Greeneville Troop 192 camps in cardboard boxes for food drive

Greeneville Boy Scout Troop 192 camped out in cardboard boxes Saturday night, outside the Honda store on Tusculum Boulevard.

Eleven-year-old Tristan Bender said the canned food drive benefits the hurt, hungry, and homeless in his community.

“They pretty much got it rough because they can’t stay out here for nine hours and then pack up and go home,“ Bender said.  “They’re out here until they got money and jobs.“

Their immediate goal: to fill the back of Pete Hall’s pickup truck.

“It actually wasn’t my idea,“ Hall said.  “The boys come up with the idea, the scouts did.“

Troop 192 chose a well-travelled location.

“There’s a lot of different roads coming in,“ 13-year-old Clark Brome said.  “So, hopefully, a lot of people will see the signs that we’ve got, and bring back food.“

The boys shared four large cardboard boxes, with newspaper and sleeping bags as bedding.

They planned to break at 10 p.m., but donations were slow Saturday, so the troop decided to make the drive an all-nighter. 

Hall said, full truck or not, his troop will come away with a valuable lesson.

“It helps the boys fulfill their goals of helping the community that they live in—giving back to the community that gives to them,“ he said.

The troop, and three supervising adults, will take donations throughout the night and through 1 p.m. Sunday.

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