I’m writing this after going to a bottle redemption place yesterday and having a cherub-faced Boy Scout ask me to donate my bottles to a Boy Scout drive. He got up from a seat, where he was sitting with an adult male and another boy. My response was, “Not today.”

As I backed up to leave, I opened my window and addressed the adult male. I said, “No offense, but I’m tired of young people begging for money or contributions. These kids are outside of Wal-Mart, at the dump and now here. Why don’t you have the kids earn money instead of begging for it?”

My comments fell on deaf ears, as I watched the Scout approach yet another customer.

If the school programs need more money, then have more fund-raisers instead of instilling in the kids that it is OK to ask for money for nothing. These programs could have a list of what they could do in the neighborhood. Anything from raking leaves, plowing snow, painting, dog-sitting, mowing, car washing, whatever.

It comes down to begging at the dump, at Wal-Mart and at the redemption store – with the endorsement of the parents. If they want to set up a bin at the dump for bottles for a drive, they would have my blessing. But personally confronting people, to make them feel guilty or obliged, is not only bad taste, it is instilling the wrong message in our young folks.

Christina M. Kelly, Poland

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