Raking Leaves

Our Girl Scout Troop is working on their Silver Award by helping Seniors.  The girls sent out flyers to some of the elderly neighbors to see if they could rake leaves for them.  They were trying to get more than an hour of service in one leaf raking session.  Luckily, Bella's Grandma came through and set us up with a couple of yards to rake.

The girls brought their rakes and we walked over to the first house.  The owner (at the first house) gave instructions on where the leaves are to be moved.  Half of the girls jumped right in and started raking leaves.

I walked the other half of the troop down to the second house.  The girls stopped and just looked around.  I told them we could rake the leaves to the curb.  I got some stares and then it hit me.  These girls don't know how to rake leaves!

I asked if they have raked leaves before today.  All three of them said no.  So, I had to give them a crash course on leaf raking.  Also known as, Leaf Raking 101.

This made me a little sad.

I thought a big (fun) part of childhood was to rake a HUGE pile of leaves and jump into it?  The not so fun part:  it was also a chore that a lot of us had to do in the fall.  Growing up, we had a HUGE backyard with lots and lots of leaves.  Because our yard was so large, my Dad bought a leaf sweeper.  It was human powered.  You push it and it sweeps the leaves into a collection bag.  To empty the bag, we had to dump it into a pile in the back yard (my Dad's compost pile).  It was difficult to empty (when I was younger), but, it was still a lot of fun to push around the yard.  Since we, and the rest of the neighborhood, thought it was so much fun to use, I'm sure my Dad thought it was the best investment ever.  We all fought over who would get to sweep the leaves.

I'm not sure that our leaf raking session brought that kind of fun.  We did play some music and the girls danced as they raked the leaves.  They were raking the leaves for someone else (can be considered a Random Act of Kindness).  Hopefully this will be a positive, happy memory for them.