Crime & Safety

Cub Scouts Deal With Loss From the Fire

Members of Cub Scout Pack 290 are organizing community resources to help the family of a member who lost his sister.

"Shirts tucked in!" said Mark Eschen, Cubmaster for Cub Scout Pack 290, as he herded a group of eight ten-year-old boys into line formation on the driveway before a hanging American flag.

The boys had been running around the front yard jabbing each other energetically with toy swords a moment before, but quickly assembled in two neat lines, saluted and said the pledge of allegiance.  Then they put two fingers in the air and recited the Cub Scout promise.

"I promise
 to do my best to do my duty to God
 and my country,
 to help other people and 
to obey the law of the pack."

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The members of this den were meeting at the house of assistant den leader Alfonso Esqueda and his son, den member Marc.  The front yard looks directly onto the field behind John Muir Elementary School, where many of the scouts returned to their first day of school after the fire on Monday. 

By Tuesday evening, most of them knew that their John Muir classmate and fellow den member Isaiah Morales had lost his older sister, Jessica, in the fire.

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The adults involved in Pack 290 sprang into action after the fire, organizing local restaurants to host the Morales family for meals this week and promising to co-host the reception after next Monday's funeral.

Now Eschen wanted to talk to the kids.

"When you guys see Isaiah next, I want you guys to make sure you ask how he's doing and say you're sorry about his sister," Eschen said to the boys after he had gathered them in a circle on the grass.

The boys nodded solemnly, then waved their hands to talk about the fire.

"I had my mom's friends come to my house," said Nico.

"We had to evacuate, and we saw Nathan from our pack at the Embassy Suites Hotel," said Marc.

"My friend Isaac was evacuated," said Ryan.  "On Monday he was wearing all donation clothes.  I guess they lost a neighbor."

Eschen said he expected the boys to try to understand Isaiah's loss through their own experiences.

"That's the way at this age they connect to any experience," he said.  "It's what did they personally see or hear from friends and family."

The scouts will donate the proceeds of an upcoming bake sale and part of their popcorn sales to the Red Cross.


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