours.
If your unit is not showing the hours you expect, login to the Service Hours Reporting website with your unit’s Internet Advancement login and password. You can look at what is there.
For scout troops, please verify that the your Eagle Scouts’ project hours are fully reported.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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