Cards on the table. I was a Boy Scout for about two years, Troop 95 in Colonie. I didn’t get past Tenderfoot, but I did earn at least one merit badge (Music) and two belt-buckle achievement awards, and spent several weekend campouts at Stratton Mountain. Scouting wasn’t for me, although it did offer me a respite from my family. I guess I got sent on one too many campground left-handed-screwdriver search missions before I decided Scouting and I should part ways.
However, my experience with Scouting should not dissuade young men and women from participating in Scouting activities. In a time where kids grow up without a true direction or cause, Scouting gives them the opportunity to learn life skills and advance their intellectual capacities. Forget about the jokes regarding how learning how to tie 30 different knots will help you in the bedroom; those rope-tying tricks will keep your sailboat moored to the dock; it will keep your cargo tethered to your truck bed; and it will keep your life tethered to your goals and ambitions. You learn zen-like traits with Scouting with skills like “totin’ chip” (which I always misheard as “totemship,” as in the tools needed to build a totem pole) – if someone hands you a tool, such as a knife or a pair of scissors, they hand it to you so your touch the handle first; once you have it gripped safely, you say “thank you” and he releases the tool. That way you don’t get handed a knife blade-first and cut yourself, or drop the knife and it lands on your friend’s leg.
My trivia teammate Jeremy McNamara was a Scout – I think he made it to either Star or Life level, which is just below the coveted Eagle Scout designation. In fact, the roster of Eagle Scouts includes such diverse notables as directors Steven Spielberg and Michael Moore; NFL coaches Ken Whisenhut and Chan Gailey; astronaut Neil Armstrong; Napoleon Dynamite creator Jon Heder; Get Smart producer Sheldon Leonard; Twin Peaks creator David Lynch; and President Gerald Ford (along with candidates Michael Dukakis, H. Ross Perot and Richard Gephardt, and Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen).
Not to be outdone, the Girl Scouts have a designation for their highest achievement, the Gold Award. Less than 5% of all Girl Scouts earn this coveted designation; many of those recipients also become pillars of industry and education.
For this blog post, I want you to respond back with the following.
1. Were you or any of your family members involved in Scouting, either with the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts?
2. If so, what was the highest rank achieved?
3. What do you remember about your time in the Scouts?
4. Where do you think Scouting fits in our society today – are there opportunities for improvement within the scouting ranks, or do you think that more families today should get their kids involved in Scouting activities?
5. What is the one thing you will always take with you through your life that you learned as a Scout?
With that in mind… let the blog responses begin.
Chuck The Writer 
I was a girl scout for two years then moved onto 4-H. It was awesome to belong with a great group of girls and a leader that cared for us.
My son is now going into Webelo 2 and hes just loved the badges and the field trips we have taken.
Scouting teaches individually and team .. its something that is so needed for the kids of today .. theres nothing they can could that would not lead them to feeling better about themselves.
I was also a den leader for scouts long ago and tried hard to teach them what i learned in scouting .. 3 boys meant the world to me and i believe i encouraged them to go a little bit further in their thinking and to always attempt new things with a smile.
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My daughter was a Girl Scout and earned her Silver Award — the second highest honor in Girl Scouts. It was a lot of work that she and her 3 fellow scouts spent a summer doing (between 9th & 10th grade) which burned them out. They continued thru high school, and 2 girls earned scholarships to college based on their scouting years, grades in school and volunteer work.
It was a great experience as a younger scout, but as she got older, between school work and working a job, Scouting fell to the back. There are plenty of girls that do put Scouting first, but my daughter and the 4 other girls in her troop were just too busy with other things to earn their Gold Award.
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Although it was many years ago, I fondly remember both the Brownies and Girl Scouts! I don’t remember a specific rank, but I know my sash had plenty of merit badges. One of the leaders, Mrs. Lord, was excellent at keeping everyone involved and interested. I can attribute my life long love of arts and crafts to her teachings. I learned to sew by hand when we made
pads for cancer patients. I learned to knit when we made baby blankets for premies. My first camera was a Brownie, and that garnered a nature siting badge. I fondly remember
my first lessons in dealing with the public: impulse buying, accounting, and customer service—yes, I sold Girl Scout cookies! In those days (and in my small hometown) we safely sold
them door-to-door. I remember the selling aspect as FUN, but the delivery part was rather daunting!
One thing I didn’t enjoy–those yearly week long camping trips at Camp Tapawingo, near Plattsburg. Oh how I hated camp!! I didn’t like the fact that swimming was ONLY
30 minutes and we HAD to wear ugly yellow bathing caps. I didn’t like Snipe hunts, and I certainly hated the bats that swooped into our lean-to on a nightly basis! But, even with the downside, camp introduced me to new friends, thus teaching me poise and confidence.
