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Show One Hundred Years Scouting Within the LDS Church by Mark Bezzant In 1907, Baden Powell was back from his military service in Africa Af-rica for the British Empire. The celebrated cel-ebrated military officer had written a scouting book to help future troops prepare for military service. It was recommended that he modify the publication and issue one for boys. "Scouting for Boys" proved to be a big hit and the first group of 20 boys found the program exciting. The program became very popular in England. Some called it an instant success. A well know publisher by the name of William Boyce was visiting visit-ing England on business. In a dense fog the man could not find his way. A young man offered to help him. When Mr. Boyce tried to pay the boy, the young man turned down the money explaining he was a Boy Scout. Boyce was so impressed that he investigated this new movement and returned to America with all the literature he could get from Baden Powell. Upon arriving in the United States he worked with other key men and together they officially incorporated incorpo-rated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910, in the District of Columbia. In October of 1910, a young 22 year old LDS English immigrant by the name of Thomas George Wood heard about scouting from his uncle, who lived in England. Eng-land. Thomas lived in the Waterloo Water-loo Ward in Salt Lake City. Asael H. Woodruff was the bishop of the ward. His father was Wilford Woodruff. Wood-ruff. The ward had over 50 young men who were, "noisy and not easy to handle". Long gone were the days of the 1847 Mormon pioneers. These youth heard stories from their grandparents about those pioneer days, but they were far removed from the rigors of those early days. These young people in urban areas needed something to do with their leisure time. Bishop Woodruff liked what Wood told him about the scouting movement and made Thomas Wood the scoutmaster of Troop 1. Wood signed up 25 of the boys and one week later they held their first scout meeting. The meeting meet-ing started with a flag ceremony, close order drills, calisthenics and finished with games. The boys went on their first campout in the fall of 1911, when 16 of them boarded a streetcar and rode to Holladay in south east Salt Lake. From there they hiked 14 miles. Their gear was pulled by a horse drawn wagon. If the boys "Scouting" continued on Page 6 Eagle Class of 1946. 45 Eagle Scouts received their Eagle Rank Badge at a special ceremony in the old PGHS, which was attended by special guest Joseph Fielding Smith. "Scouting" continued from Page 3 complained they were given gear to carry. On November 29, 1911 the Young Men Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) Board officially of-ficially recognized Scouting. The March 1912 issue of the Improvement Improve-ment Era magazine printed the first article on how to implement Scouting Scout-ing in the LDS church. Thomas Wood served as the scoutmaster of Troop 1 for 15 years. One of his scouts wrote, "We climbed every peak in the Salt Lake Valley, with special emphasis on doing a good turn daily. We did a lot of shoveling coal and chopping chop-ping wood." The scouting movement move-ment became very popular among Mormons. It was seen as the cure for the "softening up" civilization was working on the youth. On June 13, 1913 the LDS Church officially signed on as the first organization in the United States to support scouting. That same year BSA officially started registering scouts. Yearly dues were 25 cents per boy. By 1925 there were 1 million scouts in the United States. In 1928 the LDS Church officially declared Scouting Scout-ing to be the activity program for deacons and teachers. Cubbing was adopted in 1952 for the younger young-er boys. The first pinewood derby was held in 1953. In 1959 Exploring Explor-ing was adopted for the priest age boys and in 1972 Varsity Scouting Scout-ing was started for the teacher age boys. When BSA celebrated 100 years since its founding in 1910, the LDS Church scouting statistics were impressive. While the Church was the first to adopt scouting it is now the largest organization in the United States to support Scouting. The Church sponsored 10,345 Cub Scout packs, 19,285 Boy Scout troops and . 8,298 Venturing (Exploring) Crews. Almost a half million Mormon boys were registered in a scouting program. pro-gram. j The LDS church had started the Young Men Improvement Association As-sociation in 1875 in hopes of giving boys spiritual and cultural things to do with their leisure time. Athletics i was an important part of the pro- 1 gram. They later found that 94 of the boys who reached the ranks of Eagle went on LDS missions. Scouting was a good fit. Its values val-ues matched well with those of the ' - -church. Thomas Monson said,' "It is impossible to measure the great good which has come from this organization or-ganization during the past century. I believe in Scouting. I believe in the goals of the organization. I believe in the power of scouting to bless and enrich lives for good." His predecessor, Gordon B. Hinckley said, "I love the Scouting movement. If every boy in America knew and observed the Scout Oath we would do away with most of the jails and prisons in this country. This program builds boys." |