10/18/2020
This is a tough year to be involved in the Boy Scouts of America. We have been suffering with the by product of lawsuits that go back to the 50s and 60s. Back when kids were victimized in every youth organization and church. Our founding religious denominations used us to fight against gay rights and we became the poster children of organizations that didn’t have the courage to mount that fight from their public front so they used the BSA. Then when the members of the BSA and the inclusive scouting network orchestrated slow democratic change and eliminated discrimination inside the bsa based on religious beliefs, most of those religious bodies abandoned our kids. Then public corporations concerned about their stock values walked away. Abandoning little kids for personal gain, just imagine that.
Top it off with a pandemic that has ripped our units to shreds as parents locked their families up.
Now on November 16 the class action lawsuits will be settled and a financially damaged Boy Scouts of America will be left to emerge from bankruptcy to build their future. The cowards and political and religious hacks are gone. The people who used to use our scouts as a political photo op are gone. After November 16, they can’t hurt us anymore.
So is scouting still alive?
Yes, you bet it is
You see during the pandemic, young scouts kept reading their scouting material, zoom meetings and Facebook groups kept our communities connected, service projects continued, and units are meeting and camping
Its different but it’s still Scouting
Noticeable gone is local council support and programming as councils are hunkered down in survival mode
Noticeable gone is school and church access where we used to meet
Noticeably gone is our financial support network, the people who wrote checks so our kids could experience scouting regardless of their financial ability to pay for it
Scouting started in England when kids, reading Colonel Powell’s Handbook for Scouting, formed their owner scout patrols and camped and experienced adventure away from the diseased and violent environment of the inner cities of England. It grew on its own until the King of England encouraged The Colonel to organize it. At his death, Powell’s family was offered a crypt in Westminster Abbey for his final resting spot which they refused. He is buried in his beloved Africa where he commanded a British unit during the Boer Wars.
And in 1908 an American businessman was lost in a London fog and a young teenager boy approached him inquiring if he could help. William Boyce, concerned he might be getting robbed, reluctantly let that young boy help him and he got directed to his location. He offered the boy a tip and the boy declined. I can’t accept it. I’m a Scout. I’m doing my good turn for the day. Boyce asked about scouting, was introduced to Col Powell and he got back on his steamship first New York and he brought scouting back to the USA. There is a statue of a Buffalo in England dedicated to the Unknown Scout, given by the scouts of the USA for his good turn that changed the lives of millions of American kids
Today, across this country, scouting units, small groups of youth, now girls and boys, and their supportive parents, are getting together, studying patriotism, canoeing, camping, practicing first aid and working with their hands and learning that a scout is reverent, regardless of what some people believed
Scout patrols are springing up in the exact image of what happened in 1907 in England
It’s inspiring to watch and uplifting to this old scout
My pack and troop are alive, well and growing
In the past two weeks we have picked up several new members, wandering in, hearing the good work we are doing, and joining
Financially, our pack and troop have seen better days. But guardian angels are emerging to save us. For one reason
Because we serve kids. Because we make a difference
And today, I have two young men who are very close to Eagle Scout. And new Lion Cubs walking in the door
Nothing that has happened can kill us because young people need a place to dream, experience adventure and to grow
So in the coming weeks, you will be approached by a scout, selling popcorn, to support their scout troop. Just imagine that kid walking out of a fog, an emissary for the USA scouting program.
It’s surreal how we have come full circle right back to where we started and our detractors just can’t kill us. Our strength rests in that young scout, clinging to the promise embedded in their scout handbook, experiencing the wonder of their future with their friends.
He or she needs your support. You can help lay the building blocks for the Boy Scouts of America as we rebuild
Please buy some popcorn from a local Scout.
Col Baden Powell will thank you for helping keep his movement alive. We have returned to our roots and the future rests with these kids.
Thank you
William Hodges
Eagle Scout 1974, Muskegon, MI
