Community Corner
Briarcliff Boy Scouts Wash Cars for a Cause
Boy Scout Troop 534 uses popular car washes to raise money for camping trips and other fun times.
Boy Scout Troop 534, which meets at Briarcliff United Methodist Church every Monday at 7:30 p.m., recently held a car wash in the church parking lot to help raise money for camping trips and other excursions.
The boys paid great attention to detail in their washing, soaping up the cars, rinsing them twice and towel drying them, even washing the tire wheels and often spraying one another with the hose because it was a typically hot August day.
Troop 534 is diverse and includes members from all over the area: homeschooled kids as well as students from Sophia Academy, Chamblee Middle, Henderson Mill Middle and Druid Hills Middle.
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“The boys pay for their own camp,” said Rita Nelson, who has a son, Ryan, in Troop 534 and first joined the troop about seven years ago. The troop does things like canoeing, rock climbing, whitewater rafting and high adventure trips, according to Ryan. Often these trips also allow the scouts to earn merit badges.
“They’re all expensive things these boys like to do,” Rita Nelson said. “We had a lot of money for a while and then the money kind of dwindled away.”
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Whenever scouts present plans for camping trips or other excursions, they also need to estimate the cost of the trip and try to figure out how to make the money.
“As adults, we try to phrase everything in the form of a Jeopardy question. We don’t tell them what to do. We try to guide them,” Nelson said.
One way to get money that has been very effective for Troop 534 is the car wash. Nelson said that the last two car washes each made more than $600 for the troop and she felt like this one would be good too. She also provides food for the car washes, making donuts and hot dogs on an outdoor stove at the church and supplementing that with chips, cookies, lots of cold water and lemonade donated by other parents.
“The hard part is getting the boys out here and getting them working,” she said.
Another popular fundraiser Troop 534 holds is an annual pumpkin sale, also at Briarcliff United Methodist. Nelson said the first pumpkin delivery for that should be at the beginning of October.