After the tornadoes hit Elkhart County on June 11, 2026, Gymtown Food Pantry sent out an email asking for volunteers to help pack food boxes for distribution to residents without power, and they needed people that day. Annie Alvarado, leader of Cub Scout Pack 797, forwarded a simple message to her pack families: if you can, show up.
Annie and her young son joined the effort, helping pack roughly 50 boxes of food that first afternoon. When a second packing session was organized a few days later, more Cub Scouts arrived, and the group packed 250 boxes. The boxes were loaded into cars and distributed to food pantries and community partners serving families who had lost everything in their refrigerators when the power went out.
Cub Scouts Pack 797 draws kids from kindergarten through fifth grade and includes some of the youngest volunteers in Elkhart County. Easy to underestimate, their leader says. But ask around at local nonprofits, and you’ll hear the same thing: small, but mighty.
A Cub Scout Pack that Puts Service Into Action
Pack 797, originally chartered by Saint Vincent de Paul School, was revived in 2023. Annie had no scouting experience when her son asked to join. When the intended Cubmaster stepped away shortly after eight excited kids had registered, she became the leader of the pack, which is almost entirely Hispanic. It has grown to more than 20 scouts and now calls the Elkhart Conservation Club home.
Service has always been at the heart of the pack’s mission. The scout promise is that a scout is helpful, kind, and is there when someone needs them. Annie believes this promise only means something if the kids put it into action.
In their first year together, the scouts collected about 700 pounds of food for a local food pantry. They have packed meals with Cultivate Food Rescue, removed invasive species at Ox Bow Park in Elkhart, maintained trails at the conservation club, and collected and donated stuffed animals to the Elkhart Fire Department for children in stressful situations, an effort that earned the pack the Messengers of Peace scouting award. For Annie, the mix of activities matters as much as any single project. Every new kind of service is a chance for a scout to discover something they love doing for other people, and to carry that discovery with them as they grow.
Helping the Community Recover from Disaster
The boxes the scouts packed in the wake of the Elkhart tornadoes were part of a larger coordinated response. Through the Elkhart County COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster), Acts of Service worked with Welch Packaging to procure 500 boxes. The Hunger Ends Here initiative, which includes Gymtown Food Pantry and Cultivate Food Rescue, organized volunteers. Boxes were distributed at Cultivate’s facility. Additional boxes went to Middlebury Food Pantry, whose volunteers delivered them directly to residents.
Thanks to dozens of hands, some of them very small, hundreds of families received food within days of the storm. The scouts were part of a chain of neighbors helping neighbors that stretched across the county.
Their service did not stop there. A few weeks later, when an earthquake devastated areas of Venezuela, the scouts joined a local relief drive, sorting and packing donations until a full flatbed truck was ready to ship.
What Volunteerism Teaches Young Kids
People don’t picture children as volunteers. And there are actual limits to the activities an elementary-age child can safely do. But Pack 797 shows that when kids are given age-appropriate ways to help, they show up, they work hard, and they come back asking to do more. Annie says her scouts are always the first to ask how they can help, and that the habit of service will shape who they become as adults.
“They are tiny, but they are mighty. They can do amazing things, and I know so many times people think they are just little kids. They are kindergarten through fifth grade. That’s too young. No, these kids can do amazing things, and these kids are going to be the leaders of the future. And these kids are learning how to be servant leaders. This is how you teach them.”
Annie Alvarado
Volunteering at a young age teaches community, empathy, and what it means to be a good neighbor. For these scouts, service is something they practice with their own hands.
Families interested in joining Pack 797 can contact Annie at anniepack797@gmail.com and follow along on Facebook.
To find volunteer opportunities for your family, organization, or business in Elkhart County, visit actsofservice.com.
