Dan
Goulson
Eagle Project
My Eagle Service Project was to coordinate all Scout troops in my
community to sell tickets for the Kiwanis Club of Chapel Hill for their
annual Pancake Jamboree.
The Kiwanis Club is a men's service organization, whose projects serve
the youth of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community. They annually sponsor
a Pancake Jamboree as a fund-raising event. The Pancake Jamboree is a
day long pancake dinner, with all aspects of this carried out by the
Kiwanis Club, including organization and food preparation. All profits
from this event are afterwards contributed to various community
organizations, with the majority involving the youth of the community.
In 1977, $3500 wore contributed by the Kiwanis Club to the building
fund of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA. A lot of other contributions for
1977 in included in Appendix A.
Tickets were sold previous to the date of the Jamboree, which was
Friday night and all day Saturday, February 10 and 11, 1978, and at the
door also. Outside groups, including the Boy Scouts, sold tickets
door-to-door in the few weeks prior to the Jamboree. For the first time
this year, the Kiwanis Club contributed back to the selling group
one-half of the value of each ticket, which was one dollar per ticket.
My activities started around January 12, 1978. I contacted Mr. Cobey
Farley of the Kiwanis Club and asked for his approval of my proposal.
He was delighted and told me he would be as much help as possible. A
couple of days later I went to his office and he issued me 1,029
tickets for later distribution to Scout troops. In the next few days I
contacted all the Scoutmasters in my community and told them of my
intentions. After giving them an outline of what this would include, I
asked for their approval. All Scoutmasters save one agreed, and they
all told me that they would like for me to come to their troop meeting
and talk to their troop about my project.
I began this the week of January 16, 1978. At each troop meeting, I
explained to the Scouts exactly what my project was about. They were
told what the Pancake Jamboree is, what the Kiwanis Club does with the
money they raise, and that the Kiwanis Club will return to them as a
cash contribution one dollar for every ticket they sell. It was greatly
stressed that while selling tickets, each Scout was selling as an
individual, not as a Boy Scout or for their troop, and was selling
tickets for the Kiwanis Club and therefore should not wear a uniform
while selling tickets. A copy of this talk is included in Appendix B.
After the Scouts agreed to do this, I issued a group of tickets to the
Scoutmaster, who signed for them and therefore took financial
responsibility Each of the tickets was numbered, so the numbers of the
tickets were recorded in my record book (See Appendix C). I then helped
each Scoutmaster in issuing tickets to each individual Scout. I
suggested that he keep a record of the numbers of the tickets that he
issued out, just as I had done. If this was-done, the location of each
ticket would always be known.
I kept record of all transactions in my record book (Appendix C). Order
numbers in the 100's were the issuing of tickets by me to a
Scoutmaster, 200's were the return of unsold tickets to me from a
Scoutmaster, 600's were money from sold tickets turned over to me from
the Scoutmaster, and 500'8 were the contribution from the Kiwanis Club
to the troop. Whenever a transaction involved money, a receipt was
written with the corresponding order number.
Throughout the selling period, I visited each troop each week. I
answered any questions either the Scouts or Scoutmasters had, gave tips
on selling, gave "pep talks", and solved any problems that might have
arisen. I was always prepared to issue tickets, take up unsold tickets,
or take money. Fortunately, there were never any serious problems to
solve, but the boys always had questions to ask, and 1 tried to help
them as much as possible.
In the week before the Jamboree I told the Scouts that I would be back
the next week - the week after the Jamboree- - to collect all tickets
and money. I also told them that the tickets issued to them were their
responsibility, so if they had lost a ticket, they had to pay for the
ticket out of their own pocket.
The actual Jamboree was Friday night, February 10 and all day Saturday,
February 11. On Friday night, Troop 820 of Chapel Hill went to eat
pancakes on their way to a weekend camping trip. On Saturday, I worked
a shift with the Kiwanis members, from 2:00 to 6:00, flipping pancakes
and cooking sausage.
When I went to troop meetings the week after the Jamboree, none of the
troops had all their money collected, and I had expected this. I gave
the Scoutmaster the choice of collecting all the money and tickets and
then giving the entire amount to me at once or giving me anything he
had and let me hold the money for him. I told the Scouts they must have
all their money and tickets in by the next week and tried to make them
remember this. For many different reasons, a few troops did not have
all obligations erased until weeks later. Nevertheless, I kept on going
to the troop meetings until everything had been taken care of.
I reported troop sales to the Kiwanis Club on a troop-by-troop basis.
When a troop had returned all tickets and money to me, I first
recounted at home to see that everything was in order. When I was
satisfied that it was, I bound the tickets and stored them at home. I
then turned in all money, separated by troop, to the treasurer of the
Kiwanis Club within the next day. The next step was to pick up the
contribution, in the form of a check, from the treasurer and take it to
the troop's next meeting, where I presented it to the
Scoutmaster. Going by this system, I presented the contributions
from the Kiwanis Club to all nine troops individually at their troop
meetings. For some troops, the collection process was a very long one.
