Creativity, fun and lots of hard work all were part of a summer service project by three energetic teens from the West Bank. Maegan Guccione of Marrero, Ally Hoadley of Algiers and Mandy Cambre of Westwego put in more than 50 service hours this summer painting a flag mural for Cub Scout Pack 1101 and Westside Christian Church in Algiers. Pack 1101 Cubmaster Barry Donewar and Joe Bellanger, the church's charter representative, had been using a huge flag as a backdrop for pack ceremonies. When the church decided recently to renovate its youth activity center, members got the idea to paint a flag mural. "This is the original sanctuary, which was built 43 years ago," Bellanger said of the youth center. "When the new sanctuary was built, it became the youth activity room. We had lost a lot of our youth programs with the oil bust. Scouting was a great way to bring the youth back and rebuild the program. This is the first time in 20 years we have worked on this room." Normi Donewar, Barry's wife, had attended a Boy Scout day camp school in Texas and received various patches in a swap. The "America the Beautiful" patch from Day Camp Mustang 2000 was used as the design for the flag mural. Normi Donewar called Guccione, who had won art contests as a child, and asked her to do the project. Guccione asked her friends to help. "I didn't know how it would come out," Cambre said as she looked at photographs of the 9-foot-by-23-foot flag mural. "We had to draw the outline six times and stayed really late one night to get it done. It went from nothing to something."

The girls, who have been friends since they were 2 years old, also were busy this summer with other activities, including life-guarding, working at Camp Friendship for children with spina bifida, playing softball and just being teenagers. They fit the project in around their schedules and recruited others to help. Brothers, boyfriends and some of the Boy Scouts got their hands on the paint brushes. After their experience with the flag mural and the Cub Scout Pack, all three artists plan to join the Boy Scout Venturing group on the West Bank. Venturing offers fun challenges for young men and women 14 to 20 years old. There are sports, arts and hobbies, youth ministries and Sea Scouting crews. The purpose is to provide positive experiences to help young people mature and prepare them to become responsible and caring adults, Boy Scout officials say. Each Venturing program is tailored to the unique and dynamic relationship between youth participants, adults leaders and the community. "I always wanted to do it, and was excited I can do it without my little brother," said Guccione, who swims competitively, runs track and dances at her aunt's studio, Dana's Dance Co., with Hoadley and Cambre. Cub Scout Pack 1101, organized last fall, has 12 members and is chartered by Westside Christian Church. The pack got its first glimpse of the flag mural and took photographs with it during the Cub Rain Gutter Regatta this summer. The Cubs helped paint the other three walls in the activity room. "I hope the flag itself serves as a reminder to adults and Scouts in years to come to the responsibilities to God, our country and others," Barry Donewar said. "These are the basics Scouting was founded upon."