BOY SCOUT WEEK
William Boyce and a group of his business friends founded Boy Scouts of America
in America on Feb. 8, 1910. The story starts a few years earlier when Mr. Boyce
was lost on a foggy street in London, England. A young man helped him find his
way. Mr. Boyce offered to pay him for his help, but the boy responded, “No thank
you, sir, I am a Scout and I won’t take anything for helping.”
Mr. Boyce was impressed by the Scout’s attitude. He arranged a meeting with
Lord Baden Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts in Great Britain. After learning
the basics of the program, he and a group of his business friends brought
Scouting to the United States. Today, membership in the Boy Scouts of America
exceeds 4.5 million youth and adult members. More than 110 million young people
have been involved in Scouting since the founding of the organization in 1910.
Franklin Roosevelt, thirty-second president of the United States, praised the
Boy Scout movement on Feb. 8, 1941. He said, “The Boy Scouts of today are
approaching manhood at a grave hour in the world’s history.”
This applies to the Scouts of 2004. In today’s news, there is a story about
Evan Michael Todd, an Eagle Scout, who was one of the first students who was
shot at Columbine High School. Even after sustaining serious shotgun wounds, he
carried a handicapped student to a patrol car, and administered first aid to
another seriously wounded student until he could be transported to the hospital.
He also gave the police accurate information about the two gunmen that led to
their apprehension.
Todd is now 19 years old and travels across the country giving talks on
domestic terrorism, and also works full time and attends college evening
classes. Todd said that day at Columbine changed his life forever. He tried to
stay up to date about how and why these terrible incidents occur, and the debate
over what is right and wrong. “They try to tell us that the youth of this nation
need to me more tolerant, kinder, gentler, and more understanding; yet, the
entertainment, music, TV, movies and games the adult world provides for us are
too often filled with violence, sex, death, and destruction. If we model our
lives by this, our actions would violate the Scout Oath and Law.”
“The good news for those of us who are Scouts is that we are privileged to be
part of an organization that provides us the tools and instruction to put into
us that which builds a better person and better nation. If you are a Scout,
don’t be a Scout in word only. Learn to ‘Do Your Best’.”
Todd quoted from a poster hanging in his room:
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Choose your words for they become actions.
Understand your actions for they become habits.
Study your habits, for they become your character.
Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
HRM