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The scouts put the finishing touches on the baskets before presenting them to the families.

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The scouts joined representatives of the Christian Service Center during the presentation.

Cub Scout Pack 85 collects, gives Thanksgiving baskets to families in Abbeville

Thanks to a dozen local Cub Scouts, 12 families in Vermilion Parish will have a Thanksgiving meal.
Scouts with Pack 85 recently collected food and other items needed to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. The scouts presented the families with the baskets Monday evening in Abbeville.
The pack worked with the St. Mary Magdalen Christian Service Center to identify the families in need of the baskets.
“This is a great project,” Pack 85 leader Sherry Brasseaux said with a huge smile. “We collected about a ton of food.
“It took two trucks to get it all here.”
This is the second straight year the scouts, who range from ages 7 to 12, have collected food to create the baskets.
“We did five families last year,” Brasseaux said. “This year we moved it up to 12. The boys were so excited by it, they wanted to do more this year.
“Next year we are going to try to get up to 25 or 30 families.”
Due to the scouts’ excitement, the project came together quickly.
“We had a den meeting and I gave the boys a list of what needed to be collect,” Brasseaux explained. “That was on a Thursday. By our next meeting on the following Monday, everybody brought their stuff.
“They were really excited.”
The project falls in line with the theme that the Pack 85 leaders have set for the scouts this month.
“Thankful is our theme for the month,” Brasseaux said. “We believe in teaching them that being thankful is not always for what you get. It is what you give. There are a lot of people out there who don’t get much.”
Brasseaux said it is important to plant that seed at a young age.
“It touches your heart that it is children doing this,” Brasseaux said. “We put it on them and they responded.”
Deacon Randy Hyde said the young scouts are setting a great example of charity.
“Everyone in Vermilion Parish needs to catch this,” Hyde said of the scouts enthusiasm for giving.”
And it was not simply giving. The scouts had an opportunity to meet each of the families to whom they were assigned.
“We made each of the families an invitation card with a nice Thanksgiving prayer,” Brasseaux said. “Each of our 12 scouts met their family.
“This made it a real personal experience for our scouts.”
Again, Brasseaux said she hopes this is an experience the scouts carry with them well into their adult years.
“This is so exciting seeing these kids doing this,” Brasseaux said. “We are teaching them.”

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