The Benefits of Boy Scouts
What I paid the most for was out there, down below my dangling feet and stretching far off into the distance.
The view was spectacular, I was sitting on a cliff at the top of a ridge line and eating with a couple of the others in my crew. We had huffed and puffed our way up to the top and we got to spend the time there eating and resting.
The site before us was a spectacular view of a ridge line along one side that we had been working on the day before and the plains that stretched for miles everywhere else. We could see a couple of plateaus in the distance and see the trails wind around them.
The second day of the trek we reached the summit of Baldy Mountain in New Mexico, just before a thunderstorm. We had all of fifteen minutes to take in the sites and then we saw the storm coming up at us from below the edge of the mountain.
We ran for the tree line, making it just before a lightning strike at the peak. Our hair stood on end as the lightning crackled, deafening us. And we laughed as we picked up our packs and headed down to camp.
And then when we had worked and toiled for several more days and finally reached base camp, we could go and receive our patch. A patch that said we had done our trek and hiked all those miles and camped out. We had an extra ordinarily good time. It is one of the best times of my life.
That was Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico, a high adventure camp run by the Boy Scouts of America.
A few years before this great adventure, I was asked if I would like to be staff at a Boy Scout summer camp near my home. I jumped at the chance. My brother had been one for several years before me and he said it was the most fun. I couldn’t wait.
At the end of the summer his camp was hurting for counselor’s so he asked me if I was interested in joining him in Michigan at Owasippe Scout Camp. They have a huge summer camp for the Chicago Area Council Boy Scouts.
I spent the next four years as a counselor there. I would not trade those times for anything. I had some of the most fun and learned so much. I also did things that I regret but I was a kid and we make mistakes. That’s what learning is all about.
Watching the eagles that lived in the camps more than four thousand acres of forest, soaring the sky. Teaching boys how to build shelters, start fires and cook without utensils. Showing boys the mammals, insects, and beautiful natural wildlife of Michigan. Swimming, scuba diving, sailing, hiking and having fun in general.
I learned so much there that I would love to go and do those things all over again. These kinds of fun times cannot be had sitting around home watching TV all summer. Kids cannot get this kind of excitement and adventure playing video games.
I had some good times those years, so many that I made sure my sons would have the same chances to do the things I got to do as a boy and a young man.
Boy Scouts of America is not just some program that takes boys camping and wears uniforms and marches in parades. Yes, they do those things, but they do so much more. There are times in a persons life that they will remember for the rest of it. Some of those for me were in Boy Scouts. I had a great time in so many ways.
I also learned a lot, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I learned leadership, responsibility, integrity and honesty.
I could have turned out quite different if it had not been for scouts. I look back and see all the opportunities that scouts has given me and hope that others could get some of them too. I see what a difference that those silly uniforms have made. I made some decisions that would affect the rest of my life when I was in scouts.
I joined the military after I graduated from high school. I went from the Boy Scouts to the military with no frets or worries. The Boy Scouts are not a paramilitary prep school for the United States government.
But they do help boys become men. They help parents grow and mold their children. The organization gives them responsibility, helps them earn respect and teaches them not about little things like fire building or tent pitching, but what it means to be a part of our society.
A part of scouts is community involvement and service. Earning rank or even being a part of Boy Scouts means you help others, for no reward other than the satisfaction of doing a good turn.
I saw this at summer camp when the Boy Scouts of America and the Chicago Area Council would bus in dozens of boys from the projects of Chicago to attend the summer camp program. They were not in scouts and yet the organization went out of their way to help these boys come and have the same fun, and adventures that we were having.
I see it all the time when the scouts help out at activities and events, fundraisers and school charities. There are so many ways that scouts help others that they could not be listed. Scouts do these things, sometimes begrudgingly, with a smile. That is a part of scouts, and a part of learning responsibility.
There are ranks in scouts that start with simple skills and having to remember things about scouting. Then the ranks get tougher as the boy gets older. There are more things to do and more responsibilities. If a boy works hard and has the personal ambition, he can attain the rank of Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts highest rank.
You may have heard of some TV commercials that talk of some of these scouts who earned this rank. I remember some of them well, people in our countries history that have nothing but the highest regards for the scouting program and its proud history. James Lovell and Neil Armstrong, Gerald Ford and even Steven Spielberg are all proud Eagle Scouts.
For once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout. You are a part of a great group of young men that has earned the badge and can be proud to wear it. Years later these men have attained greatness in their own way. Each learning and being taught in a group of young boys and men about things that would later serve them as a part of their growing up.
Even if a boy does not earn rank in scouts he will gain some benefits. Even if the only thing a boy does is come to the fun meetings and events and hangs out with some of the other scouts, some things will rub off.
He can’t avoid hearing about some of the things that are going on around him. And maybe, just maybe it will have some kind of effect. Maybe he will want to get more out of the program and earn the ranks like the other boys are. Maybe he will have some thing rub off and learn some things about becoming a man, or a citizen of this great country.
If you don’t think that Boy Scouts does not do a good turn or help others without thought of benefit to themselves just read about these boys that wanted to help.
Cub Scouts from Pack 677 in Gurnee, Ill., donated 16 cases of work gloves to the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site. When the gloves arrived in New York, many contained a handwritten note of encouragement from the Cub Scouts to the workers.
Scouts across the country rallied at the news of the tragedy on that day. They started efforts to find out what could be done and did it. This is what scouting is all about. Helping others.
It is so much a part of what Lord Badin Powell wanted when he founded scouts that the scout slogan is Do A Good Turn Daily. The Boy Scouts have another saying that emphasizes the fact that a part of being a scout is to help others, the scout motto is Be Prepared.
This goes hand in hand with some of the things scouts learn. First aid, emergency preparedness, safety and life saving are just a few of the areas that scouts learn about being prepared to be able to help others in times of need.
Some of the best times I can remember growing up were in Boy Scouts. I had so much fun and learned so many different things. I know now some of the things that I learned but at the time I was just having fun.
There are the things that I have the badges for, of course, but then there are the other things that I find myself telling my boys about. And I find myself seeing that, they too are learning some of the same things I did.
Boy Scouts of America is not just some organization that goes camping, marches in parades or wears silly looking uniforms. They are a proud tradition that can help boys grow up to be men.
The Boy Scouts of America has as its objectives developing character, citizenship, and personal fitness in boys. This is a part of the program and is the main things that boys learn whether they now it or not.
