Good News Notes:

“Some may argue it’s a little too soon to take down those Christmas trees, but thousands of Omahans and Lincolnites are already signed up to have theirs collected.

“We have our annual Scouting for Trees service project where we pick up trees,” says Matthew McConnell, the senior patrol leader for Omaha Boy Scout Troop 282.

Beginning Sunday, the troop is once again going door to door collecting trees to take them to be recycled.

“This year, we’re doing around 7,000 trees,” McConnell says.

But before the troop starts picking up your trees, they’re picking up the ones that weren’t bought.

“Today we picked them up from Lowes and the other hardware stores, some of them we’re bringing here to theHenry Doorly Zoo to drop them off for the animals for their habitat, or food or toys, whatever they want to use them for,” he says.

More than a dozen members of the troop delivered close to 100 trees to the zoo Sunday.

This is the 24th year of the Scouting for Trees project, and it’s the largest service project of the year for them.

“The scouts will get at least, I mean if they show up every day, they can get hours upon hours of community service, and it’s all about giving back to the community,” says Patrick Borg, a scoutmaster for the troop.

“It feels really good to be able to help the community with the trees, take them from the homes or when the stores don’t sell them,” 15-year-old Millard West student McConnell says. “It’s nice to be able to take them to the zoo cause we get to see the animals enjoying them, it’s just a really good feeling.”

Just like bottles or cans, these scouts say Christmas trees are easy to recycle and repurpose, and that anyone can do it.

“When we recycle them, we keep them out of the landfills, because when they’re in the landfills they don’t decompose well,” says McConnell…..”

View the whole story here: https://www.wowt.com/2021/12/27/boy-scout-troop-collecting-recycling-christmas-trees-helping-feed-omaha-zoo-animals/