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Show Scouts celebrate 72 years; leaders, youth honored Guest Editorial by Daniel L. Lynch Boy Scouts of America District Executive : The Boy Scouts of America will celebrate its 72nd anniversary this week, Feb. 7-14; and over the past 72 years its aims have not changed developing character, good citizenship, mental and physical fitness. We want to commend the valuable training that it ; has offered to Cub Scouts, Scouts, Varsity Scouts and Explorers. The world organization of the Scouting movement r is celebrating this 75th anniversary with its theme "Footsteps of the Founder." It was 75 years ago that a well-known British general by the name of Baden-Powell decided to try out a scheme to help prepare young men in the skills they needed for life. He slowly developed his ideas. He based them on , his own experiences as a boy in England and a 5 soldier in India and Africa. He saw many young men enter into the military service that were not prepared in the basic skills they needed to know and survive ; so he decided to try his idea on a few young boys. v He conducted the world's first Boy Scout camp in August of 1907. Out of this testing came a book he called "Scouting for Boys." It was an instant best seller. Boys by the thousands bought it and decided to become Scouts. Within a few weeks Scouting . spread like wildfire throughout England and soon afterward around the world. But what has made Scouting the popular program that it is to bovs? The methods of how we go about to achieve the aims of Scouting are certainly a key to this popularity. The outdoor program, advancement and the patrol method are a few of these. These methods help to accomplish our aims of Scouting. However, one method stands out in my mind at this time as I write this. What would the Scouting program have been if it wasn't for the outstanding adult leaders throughout the years who have given leadership to the young men in this program? Good adult leaders give our young men a model and example to look up to. I express my appreciation to those leaders of the past and the leaders of the present who are helping these young men to achieve their purposes in this life. This method of adult leadership has helped to make the Scouting program one of the most popular in the world. We salute Baden-Powell and the other early leaders of the Scouting program who had the vision and wisdom to try out this wild scheme that has blossomed into a world-wide movement of Scouting for boys and young men. A hundred years from now It will not matter What my bank account was, The sort of house I lived in, Or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different Because I was important in the Life of a bov. |