Zach inspects the clean office trailers and the newly painted bench at the Racetrack. Troop 55 Eagle Scout Candidate Zach LaRose is reaching out to the Garden City community to find school supply donations for needy children of Backstretch workers at Belmont Racetrack. Through the Racetrack Ministry at Belmont, Zach's Eagle project includes finding school supplies for 200 children ages preschool to high school. These children have a parent that is employed in a low paying job at Belmont racetrack as a backstretch worker. Many of these children can't complete their homework assignments for lack of a scientific calculator for math or notebook and paper to write an essay. Zach is asking Garden City families to donate the following items to help these children succeed in school with the equipment they need!

Please donate: Black and white notebooks, spiral notebooks, multi-colored binders, loose-leaf paper, boxes of pens, boxes of pencils, soft pencil cases, erasers, glue bottles or glue sticks, colored markers, colored pencils, TI-32 scientific calculators, plastic folders, rulers, protractors, and mathematic compasses.

The finishing crew show off the day's efforts at the front entrance of Anna's House at Belmont. In addition, the racetrack workers are up early at daybreak to help the horses. They are in need of fall jackets and sweatshirts in Adult men's sizes to keep warm. Donations of gently used jackets are being accepted by Zach and delivered promptly to Belmont for the workers to keep warm.

Recently Zach and Troop 55 Scouts completed a work day at Belmont Racetrack helping the Racetrack Ministry Chaplain's office and Anna's House Preschool. Anna's House provides day care for the children of parents who work early morning hours and long days. The Scouts arrived early on a day off of school and volunteered their time to power wash the Belmont Racetrack Ministry office trailers, scrubbing the Ministry vans, cleaning Anna's House storage and front entrance. In addition the crew weeded the parking lots at both sites at Belmont.

Scouts planted fall mums outside the preschool entrance in large containers, giving Anna's House a fresh fall appeal for the children and parents to enjoy. Zach supervised a crew of twenty-three volunteers, ages 10-16 years, for a total of 94 volunteer hours on his project so far. More work is being completed as the Scouts collect school supplies and jackets.

Garden City please join Zach and Troop 55 by donating school supplies and jackets. Boxes for donations are located at the Garden City High School by the front office. Gift cards to Target, Walmart or Staples can also be donated (many teens need calculators for homework).