The Boy Scouts of America

I received in the mail not too long ago a donation request from the Boy Scouts of America. Over the years, we have been regular contributors to this organization. On an evening more recently while sitting at my desk my mind wandered back about sixty years, and I relived particular experiences from my years of activity in the Boy Scouts. Our immediate family members are well aware of my ties to scouting as they have and still do labor under my repeated admonitions to apply the Scout Motto whenever it seems appropriate namely, “Be Prepared.” There is no getting around it, my years as an active scout taught me skills and provided me with experiences that impact my life to this very day.

By the decade of the 1950s, Troop 192 of the Edgehill Ward of the Hillside Stake in Salt Lake City was honored to have seen more of its members over the years achieve the rank of Eagle than was the case for any other troop in the United States. It should be noted that this was the era in which the swimming and the life saving merit badges were absolute requirements to obtain the Eagle rank. There were no exceptions as far as I know. An uncle of mine had one of his legs amputated above the knee while still very young because of polio. As a teenager, he earned the Eagle rank having complied with all of the requirements including these two most difficult merit badges. Although as a younger boy I was afraid of the water as a result of an early swimming experience, I was determined when I was still too young to be a scout that I would someday earn that coveted rank. So many Eagle badges were awarded to the boys in our ward that periodically the entire Sacrament Meeting program was an Eagle Court of Honor in which the latest qualifiers numbering as many as five or six received this honor.

We lived next door to a general contractor who was also the ward scout master. For years before I was old enough to join them, I watched Brother Menlove on summer evenings load his large, open truck with scouts going to their weekly swimming activity at Wasatch Springs just northwest of the city. By this means, boys in our ward were encouraged and taught the skills necessary to pass both the swimming and the life saving merit badges. In time the months and years passed, and I was able to join these weekly swimming sessions.

One of the important lessons I learned from Boy Scouts was the ability to set long-range goals that could be achieved only by setting and accomplishing an entire series of short- and intermediate-range goals consistent with my major aspirations. My scouting experience gave me the opportunity to learn handyman and other skills in addition to outdoor hiking and camping skills that otherwise I most likely would not have learned. I was made more aware of the world about me concerning law, government, and citizenship as they apply to the local, state, national, and international levels. I learned about professions that are important to the well-being of society even though one of them would most likely never be mine.

I also learned what it means to work as a team member. Our troop was large enough that sub-units called patrols were organized for the benefit and training of their members. These patrols were boy run and organized. They met once a week in a member’s home. In these meetings, we helped one another organize the necessary processes whereby each boy might further prepare himself for rank advancement or the achievement of needed merit badges. We also organized our participation in activities involving the entire troop. By this means and at this level, we learned what it means to properly “Be Prepared.”

Of course, television broadcasting was in its infancy when I was a teenager, so we were not distracted by electronic devices of any type. Church activities including competitive sports and scouting were our social life external to our homes. The world now some sixty years later is much changed. The many modern-day distractions and debasing temptations with which the boys in our wards must deal are extreme when compared to the conditions that existed when I was their age. However, today there are boys living in our communities whether they be LDS or not who share the same enthusiasm as boys of earlier generations for learning and doing that which will make them better rounded in their understanding of the world and of the means by which they may play a constructive role in their society's betterment. These boys deserve our encouragement and material support.