News Briefs
Scouts and others can earn Good Turn for America patches
Packs, troops, teams, and crews who report their Good Turn for America (GTFA) service projects on the official BSA data collection Web site (www.goodturnforamerica.org) can earn a special patch and year segment for everyone who worked on a project.
Council executives can provide to each unit a unit-specific ID number and unit number for accessing the reporting section of the Web site. (Units should then designate one individual to input service project information.)
After entering data about a service project, the unit administrator can print out a certificate, to be presented at a local Scout shop for purchasing the appropriate number of patches and segments.
In addition, council GTFA administrators can provide units with reports of their accumulated service projects.
Launched in February 2004, Good Turn for America is a national call to service by the BSA to address the issues of hunger, inadequate shelter, and poor health in our nation. Scouting has joined with such service organizations as The Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and the American Red Cross to provide opportunities for youth and volunteers to make a difference in the lives of others.
Last Chance To Enter 'Camp Food Favorites' Recipe Contest
There's still time to enter your favorite outdoor recipe in Scouting magazine's Camp Food Favorites recipe contest.
The contest is open to all registered BSA adult volunteer members. BSA professionals and youth members are not eligible.
Entries may be submitted by postal mail or electronically via the entry form on the Scouting magazine Web site, www.scoutingmagazine.org.
Postal entries should be sent to Camp Food Favorites Recipe Contest, Scouting Magazine, S304, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079. They must be postmarked no later than Sept. 30, 2004, and received no later than Oct. 4, 2004.
Recipes must be for an entree, side dish, or dessert to be prepared outdoors over a charcoal or wood fire or by using a backpacker-style gas stove. Up to three recipes may be submitted, but only one in each category.
See the complete rules for entering on page 6 of the May-June 2004 issue of Scouting magazine or on the magazine Web site.
A grand-prize winner for "best recipe overall" will receive a $400 BSA Supply Division gift certificate. In each category, winners will receive Supply Division gift certificates: 1st Place—$300; 2nd Place—$200; 3rd Place—$100. In addition, all winners will receive a Leatherman multipurpose tool.
Winning recipes will be published in the March-April 2005 issue of Scouting magazine and on the magazine's Web site.
New BSA legal Web site educates the public and answers critics
A Web site, www.bsalegal.org, has been created by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to help inform the public about the legal issues that confront Scouting.
Scouting has been under a relentless legal assault and publicity barrage since 2000 when the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the organization's First Amendment right to freedom of association.
The BSA is one of a growing number of organizations using the World Wide Web to address litigation challenges. The new Web site is part of an effort to educate key audiences and counteract misinformation and disinformation about the organization and its policies. Those audiences include the media, the general public, and supporters of Scouting.
The site includes fact sheets and answers to frequently asked questions about various cases and legal issues; copies of legal filings in important cases; and news clips and opinion articles from respected journalists and scholars.
There is even a video Web cast of a February 2004 conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., where legal scholars made presentations supporting the BSA's legal position.
What's more, there are tools on the Web site that you can use to stay informed and to help inform others. For example, you can enter the e-mail addresses of friends to send them a customized e-mail invitation to visit the site that includes a link to www.bsalegal.org.
Since going live on Feb. 3, 2004, www.bsalegal.org has been highly successful, with the following results as of June 30, 2004:
- More than 128,000 unique visitors looked at the site in the first five months.
The number of visitors is growing month after month.
- More than 850 have registered during the same period for regular e-mail updates; nearly all of them checked a box identifying themselves as supporters of Scouting.
- More than 4,075 have watched the Web cast.
- More than 340 Web sites have linked to www.bsalegal.org, including local council Web sites and sites of such organizations as The American Legion.
Visit www.bsalegal.org. Register for updates. E-mail your friends, fellow Scouters, and colleagues. Most of all, use the new Web site to keep yourself informed and aware.
Happy 75th Birthday, Cub Scouting!
Cub Scouting will mark its 75th anniversary in 2005. The celebration—with the theme "75 Years and Still Having Fun!"—actually begins in September 2004 and continues through December 2005, with the official birthday observed during Scouting Anniversary Week, Feb. 6-12, 2005 (which also marks the 95th anniversary of the Boy Scout of America).
Activities will be held throughout the program year at the council, district, pack, and den levels. Local BSA councils have been provided with ideas for a wide variety of events and activities to share with districts and packs, as well as suggestions for publicizing them and obtaining maximum media coverage.
In addition to a special anniversary celebration at the blue and gold banquet in February, packs are urged to plan a community service project or other anniversary event.
Additional ideas for packs are available in the BSA publication Cub Scout Program Helps 2004-2005 (BSA No. 34304), which includes a special guide for incorporating anniversary activities into each monthly pack theme.
A 75th anniversary souvenir patch will also be available for purchase.
