Spring cleaning isn’t just for houses anymore.

Soap suds, sponges and plenty of elbow grease featured prominently at the Smith Mills Church parking lot on Saturday, May 15 as residents came out to get their cars cleaned in support of Dartmouth’s Scout Troop 74.

Kids in red troop T-shirts scrubbed cars using pails of soapy water, hoses, and mops, shooting each other with water and hollering with excitement when a particularly dirty vehicle rolled through.

“They love a challenge,” said Scoutmaster George Ripley with a grin. 

Troop Committee Chair Douglas D’Atri said that funds from the car wash will go towards adventure outings for the scouts, who went mostly without their typical outdoor activities last year.

“It’s been very difficult with the Covid, we haven’t been able to do much of anything,” he noted. “But now that things are opening up, we’re really trying to plan some exciting activities for the boys.”

“This is the money that we use to provide them the equipment, the gear, and try to offset the costs as much as we can for the trips that we do,” he added.

The Scout troop normally goes on camping, canoeing, or backpacking trips throughout the year.

“Before Covid, we were actually literally on the verge of going down to Washington, D.C. for a week,” said D’Atri.

Ripley said that last year the scouts couldn’t even use their own campgrounds. “It’s kind of been a bummer,” he said.

Now that restrictions are loosening and activities opening up again, the troop leaders are already planning a few trips.

Next month, they’re taking the scouts to an adventure camp in Milton, which has daylong programs for kids and families, with hiking, archery, swimming, canoeing, and other outdoor activities. They’re also hoping to do a whitewater rafting trip in the fall.

But it’s not all fun and games.

Scouts from the troop have built a flag box for Town Hall and helped the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust build fences and boardwalks for their trails, among other service projects.

“We’ve done tremendous things in the community,” said Ripley.

And the community returned the favor. At Saturday’s car wash, D’Atri said the turnout was “excellent.”

He added that they couldn’t do what they do without help from volunteers like Nelson Amaral and Cory Ferreira, noting that anyone who wants to help out is welcome to sign up.

“The more volunteers, the merrier!”