Prior to a troop meeting of a troop that had not gotten everything
turned in from their Scouts, I would call the Scoutmasters and remind
them of the circumstances. At the meetings, I told the Scouts that they
must bring everything in very soon. I finally had to set a deadline for
one troop that Just could not get everything taken care of. That troop
turned over their money to me, but I was out of town when they had
their tickets, so they turned in their tickets directly to the Kiwanis
Club. The last contribution was presented March 7, almost a month after
the Jamboree. At this time, all tickets and money had been rechecked
and accounted for.
The troops used their money for a variety of things. Many used it for
camping equipment. One troop used it for a bus repair bill. My troop
donated our money to the Rector's Discretionary Fund of the Chapel of
the Cross, our sponsoring institution.
After all the loose ends had been tied up, I wrote letters to all the
Scoutmasters thanking them and their troop for their help. A copy of
these letters is included in Appendix D. The letters also gave the
final figures of number sold and percentage of the total sold.
A couple of weeks later, I received a tally from the Kiwanis Club
showing figures from the Jamboree. A copy of this is included in
Appendix E. The tally showed that of all outside groups selling
tickets, the Boy Scouts sold the greatest number: 717 tickets, 361 of
the total ticket sales.
The project went very well, and benefited many people. The Scouts
learned about responsibility and money management. They had to keep up
with their tickets or they had to pay for them. I also learned about
money management and responsibility. Over $1,400 passed through my
hands so I had to handle all situations very carefully. I also got
leadership experience from the project. I had to help over 150 Scouts
through this venture. I told them what they could and could not do,
gave them pep talks to keep them going, and helped them get all of
their tickets turned back in. Most of all, my project benefited the
community. It helped the Kiwanis Club raise money for feedback into
youth organizations in the community--places where this money is
greatly needed.
An Eagle Project that raised money for individual troops would not be
acceptable. But in my case the troops were selling these tickets for
the Kiwanis Club, not for themselves. The contributions were given to
the troops as a gesture of appreciation for helping them in the fund
raising drive. In particular, my troop felt that we should not benefit
from this project, so donated our money as mentioned before.
In the end, I think the project lived up to all my expectations and
benefited everyone involved.
KIWANIS CONTRIBUTIONS 1977-1978
YMCA Building Fund $3,420
4-H Club Garden Contest 100
Christmas House 150
Boy's Home at Lake Waccamaw 100
Needy Family Christmas 170
Orange County Mental Health Society 125
Christmas gifts for Butner patients
Heart Fund 50
Fourth of July Celebration Fireworks 690
for benefit of AFS
Campus Crusade 100
Scholarship and Citizenship 900
Awards at Jr. and Sr. High Schools
South Orange Rescue Squad 1,000
Defibrillator
Meals on Wheels 100
Council on Aging 200
Literature
Young Life 200
N.C. Symphony 25
KIWANIS PANCAKE JAMBOREE
Some Facts about our Fund-Raising Project
1. Number of persons served in 1977 - 2,800
2. Net income for 1977 - $3,404.31
3. Number of persons served in 1978 - 3,776
Friday night 911
Saturday 2,865
4. Approximate number of pancakes cooked - 18,500
5. Number of Kiwanians who worked - 89
6. Net income for 1978 - approximately $5,800
7. Ticket sales
a. Sold by Kiwanians - 923
b. Sold at the Door - 943
c. Sold by Outside Groups - 1,881
YMCA Gymnastics Team - 8
Various Church Groups- 610
Jaycettes - 45
AFS - 61
Cub Scouts - 100
Boy Scouts - 717
Key Club - 140
Keywanettes - 400
8. Without the help of these outside groups, it would have been
necessary for Kiwanians to sell twice the number of tickets in order to
show the same profit.
9. Commissions totaling $1,881. have been forwarded to these
organizations. These should be considered as cash contributions to
these various youth organizations.
10. Additional Income - $368. for advertising that appeared on tickets.
The cost of printing the tickets was $100. Thus, there was a net income
on this item of $268.
11. The cost of food and materials was approximately $2,275. This
served 3,776 persons for an average cost of 60.5 cents per serving.
IN SUMMARY:
12. Extension to Friday night appears to be a good idea.
13. Sales by outside groups will be a necessity if we want to get the
publicity and earn the profit that we did this year.
14. The generous commission appears to be justified because, with these
additional sales, we were more successful than ever.
15. 1978 profits were increased by 70% of 1977.
16. Summary of Finances (as of March 31, 1978):
Pancake Sale Receipts $9,093.43
Pancake Sale Disbursements 3,299.81
NET INCOME $5.793.62
