Why Our Children are in Scouting

We just had our Pack Meeting this week for our newly formed pack. With the LDS church ending their official relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) recently, Utah went from the largest Scouting community to one of the smallest, basically overnight.

Scouting has been an institution of American culture since the early 1900's and has deep personal meaning to me. So why Scouting? Why is this such a great program and I still support it today?

The programs in the BSA are designed for young people to try new things, provide service to others, build self confidence, and reinforce ethical standards. With all that is going on in the world today I feel like these are more important than ever.

Society today teaches us "every man for himself" and that we need to think only of how we get ahead. Scouting taught me (and still teaches me today) how serving and building up others not only helps them, but ultimately helps me more.

"The real way to gain happiness is to give it to others"

-Lord Robert Baden-Power, BSA Founder

The lessons I learned in Scouting far outweigh any other single-source (i.e. school, church, friends, sports, etc.), outside of the home, in shaping who I am today. Sure we learned how to build fires, go camping, cook outside, etc. but the real lessons came in the subtle sub-text of all these activities; team building, collaboration, self-confidence, higher purpose, public speaking, etc.

"A week of camp life is worth six months of theoretical teaching in the meeting room"

-Lord Robert Baden-Power, BSA Founder

There are many programs for our young people and they all provide a great deal of value for our children as they learn and grow. Scouting will always hold a dear place in my heart for shaping the path of my life. One of the best gifts I can give my children is the experiences they will get from the Scouting programs.