CUB SCOUT OUTDOOR ACTIVITY AWARD
Another special 75th anniversary opportunity is the new Cub Scout Outdoor Activity Award. Tiger Cubs, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos Scouts who earn the award can wear a special patch on the right pocket flap of the uniform shirt. (This is the first time in Cub Scouting history that a pocket flap patch for the uniform has been authorized.)
Boys may earn the award in each rank year if they complete the requirements within the year for which the award is given. A pocket flap patch is presented the first time the award is earned, and a wolf footprint pin added to the flap each successive time the award is earned.
75TH ANNIVERSARY AWARDS PROGRAM
As a way to stimulate a variety of participation during the anniversary year, Cub Scouts, leaders, packs, and families can earn special 75th Anniversary Awards. To qualify for the special commemorative patch, individuals must participate in a pack, district, or council 75th anniversary event and complete five other requirements from a list of nine possibilities.
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- Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts might choose to participate in a skit, pack derby, or sport from the Cub Scout Academics and Sports program, talk to someone who was alive in 1930, or design 75th anniversary greeting cards.
- Choices for Cub Scout leaders range from creating 75th anniversary publicity materials or serving on an event committee, to teaching Cub Scouts a popular song, game, or craft from the 1930's, to inviting a career professional person to describe how his or her profession has changed since 1930.
- Some options for families include inviting another family to an anniversary event, preparing foods or comparing household items from 1930, or making a family scrapbook or time capsule.
- In addition to holding a 75th anniversary blue and gold banquet, requirement choices for packs include taking part in a parade, conducting a pack derby, staging an outdoor campfire program, carrying out special publicity efforts, and planting a memorial tree.
Full requirements and other details on the awards program are available at council service centers.
BSA kicks off Hispanic-outreach initiative with Cub Scout Soccer Program
T he world's enthusiasm for soccer has found its way to the Boy Scouts of America in a new soccer program for Cub Scouts called "Soccer and Scouting—Join the Adventure" in English and "Futbol y los Scouts...Capta la Aventura" in Spanish.
 The soccer program combines the traditional Cub Scout advancement program with team play within a pack league. Photograph by Erik Bakke |
Designed as an outreach to the burgeoning Hispanic population, the Cub Scout soccer program, rolled out late last month, combines soccer elements with the Cub Scouting program, including advancement.
A 12-week pilot in the Denver Area Council this past summer forged the soccer program, which had begun emerging on a grassroots level in several councils over the past few years as a successful outreach to Hispanic youth, according to Bill Steele, national associate director of the Cub Scouting Division. New is the Cub Scout advancement component.
"A boy who earns the Tiger Cub, Wolf, Bear, or Webelos Scout badge as a soccer-playing Cub Scout is going to be as much a Cub Scout as any Cub Scout has ever been," emphasized Steele.
The Orange County Council, based in Costa Mesa, Calif., took the lead in developing soccer and Cub Scouting as a Hispanic outreach a decade ago. The council has been successful in signing up boys as Cub Scouts, with soccer teams as the attraction.
Several councils, mostly in the Southern Region, anticipated the program's national rollout by informally launching "Soccer and Scouting" programs in the past several months.
SOCCER PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights of the Soccer and Scouting program, made available to councils in August, include the following:
- A 12-month Cub Scouting program divided into four seasons. Each season begins with a recruiting/organization day ("interest generator day"), followed by 10 weeks of den and game-day activities, and concluding with a tournament and graduation/recognition program. Recognizing that participants in some areas of the country must go indoors in the wintertime, one season will have an indoor component. There is a one-week break between seasons.
- The den and the soccer team are the same thing; the pack is the league.
- Soccer Cub Scouts will wear soccer uniforms that also include BSA identification. Badges may be placed on the soccer jersey, which will be part of the soccer uniform.
- Two pieces of literature support the Cub Scouting soccer program: (1) for Cub Scouts, parents, families, and leaders, the Soccer and Scouting Program Helps booklet, both in English and Spanish, with information for leaders on coaching soccer and running the Cub Scouting portion of the meetings, and (2) Family Time fold-out posters (self-help home activities), with one side in Spanish, the other in English, with requirements that would be done at home for the different Cub Scout achievements.
- Cost of the program will be determined by councils.
—Kathy Vilim DaGroomes
 | NEW TIGER CUB UNIFORM. In the continuing effort to promote Tiger Cubs—the program for boys in the first grade or age 7—as an integral part of the Cub Scout pack, a new official uniform was introduced in August. It includes an orange-and-blue hat with Tiger Cub insignia; orange-and-blue neckerchief and slide; blue Cub Scout shirt (long or short sleeve) with council shoulder insignia and unit number on the left sleeve and U.S. flag and den number on the right sleeve; blue Cub Scout trousers or shorts; and Tiger Cub belt and socks. The Tiger Cub immediate recognition kit is worn on the right shirt pocket. The orange Tiger Cub T-shirt can still be worn as an activity uniform and continues to be the official uniform for adult Tiger Cub partners. |
REPORT TO THE NATION
 Photograph Courtesy of BSA Archives |
In Washington, D.C., in February to deliver the annual Report to the Nation, BSA delegation youth members are pictured with host couple Marie Belcher and Distinguished Eagle Scout and BSA National Executive Board member Donald Belcher, of Menasha, Wis. (Front) Honor Medal recipient Steven Jackson, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Tiger Cub Marcus Buitrago, New York, N.Y.; Honor Medal recipient Alexander Sutherland, Lakewood, Colo.; (middle) Venturer Kao Lee (Kelly) Yang, St. Paul, Minn.; Honor Medal recipient Nikolas Arana, Imperial Beach, Calif.; National Order of the Arrow Chief Jeff Hayward, Pierre, S.D.; (rear) National Venturing President Thomas Franklin, Rosenberg, Tex.; Honor Medal recipient Aria Sarraf, Trabuco Canyon, Calif.
