Boy Scouts get to work on protective masks

Boy Scout troops in the Theodore Roosevelt Council will be making face masks in a new effort to provide more personal protective gear to first responders and essential workers.

Hempstead Town officials supplied yards of cloth and elastic to the scouts this week, so they could get to work on making the masks, a project that will earn them a special commemorative coronavirus merit badge. Each volunteer scout will have enough materials to produce up to 100 masks.

Established in 1917, the Massapequa-based Theodore Roosevelt Council is one of the nation’s oldest local councils of the Boy Scouts of America. It is named after the former American president, who was a founding member of BSA.

“Thank you to the Theodore Roosevelt Council and to all of the local troops for volunteering their time to help out our first-responders and essential workforce,” Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin said in a town statement. “The personal protective equipment created by these scouts will go a long way in keeping our protectors safe.”