Where do I think Scouting fits in our society today? Truthfully, and sadly, we don’t hear about Scouts today unless it’s a negative story about a Scout leader…or I see cookies being sold outside WalMart. I sincerely hope that Scouting isn’t a thing of the past. Maybe they should consider some positive advertising promotions…although finding a role model might be a bit of a challenge…. sports heroes who haven’t used steroids, actors & actresses who haven’t been arrested for DWI’s, politicians who actually pay taxes, but I digress!
Scouting for me was a very rewarding experience…even with those flying bats!!
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My dad was a Life scout before shipping off to Germany as part of the post-VE day occupation force. My brother and I were both Eagle scouts and my sons represent the third generation of Boy Scouts in our family (and I’m working with them on their advancement towards Eagle).
For me, scouting taught me how to work as a team while also learning to be self-reliant: we’d decide what needed to be done, make the assignments and we knew we could trust each other to get our component parts done correctly whether it was studying for merit badges, setting up camp, or planning and preparing meals.
Scouting remains a great experience for families: advancement, outdoor program, leadership provided by the boys under the guidance of the adults, etc. Many local districts anecdotally report an increased interest in the program, and the reports of declining membership since 1972 fail to mention the direct connection to birthrates falling since 1955 (a boy born in 1955 at the height of the baby-boomer generation would have been 17 in 1972 — the peak of scouting membership) so I’m not worried about scouting “going away”.
Families shouldn’t listen to scouting’s detractors without testing the waters for themselves — those who shout the loudest opinions often do so with no first hand experience. It’s easier to point out problems than to roll up sleeves and get involved to make it better!
Two lessons from scouting:
1)Scouting taught me that my honor (integrity) is worth protecting and when I do get upset, I actually think back to the ideals of the Scout Oath and Law to get back on track and let go of the emotion.
2)Scouting gave my dad an opportunity to be very involved in his son’s lives and he invested a lot of time with us through the program. When my older son wanted to play baseball, I wasn’t on the coaching staff, but attended every practice and every game — it wasn’t the same as the time we spend together in scouts. At little league I merely watched, in scouts we work on projects together, take hikes, and I get to know him better through those discussions. I’m not against sports, but I think dads have a different opportunity with their sons in scouting.
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My mother has over 35 years scouting experience my father about 10 and I have 22 years Scout experience and my son 2 years. I am a Gold Award Girl Scout and a life member,I am also a cub scout assistant leader. My most favorite memories are two of the most life changing events of my life one was my Gold Award project. I took sixteen intercity children from a local church and the J.R.O.T.C from my high school and taught them environmentally safe camping, that evening at the camp fire we did a flag retirement there was this wall of little and big faces all saluting the flag on it final path illuminated only by fire light it is a moment permanently engraved in my mind. The other is giving the pledge of allegiance and a speech in front of Former President Bush Sr. To be very honest I think that the best thing that scouts could do today is work more like a team I get told so very often that Boy scouts is not Girl Scouts the thing is the fundamental principals are the same they were born of the same movement their ground work is the same I know I have been registered in both. My Girl Scout Promise and Laws if there is a situation that I am having problems with I put it to them and one or more has the answer.
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My grandfather was in the Boy Scouts during the late 1920’s. I joined in ’91 when I was old enough. I achieved Eagle Scout in November of ’96. My project was refurbishing all the flag poles that had fallen into great disrepair at the veteran’s memorial in our local cemetery. I felt this was a great failure in many ways, especially since my aformentioned grandfather was a WWII Navy veteran who was buried there.
I remember most everything about my experiences. The campouts, the merit badges, the summer camps, the projects, the knots, the Scout Law, the Scout Oath, and accidentally burning down part of an overgrown corn field while trying to make a fire pit during a wilderness survival project. I think I still have the warning ticket I got at my home in North Carolina.
Where does it fit in today’s society? It’s a fit just like any private service minded organization. While I don’t agree with some of BSA’s policies, I respect them for the decisions. I most likely wouldn’t be allowed to join due to my current beliefs/mores, but they can’t take away my medal.
I will always have an unwavering belief in being fair and good to people, to help people when I can, and to be my own person. Plus, I can’t wait to teach my son some of the neat things I’ve learned. I won’t push him into scouting, but if he wants to join, I’d be glad to help him along.
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My oldest son completed his Eagle 2 years ago. My daughter just completed her Girl Scout Gold Award. My youngest son is in the process of finishing his paperwork for his Eagle and hopefully will have it in the next few weeks.
My father and two brothers were in Scouts but they did not get Eagle.My mother and I were Camp Fire girls.My Mom and Dad were also 4H leaders and until recently so was I (my kids were also enrolled it in.) I have been involved with Scouting for 14 years and have loved every minute of it.The things I value most are the same things upheld by both the BS and GS Law and the values that I have taught my children. My hope is that they will take the Scout journey with their children.It bothers me when parents take withhold Scout meetings as punishments for things the kids did wrong. Today’s society needs the positive values that Scouting upholds…perhaps if more parents and children were involved in Scouting, we might not have the negative statistics that we hear/read so much about in the news.
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