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A troop of scouts gets a major donation after their trailer is stolen

Posted at 4:18 PM, Oct 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-28 17:38:34-04

A 7 Action News viewer decided to donate a trailer to a scout troop in need after watching our news report.

The scouts, a mix of Trail Life and Boy Scouts, kept their trailer stored at the Warren Woods Baptist Church in Warren.  It was stolen sometime during overnight and early morning hours on Thursday.  It kept all of the scouts cooking, camping, first aid gear and more, gathered over the last 11 years.

Bob Spurgeon, one of the co-owners of Clyde’s Frame and Wheel in Pontiac was watching the story here on channel 7 and decided to pitch in.

"We see this this morning and I talk to my brother Gary here and decided to help the boy scouts, he and I were both in the Boy Scouts, our kids were in Boy Scouts,” said Spurgeon.

He said the family is business is well established, so it wouldn’t be a big burden on them and he knew they had just the kind of trailers the scouts needed.

"It's just a great thing to help and give back to the community as far as I'm concerned,” said Spurgeon.

The scouts and their troop leaders got the news Friday morning.

"It's been a very emotional day for me just to see all the strangers and the community come together and rally around these boys,” said Phil Beauchamp, the troop leader.

Friday night, the scouts are leaving for one of their most anticipated camping trips of the year, and they were going to try to piece together the trip, even without their trusty trailer.

"It's our annual cooking campout, we actually have a cooking competition between the sub groups of the troops, these guys don't just make hot dogs, we're making ribs, briskets, pizza, all kinds of things over camp stoves." 
Now, due to the kindness of others they are all set.

”We’re definitely not going to need anything this weekend, we just thank everybody for making this happen,” said Beauchamp.

"To me this is a picture of what Trail Life and Boy Scouts is all about, it's the community gathering together to help each other out,” said Michael Pement, a scout.