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UD freshman wins national recognition for community service
Sweeney is one of only five young adults chosen nationwide to receive a 2005 National Caring Award and scholarship from the Caring Institute and one of 10 to receive a $5,000 Yoshiyama Award for Exemplary Service to the Community from the Hitachi Foundation. The National Caring award is given to five persons from 9 to 99 years old who best personify caring and would be worthy role model for others. The Yoshiyama Award goes to 10 high school seniors across the nation based upon service to the community, the opportunity for longer-term social change and the relevance of these activities to addressing profound community and societal problems. “I’m really happy about it. It feels really good, but there were a lot of other people who helped,” Sweeney said. “There were times when I thought about quitting, but someone would always step forward and offer help.” Pack 506 began when Sweeney was 12. His brother Matt’s Eagle Scout project involved Scouts reading to children in Ministry of Caring homeless shelters and then presenting the children with the books. When Sweeney saw the children in the shelters, most of whom came from single-parent families with no male role model, and heard someone say what great role models the Scouts made for the boys, he said he thought it would be a good idea to start a Cub Scout pack for them so they could interact with men who could serve as positive role models. He approached Brother Ronald Giannone, director of the Ministry of Caring in Wilmington, who thought it was a great idea and let Sweeney run with it. Giannone gave him a $200 budget and a meeting place and asked a volunteer to place ads in church bulletins. At 12, Sweeney was able to pull together the people and resources needed to start Pack 506, that today serves 16 to 18 homeless boys. “For most of them, it is the only thing they can count on in their lives. It gives them consistency,” Sweeney said. He met with Scouting officials, contacted shelter directors and placed ads to recruit volunteers. He also convinced the company that printed his Boy Scout troop's camp T-shirts to donate shirts for Pack 506. In order for the boys to go to summer Scouting camp, Sweeney helped the families apply for Boy Scout Council scholarships. When he learned that the boys were often required to attend summer school, he started a free tutoring service allowing four boys to go to camp instead of summer school in 2004. Because a lack of transportation kept many boys from regularly attending Pack meetings, Sweeney secured funds from a foundation to rent a van and organized a Pack library so Scouts could have access to reading materials. Now Cub Scout Pack 506 has 12 volunteers and more than 100 homeless boys have become Cub Scouts. As a result of this program, several Eagle Scout candidates are planning projects with homeless children; the Girl Scouts are currently discussing a Brownie unit that will serve homeless girls; a local community college group has offered to help Scout families when they make the transition into permanent housing; and the Knights of Columbus has offered to serve as mentors to the Cub Scouts. Sweeney’s mother, Kathy Canavan, a part-time editor in UD’s Office of Public Relations, said she believes it was his grandmother who inspired him. “Greg's late grandmother, who lived with us, was paralyzed on one side of her body, but she still volunteered for the Ministry of Caring, just as many poor and handicapped people do. I think they all inspired Greg to think that big things can happen if everybody does a little,” she said. Canavan said Hiatachi wants to bring their 10 award winners together again next year, with the hope that they'll become friends and advisors to each other. “I'm elated that he'll be meeting nine other students from across the country who are thinking along the same lines,” she said. Article by Barbara Garrison To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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