The trip included a stop at the White House to deliver the report to President George W. Bush. "The Boy Scouts of America helps shape our next generation of leaders," the president said in a letter to the BSA following the visit. "I commend all Scouts for your commitment to being prepared and doing your best. I also applaud all those involved with the Boy Scouts for encouraging and enabling millions of our nation's youth to work hard to achieve their greatest potential."
Learn more about the group's four-day visit to the nation's capital and the individual delegates at www.scouting.org/media/report/index.html.
Texas Scouter is recognized for her exceptional service to youth with disabilities
 Janet Pepperday Photograph Courtesy of John Pepperday |
Janet Pepperday of the Sam Houston Area Council in Houston, Tex., is the 2004 recipient of the Woods Services Award. Presented by the BSA and the Woods Services and Residential Treatment Center, Langhorne, Pa., the award recognizes exceptional service and leadership to Scouts with disabilities.
A special education teacher who works with mentally and physically disabled youth in the Pasadena (Tex.) Independent School District (PISD), she has served as an assistant district commissioner for the Houston council's Special Needs Scouting (SNS) division since 1992.
Pepperday, who is legally deaf, has made a significant contribution in training leaders of traditional Scouting units in strategies and skills for making Scouting a positive experience for mainstreamed Scouts with disabilities.
In 1995, she began the first in-school SNS unit in the PISD, Troop 739 at Bondy Intermediate School; and nine other units in the PISD have been modeled after her successful classroom-Scouting program.
Pepperday also serves each year on the staff of the council's special needs camporee and is a merit badge counselor for the Disability Awareness merit badge.
Her many other Scouting honors include the Silver Beaver, Distinguished Commissioner Award, District Award of Merit, and the Scroll of Honor from the Diocese of Galveston-Houston Catholic Committee on Scouting. Outside of Scouting, she has been a Texas state finalist for teacher of the year.
New Cub Scout Web site aims at boys, parents, organizations
A new Web site for Cub Scout recruiting, www.joincubscouting.org, is available on the Internet. The interactive site provides information for boys, parents, and potential chartered organizations.
Boys are introduced to games, videos, and challenges to excite them about becoming a Cub Scout, while parents learn about the character development and family building components of the program. Potential chartered organizations are shown the benefits of organizing a pack.
The site also includes a pack locator function that parents can use to locate existing packs in their neighborhood and to link directly to a local council Web site for more information on how to join Cub Scouting.
Boy Scout age clarification
The BSA National Executive Board has amended the rules and regulations to clarify that no boy may join Boy Scouting until he reaches the age of 10.
Previously, the requirement stated that to be a Boy Scout a boy must have completed the fifth grade or be age 11 or have earned the Arrow of Light Award.
The new requirement says he must have completed the fifth grade and be at least 10 years old or be age 11 or have earned the Arrow of Light Award and be at least 10 years old.
The new clarification became effective May 15, 2004.
National Public Lands Day volunteers receive a 'free-day pass' for service
In gratitude for their service, volunteers who help out on the 11th annual National Public Lands Day, Saturday, Sept. 18, will receive a coupon good for a "fee-free" day during the next year at any of the public land sites managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service.
Every year, thousands of volunteers clear trails, build bridges, plant trees, and participate in hundreds of other activities in what has become the largest volunteer effort of its kind in the country.
The free entry day was initiated by National Public Lands Day and co-sponsored by Take Pride in America, a national partnership that aims to seek, support, and recognize volunteers who work to improve our public parks, forests, grasslands, reservoirs and wildlife refuges, as well as our cultural and historic sites, local playgrounds, and other recreation areas.
National Public Lands Day is being sponsored for the sixth consecutive year by Toyota Motor Sales USA. For more information, including a list of National Public Lands Day sites, activities, contacts, and downloadable photos, visit www.npld.com or call (800) 865-8337.
September 2004 Table of Contents
Copyright © 2004 by the Boy Scouts of America. All rights thereunder reserved; anything appearing in Scouting magazine or on its Web site may not be reprinted either wholly or in part without written permission. Because of freedom given authors, opinions may not reflect official concurrence.