Evanston Cub Scouts will do their part this weekend to help women fleeing abusive relationships feel more secure.

Cub Scout packs from nine local suburbs will hold their annual Klondike Derby, a one-day competitive event featuring outdoor fun and community service, Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Skokie’s Harms Woods Forest Preserve. As part of the event’s recycling theme, Cubs will bring used cell phones, cans of food and old eyeglasses or sunglasses to donate.

“We’re trying to get the boys to have a taste for community service,” said J. Kevin Chapman, assistant Cub Master for Pack 154, an umbrella group composed of North Shore scouting chapters.

The Cub Scouts are collecting cell phones, which will be donated to the Wireless Foundation’s Call to Protect, a program that distributes old cell phones to victims of domestic violence. Call to Protect reprograms the phones to dial only 911 and one non-emergency number and provides free airtime. The phones are given to domestic violence shelters and law enforcement agencies, which distribute phones to women who are transitioning from living with an abusive partner to being on their own.

“I was looking for other ways of bringing home the concept of recycling,” said David Kite, the Klondike’s chairman. “It’s the first time we’ve attempted a scouting good turn on this scale.”

Kite and his wife already have collected more than 40 phones. They hope to collect 75 to 100 by the end of the event, which as many as 500 Cub Scouts and parents are expected to attend.

Kite and Chapman think the event will instill a sense of leadership and community in the children.

“We’re combining the fun with a sense of community service,” Chapman said.