Door to Door - Local Scouts Ready to Do a Good Turn
February 10, 2010
Very soon, the country’s largest door-to-door donation drive will be coming to your community. This Saturday, March 6th is Good Turn Day (GTD). In 1951, East Portland Rotarians started GTD to help Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette at the time when donations were the slowest. Today, with the extraordinary aid of area Boy Scouts, GTD has been a celebrated success for 59 years!
Here’s how the volunteer-fueled event happens:
- The week prior to GTD, Scouts deliver empty collection bags to area community neighborhoods in 25 Oregon and SW Washington counties.
- Then, on GTD, hundreds of boys, some as young as 6-years-old, come back to retrieve the now filled donations bags left on home porches throughout the Pacific Northwest.
- Scout leaders and parents deliver the donation bags to 95 drop-off sites. The busiest sites are manned all day by East Portland Rotarians.
- And lastly, traversing some 3,800 Oregon and SW Washington miles -- volunteer truckers deliver their cargo to Goodwill stores brimming with precious household goods.
Last year this event brought in nearly 18,000 bags (that’s more than 230,000 pounds) to area Goodwill store locations. More than ninety-two cents of every dollar received from the sale of donations go directly towards the training and employment of people with barriers to employment. Locally, more than 23,000 people were served last year.
For more information call Jeff Aradine, Boy Scout Good Turn Day Program Director at 503-706-1824 or Goodwill’s Dale Emanuel at 503-572-0177.