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Scouting Corner – Year of Celebration

By Thomas McDermott
Scout Executive, Illiowa Council
Boy Scouts of America

Scouts put the OUTING in SCOUTING

October will see many Cub Scouts and their families enjoying a spooktacular weekend at Camp Loud Thunder. This extravaganza of events is made possible with the help of older Boy Scouts and Venture Crews.

Scouts of all ages will be out selling popcorn. The boys offer the finest microwave and packaged popcorn products for their unit fundraisers. Support the boys!!!

Would you like to now more about the scouting program for your grandson? Or would you like to volunteer to be a mentor? Please call the Illowa Council Service Center, 4412 N. Brady Street, Davenport, (563) 388-7233.
Continuing with our countdown to…

100 Things You Didn’t Know About Scouting

30. In 1929, an African American Boy Scout from Fort Worth, Texas, found and returned a woman’s pocketbook that contained more than $300 in cash. The boy declined her liberal reward, saying, “No, madam. I am a Boy Scout and cannot take a tip for doing my duty.”
29. While Robert Baden-Powell’s English Scouts had nine points in their Scout Law, the Boy Scouts of America added three more: A Scout is brave, clean, and reverent.
28. The gravestone of worldwide Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell is marked with a trail symbol of a circle with a dot in the center, which means “I have gone home.”
27. The 20 millionth Scout was registered with the BSA in 1952; by 2000, that number reached 100 million.
26. The Soviet Union turned to the BSA in 1993 for help in producing the first Russian Scout handbook; 20,000 copies were distributed.
25. Scouts collected more than 1 million tons of litter on Scouting Keep America Beautiful Day in 1971.
24. In 1954, the BSA conducted a National Conservation Good Turn, distributing 3.6 million conservation posters. In parks, rural areas, and wilderness areas, Scouts planted 6.2 million trees, and built and placed 55,000 birdnesting boxes.
23. In a nationwide nonpartisan get-out-the-vote campaign in 1956, Scouts distributed more than a million posters and 36 million Liberty Bell doorknob hangers.
22. During a three-month drive in the spring of 1942, Scouts collected 318,000 tons of paper for the war effort.
21. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Scouts set up first-aid stations and emergency kitchens, helped evacuate civilians, served as messengers, and manned 58 air-raid sirens around Honolulu.