Cub Scouts and Soccer Club Join Forces! Collaboration is Key to Hopewell’s Success!

There’s something special that happens when local youth organizations come together with a shared purpose—especially when that purpose is building a better Hopewell. This spring, two of our community’s most impactful groups, Boy Scouts Pack 435 and the Hopewell Soccer Club, teamed up in a project that blended teamwork, service, and hands-on learning. By combining the leadership and values of scouting with the energy and camaraderie of youth sports, these clubs proved that when we work together, even small actions can lead to meaningful change for the entire community.

Hopewell Sports Nation spoke to Mike Bialowas, Den Leader of Pack 435, regarding the project they executed for our local Hopewell Soccer Club. “Our den, “The Bears” has to complete so many requirements and electives during a scouting year to continue to rank up. Myself and the other Bear Den leader, Jason Swenson, want the ‘adventures’ to be fun, but equally important to us, and to be relevant.  We started working with the Bear Den on the our scout requirement “Paws for Action” and the elective “Baloo the Builder”. The goal for the Paws for Action, in pertinent part, is about how communities come together to help solve problems they are facing. The goal of the elective Baloo the builder is to expose the cub scouts to understanding that building things can not only be fun, but useful. The elective requires the scouts to build something out of wood that is useful.”

“During general discussions, we realized over half of the Bear Den are currently, or had been soccer players down at the fields.  We’ve all had those unfortunate evenings of heavy bug and mosquito activity during the games and practices. After many conversations we believed we could support in a meaningful way. Our idea was that bat boxes may be a useful project for everyone involved and help us to meet some of our requirements.”  We did some research on the matter before presenting it to the Hopewell Soccer Club and during our online searches we found that, Bat boxes, or bat houses, are artificial roosts designed to provide bats with safe and suitable places to roost, especially in areas where natural roosting sites are scarce or declining, supporting bat conservation efforts. This project could serve multiple purposes, bat conservation, insect reduction at the Soccer fields, and a learning experience for our scouts.

“We brought the idea up to The Hopewell Soccer Club and they were incredibly supportive of the idea. The club helped us work through the barriers to get this project up and started. Over the past several weeks, the Cub Scouts (with appropriate supervision) have been building the bat boxes, quite successfully. Mixing their love of sports and the scouting program has been a truly unique experience for the scouts.  We are hopeful the bat boxes are painted and hung in the next couple weeks. Weather has delayed getting some of the brackets being installed.  We’re proud of the cub scouts both on and off the field and hope the bat boxes are a small reminder of the positive outcomes that come from organizations working together to benefit their community.”

The Hopewell Cub Scout Pack 435 would like to thank the Hopewell Soccer Club for this amazing partnership. As well as Hopewell Sports Nation for constantly displaying the many positive stories in our Community that help bring us together as one town with a common goal. – Mike Bialowas, Den Leader Pack 435

Hopewell Sports Nation also had a conversation with The Hopewell Soccer Clubs President Ryan Pistorius, who was very supportive of this initiative and working together with the Hopewell Pack 435.   Ryan’s views on the mosquitos were clear, “Anyone who has attended a late evening practice in the spring at the Hopewell Soccer Club fields could attest that we have had a mosquito and midge issue for a long time, with the proximity to Raccoon Creek and the high water table below our fields. So much so that the Beaver County Conservation District uses our fields as one of their mosquito testing spots for West Nile virus. In attempts to alleviate the number of these insects, we found that there aren’t really any viable options with insecticides for an open field as large as we have. In researching alternative methods, it was clear that the best natural way to help was in having more bats around, which eat both mosquitoes and midges. With the number of kids in our program (almost 400 this season!), we have overlap with basically every organization in the area, and have always had a handful of players and coaches who are also Cub Scouts or Cub Scout leaders. Having a child go through the Cub Scouts and being a former scout leader myself, we thought it would be a great opportunity to work with Pack 435 to fulfill their requirement to do a carpentry project, instead of buying something online to use. We are extremely grateful for their willingness to work with us. The end product looks better than expected and we are excited to see them installed and hope it doesn’t take long for bats to find and inhabit them.”

Hopewell Sports Nation is very thankful to be a part of such an amazing town and group of people. Thank you to the Hopewell Cub Scout Pack 435 and the Hopewell Soccer Club for allowing us the opportunity to share your story. The comradery and partnership across multiple organizations is admirable and you have set the bar!

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