Cub Scouts is doing wonders for DJ's self-confidence. Because of his speech problems, he is sometimes shy when speaking to other children. (Anyone who met DJ at the PP meet in October can attest to the fact that he has no trouble carrying on a long conversation with adults. ) He's really coming out of his shell these days!

He trick-or-treated for UNICEF this year and came very close to meeting his goal of $50. (My thanks to our PassPorter friend who made an anonymous donation that got us off to an amazing start! ) When we went trick-or-treating on Friday, we took the donation box along and thought we'd try a few houses and see how it went. After the third house, DJ snatched the box right out of my hand, left his candy bag behind, and ran up to each house and asked adults, kids, - anyone who would listen - if they'd like to donate their pocket change to UNICEF. Most people he asked didn't have it on them, but asked him to wait while they ran inside to shake down their families. With donations through his website and door-to-door collections, he's collected $43.50 for UNICEF to date. He hasn't made his own donation yet and I have to empty out my backpack of change, so I think we'll just make it or come very close.

He's also been selling Trails End Popcorn for Cub Scouts to raise money for his awards and summer camp and to benefit his Pack. The boys were asked to sell a minimum of $150 in popcorn to avoid having to pay outright to cover the cost of their badges, patches, and awards for the year. I just totalled DJ's order form up - he and Walt have one payment to collect this evening and he'll have sold more than $500 worth of popcorn. That covers his awards for the year AND more than half the cost of camp! AMAZING! When we saw our Cubmaster yesterday, he asked how our popcorn sales were going and his eyes bugged out when we told him our estimate of DJ's sales. Our goal was to fill the order form. We set the goal and did order some popcorn ourselves, but still managed to sell to 22 other people and/or families.

I can't say enough good things about the positive outcomes of Scouting that we've noticed so far. DJ even pitched in to help straighten up Scout Hall yesterday after the Boy Scouts came and went. Cubmaster Frey gave him a tour of the basement (I stayed on the steps to avoid the musty ickyness of Scout Hall's basement. ), explained all the cool stuff on the walls (awards, den flags, 2 pushmobile carts, the moving up bridge), and let DJ choose some supplies for our den from the stash collected over the years and squirrelled away all over the clubhouse.

DJ found a box of popsicle sticks and all the leaders' and Boy Scouts' eyes lit up. Seems they used to make these things called Exploders out of the sticks, so we got a lesson on making those, too. Never a dull day with our Pack and the local Boy Scout Troop.

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Scouting for Food Drive 2008. We arrived a little late, so all of the bags were gone (those Boy Scouts are QUICK!). We stuck around to help with some other duties and brought home a few of the spare bags that the boys brought back at the end of their day to pass out in our neighborhood. Then DJ asked if we could 'go shopping' in our pantry to fill a bag for the food drive. I'd planned to do that later this week, but Walt and DJ had picked out some things at the store specifically for the food drive. By the time he was done, DJ had filled two bags and nearly filled a third after I weeded out the few things that were past their exp. date that couldn't be donated. (I had no idea how out-of-hand the pantry had gotten since we last donated to the soup kitchen. ) At the store, DJ had chosen a selection of pastas, pasta sauces, soup mixes, juice, powdered drinks, mac & cheese, and even some candy and cookie mixes from his own goodie allowance. He made great choices and even sacrificed some of his own treats to donate to other families.

I just couldn't possibly be any prouder of him right now.