Scouting - A Big Part of My Youth and Beyond

I feel fortunate that I became involved in the Boy Scouts when I was young. For one thing, Scouting allowed me to have a connection to something when we moved as often as we did. My parents always made sure that I had a chance to participate if we lived somewhere long enough. I can't honestly say when I first joined the Boy Scouts but my best guess is when I was in 6th grade in Sandown, New Hampshire. When going through some of my old papers I came across this article about my earning the Tenderfoot Award.

That's my grandson Chase on the horse. I took the picture of the article on top of some other pictures and ironically one of the reasons that I am doing the post on scouting now is because Chase just joined Cub Scouts while I was visiting a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of Cub Scouts, both of my sons Jeff and Jason were involved at one point.

I learned a lot in scouting. I learned to love the outdoors, a love that stays with me today. I learned to be persistent and to work to get things done. I learned to set and work for goals, something that carried over into sports, coaching and all areas of my life. Maybe the most important thing I actually learned from scouting was in fact, goal setting. Many of the things I learned in scouting are still helpful today. 

If you have read any of my previous blog posts you are familiar with my love of reading. Ironically I believe that my first merit badge earned was reading. 

Scouting was something that allowed me to spend time and share experiences with my Dad who served in several adult leadership roles in Troop 627, our troop in Hacienda Heights, California.

Even though we lived in the city we were surrounded on the south and west with hills full of orchards and fields so we got to do a lot of hiking separate from scouts. It's strange now to go back and see houses built all the way up and over the hills and all of the orchards and open areas gone. I'm glad I grew up there when there was still some open area. But the best hiking and camping is when we went away on overnight trips with our scout troop. We camped in the San Bernardino Mountains, the Mohave Desert and at some scout owned camps that were actually not that far from home. We camped in all four seasons and even camped in the snow on occasion. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot while we did.

Scouting led to a summer job for me when I was 17 and 18. I worked in the San Bernardino Mountains at Camp Cedar Canyon. That was a great experience. The second year I was the Commissary Director. I was responsible for ordering, dividing, and distributing the food for the entire camp. It took a lot of planning because I had to order for twice a week deliveries based upon what the meals were and the number of scouts and leaders that there were in camp every week. I learned a lot about organizational skills that summer that carried over into many other areas of my life. If I forgot to order something or enough of something it wasn't as though I could just run into the neighborhood store and get it. In other words, I had better not forget something. I kept a master list and checked it multiple times.

I am 3rd from the left standing

A highlight of my scouting career took place in the summer of 1966, the same year that I graduated from high school. A friend, Don O'Brien, and I received our Eagle Scout awards at a Court of Honor held for us at Camp Cedar Canyon where we both worked. Don is holding the flag on the right in the staff picture. It was a special event.

Becoming an Eagle Scout was important to me because it showed what I could accomplish if I worked hard and stayed with something. A lesson that was reinforced when I earned my Varsity Cross Country and Track letters after running for four years in high school.

As it turned out, Cedar Canyon wasn't my final job working for the Boy Scouts. After I completed my student teaching in Ruidoso, New Mexico and couldn't find a teaching job I applied for and was hired as a District Executive with the Boy Scouts and assigned to Lea County, New Mexico. That's how we wound up in that part of New Mexico. Unfortunately, a scouting career wasn't meant to be because I still wanted to teach and coach. The next school year I was hired to teach and coach in Lovington, New Mexico and resigned my position with the Boy Scouts.

I received my training for the District Executive position in Mendham, New Jersey where I was sent to the Executive Training Institute.

Training Class at Graduation

Me and my Cabin Mates

I learned a lot from Scouting.