My Unofficial Girl Scout Cookie Badge

I was never a scout... at least, not officially. As a dutiful older brother, I helped my sister sell girl scout cookies (and eat them) when she was younger. As a dutiful older "Uncle", I help certain denizens of The Beach sell girl scout cookies (and eat them) here at work and elsewhere. All told, without any actual figures in front of me (like the U.S. Intelligence Community), I calculate that I've probably sold close to 20,000,000 boxes of girl scout cookies in my life time. And I've never once earned a Girl Scout Cookie Badge. I'm not lobbying for this honor... I'm just saying... I'm not sure what the cutoff is for earning your badge, but I think I've probably earned my badge by now.

I was watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which, quite frankly, needs a title change since most people don't even remember the rather creepy Extreme Makeover upon which the title is based. Anyway, there was a scene in this week's episode where one of the designers turned up at a local school to help out a bunch of kids who were volunteering to clean up the school. My initial thought was, "What a bunch of nerds and extra-credit seekers! In the old days, the trouble-makers would have been forced to come in on their weekend and clean up the yard and the grafitti and their parents would have gladly seen that their youngsters complied with the "forced" labor because a) it would have gotten the trouble makers out of the house for a Saturday morning and afternoon, and b) a little hard work gives character. But now..."

I'm not quite sure when volunteerism was needed to get things like this done. I don't ever remember "volunteering" for anything when I was in grade school or Jr. High. I remember a vice-principal getting a bunch of us sixth graders to clean up the yard one class period in exchange for those "good citizenship" awards that usually came with free Giants Tickets, but we did that for obvious reasons (and we also got out of class for an hour ;) Then again, as bad as people complained back then about school budgets, there was usually money around to keep schools clean.

Nowadays, volunteerism is a requirement - which is a way, I think, to teach children the concept of an oxymoron. Most high school students must do a certain number of volunteer hours before they can graduate. I'm not sure if this is a teaching thing or simply a means to instill morality in our youth. The fact of the matter is that most kids end up doing the volunteer thing on their own - and I would venture to say that most youths are better at volunteering their time than most adults. This can only be good for our world, either way, but I find it oddly unpleasant to suggest that people MUST volunteer to help others less fortunate than themselves.

As adults we should set clear examples for our children that volunteerism isn't anything showy or flashy or something to be praised, but that it should be like cleaning your room, or washing the dishes, or doing our homework - something that needs to be done, no questions asked, and no rewards given.

Okay, maybe one award... something small, almost insignificant... a token really, a reminder of a job well done for, oh, say, twenty years of service and 2,000,000 boxes of cookies sold... something like a badge! ;)