What the World Knows About Boy Scouts vs. Reality

Despite hav­ing two younger broth­ers in Scouts, I didn’t really know much about Scout­ing while grow­ing up. I could tell you about five or six facts: They dress in uni­form. Boy Scouts earn merit badges, and then they put those merit badges on their uni­forms. My broth­ers met at least once a week with other Scouts. Scouts strive to get their Eagle. Boy Scouts are boys. It wasn’t until start­ing an intern­ship with the BSA that I learned more about the orga­ni­za­tion. I started to talk to men, young men, and boys about their expe­ri­ences in Scout­ing. I learned the impact it has had on their lives...

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How Interviewing Scouts Transformed An Author’s Life

I dialed Alvin Town­ley’s dig­its, expect­ing an infor­ma­tive inter­view with a pop­u­lar author. It was infor­ma­tive– I learned a lot about his jour­ney while writ­ing Legacy of Honor and since that time. I also learned about changes in the Tenth Anniver­sary Edi­tion. But, I didn’t expect my inter­view with him to be so inspir­ing.  Alvin told me true sto­ries about past Eagle Scouts, and the sto­ries lit­er­ally left me in awe. I didn’t know how much Scout­ing meant to so many boys. I didn’t know how much Scout­ing shaped mod­ern day heroes and great men. And, I didn’t know how much doing this project changed life for Alvin...

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SCOUTING HOW-TOs

Is Peer-to-Peer Right for Your Unit?

Peer-to-Peer recruit­ment cards were cre­ated to help fam­i­lies pro­mote Scout­ing to their friends. These invi­ta­tion cards fea­ture eye-catch­ing resources cre­ated for recruit­ment cam­paigns, show­ing youth engaged in fun-filled activ­i­ties. The cards pro­vide easy-to-use tem­plates that serve as a tool in over­com­ing the recruit­ment chal­lenges caused by lim­ited access to youth in schools ...

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DUTY TO GOD

Scouts Complete Pilgrimage of Faith

I recently uncov­ered an arti­cle about 30 Catholic Scouts  who went on a pil­grim­age, both phys­i­cally and spir­i­tu­ally.  I was impressed that these Scouts chose to use their money to visit reli­gious loca­tions. They might have gone to Hawaii or Dis­ney­land, but they wanted to learn more about their Lord ...

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INSPIRING STORIES

The Legend of Cookie and Grubber

“Well Grub­ber, we’re sur­rounded. Looks like we’re gonna die.” “It’s been nice know­ing you Cookie. This was a stu­pid idea.” It was dark, the only light com­ing from the myr­iad of stars that sparkled across the Col­orado sky and a very small camp­fire. The two of us were alone atop a 600-acre mesa, wear­ing some silly look­ing cos­tumes, sur­rounded by 200 fierce cows ...

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