For the first time in eight years, the Utah National Guard didn't help collect food for the local Boy Scouts' annual Scouting for Food project, and it turns out it didn't matter.
The federal government shutdown and the furlough of its workers due to the spending impasse kept the guard's trucks unused this Saturday, but an outbreak of good will from numerous private companies and public entities kept the drive going - and then some.Joseph Hawkes, the senior district executive for the Trapper Trails Council of the Boy Scouts, said the Utah National Guard called last week and said it wouldn't be providing trucks. The drive, a critical source for food banks in Box Elder, Davis, Weber and Morgan counties, until this year depended on the Guard to transport the 120 tons of canned food collected each year. The drive involves an estimated 20,000 Boy Scouts in northern Utah, southern Idaho and Wyoming.
Al Sonnenburg, program director for the council, said he and the agencies that get the food were scrambling for trucks late last week. Fourteen usually are needed, but as of Friday only four were ready - two each from the Salvation Army and the Ogden Rescue Mission.
But media attention to the Scouts' plight brought calls to help. Hill Air Force Base, Smith's, England Trucking, Pride Transportation, Anderson Lumber and the Ogden/Weber Technological Center were among companies offering trucks and manpower. The Ogden/Weber/Box Elder area wound up with 16 trucks, with five more in Cache County, and the council had city/county and LDS Church trucks standing by in case it needed them.
"They really came through strong," Sonnenburg said. "We really had a lot of support."
After wondering whether he would be able to gather anything near the council's goal of 120 tons, Sonnenburg reported Monday the Scouts had far exceeded the goal by gathering close to 150 tons.
"It really came out well," he said.
Doug Larkin, battalion property book officer for the Utah National Guard's 145th Field Artillery, said the Guard would have liked nothing better than to transport the food as it had in the past, but simply couldn't.
While active duty military personnel weren't affected by the shutdown, the National Guard was. Its members were on inactive status, Larkin said, so the federal shutdown stopped their regular weekend drills and training.
He couldn't let volunteers drive the trucks for free, he said.