Why join boy scouts of america?

As Scouts, you could imagine that we spend much of our time in the outdoors. It’s unfortunate that newer generations drift further away from nature’s wonders, content to stay indoors and on our screens. Scouting rekindles our innate desire to enjoy nature.

With our troop, we get the opportunity to participate in many varieties of outdoor adventure to fit your preferred experience. As a Scout, I’ve had the opportunity to take part in hiking, kayaking, ziplining, spelunking (cave exploring), and countless other activities. Even when we aren’t adventuring, we get plenty of time to relax in companionship. Such activities include enjoying campfires and our handmade food. Should you join Boy Scouts? If you’re looking for a breath of “fresh air” into your indoor life, Boy Scouts can surely provide it for you.

One of the most unique aspects of Scouting is its orientation towards important skills that you need in real life.

Schools have been notorious for teaching things that we learn only 10% of the time. More and more youth step into the world without basic knowledge of how it works. But your problems can be solved with just one program: Scouting. Here in Boy Scouts, youth advance by completing merit badges and ranks. Each rank/merit badge has requirements tailored to useful skills in both the outdoors and life. Ranks focus on socio-personal aspects such as patriotism, health, and survival. On the other hand, merit badges teach us about the world around us. There are over 130 merit badges to pick from, so Scouts have the opportunity to complete badges that fit their areas of interest.

Examples of required merit badges include Personal Fitness (physical health), Personal Management (finances), and Camping (Outdoors). Other merit badges include Astronomy, Papermaking, and Archery.

In each of these merit badges, Scouts complete a variety of requirements pertaining to a specific field. Let’s take the basketweaving (basketry) merit badge, for example. Looking at the requirements, you will see that Scouts will learn multiple types of basketweaving, and will do projects using each technique. In addition, they will learn about safety precautions and different weaving styles. As you can see, each merit badge will give Scouts a thorough understanding of the topic at hand. Scouting’s merit badges and ranks can provide an unparalleled opportunity to learn about both useful and fun topics.

In addition to Scouting’s commitment to providing youth with life skills, joining Boy Scouts gives your child opportunities to step up to leadership. For example, most Boy Scout Troops (an individual unit) are scout-run. This means that youth officials handle nearly all of the operation of the troop. These youth leaders are elected by the troop, and each one has their own role in the troop’s smooth running. Adult volunteers merely take care of administrative work. Should you join Boy Scouts, you/your child will get the opportunity to take command and learn valuable leadership skills.

It’s a shared sentiment between parents that we want our children to grow up to be role models for others. The imparting of good values is omnipresent throughout your Scouting experience. The very essence of Scouting is built upon a code of ethics that is recited at every meeting and complied with at all times. The Scout Oath reminds us of our duty to God, Country, and self (more on that in #5). On the other hand, The Scout Law recites characteristics of a good Scout, such as being friendly, trustworthy, and loyal. Lastly, the Outdoor Code reminds us of the Outdoor Ethics rules we must conform to while in the outdoors.

In our Scoutbook, which we use as a Boy Scouts Encyclopedia, it stresses the importance of family, compassion, and kindness. Scouts routinely take time to serve veterans, volunteer for charity, and fix up old campsites. All in all, whether we have on the uniform or not, Scouting transforms boys into upright young men.

One of the most compelling reasons why you should join Boy Scouts is to make friends and experiences that you will carry with you for a lifetime. When you join Scouting, we are exposed to people from all walks of life, all united with a common goal: to tread along the Scouting Trail. Each Troop develops a close bond between its members, making friends for life. Each patrol (sub-unit/group of scouts) is even more tight-knit, a select few with whom you spend most of your Scouting journey.

With your friends by your side and Scouting’s host of activities, you’re bound to create long-lasting experiences. Each outing/trip and meeting in Boy Scouts comes with its own host of challenges and activities, giving a chance for your outdoor and leadership skills to shine.

We Scouts look back to our adventuring days, cherishing both good and bad experiences. Some of my fondest experiences in Boy Scouts come from our many mishaps in outings, such as the times when our patrol grossly overcooked breakfast burritos, or when it unexpectedly rained and our camp was flooded. Others come from great times, like our hilarious skits during our campfires or spelunking down huge caverns. Regardless, we create fond memories in Boy Scouts that we keep with us for life.

Lastly, on top of the values Scouting teaches, they encourage patriotism and reverence. Should you join Boy Scouts, patriotism is ingrained into us from the very beginning. In the Scout Oath and Law, which we say every week, we proclaim our duty to God and Country. The act of us as individuals joining Boy Scouts and representing our nation impacts the country as a whole, making everyone’s lives better, which is the core goal of Scouting.

As for duty to God, this is often a touchy subject in Scouting, especially among those who are irreligious/agnostic. Scouting has, in the past, put barriers to withhold those who don’t believe in the traditional idea of God. However, there are religions recognized by BSA that don’t have a traditional “God” (e.g. Buddhism), but rather a moral code to live your life by. By extension of this, as long as you have moral standards to follow and a sure path of self-improvement, you’re welcome to tread on the Scouting path.

Should you join boy scouts? We have near unlimited extracurricular options for our children to participate in, such as coding or clubs. However, Boy Scouts provides an experience like no other, compiling hundreds of life skills, including ones you can get nowhere else (such as bushcraft and emergency preparedness), into one comprehensive program. These were 5 reasons why you should join Boy Scouts, and we hope you do—you won’t regret it!

If you’re instead nearing the end of your Scouting journey, navigate to this link instead to learn how to choose an Eagle Scout Project.

I have been compensated for this post talking about the benefits from Boy Scouts by Boy Scouts of America (BSA), but the content and all opinions are, of course, my own.

When Mister Man was in kindergarten, he announced he wanted to do Boy Scouts. Actually, he didn’t just say he was interested in it, he explained that he wanted to become an Eagle Scout and shared what he wanted his Eagle Scout project to be.

I had dated someone a long time ago who was an Eagle Scout and extolled the benefits from Boy Scouts, so I was thrilled to hear that Mister Man was that excited.

He’s now going into sixth grade and still excited to go to every one of his meetings. It’s changed a lot for him from his first meetings to the ones he goes to now, but he’s learned and done so much.

I can’t say enough about Scouts and the benefits from Boy Scouts that he’s gained.

As a child with autism, there are so many challenges he already faces. Mister Man is very high functioning, but it’s been an uphill battle to get him to where he is today.

That isn’t to say that every day is sunshine and roses – we had a long lecture to both kids about sneaking candy from the Fourth of July parade yesterday – but he’s made so much progress and is really a great kid. A lot of that is just who he is, but I also thing that a big piece has to do with the benefits from Boy Scouts.

I have no worry whatsoever that he will be ready to live as an adult when he goes off to college. He will have so many life skills – and he already knows how to do so many more things that so many of his peers.

Not only does he have those skills, but as he sees himself improving and learning new things, it’s been a boon to his confidence which is often lacking because he’s so often told no or corrected at home and school when he doesn’t make the best choices.

The values of Boy Scouts fit in so well with our own from character development to ethical decisionmaking to community service and more. With so many tweens, I’m hearing abut the attitude they throw and the disrespect they show their elders.

Mister Man is personally affronted when he sees litter sitting on the ground – and then he picks it up and throws it away. He wouldn’t dream of littering, but it’s so much more than that, as well.

When I ask him to do something, I don’t get the rolling of the eyes and the “Why do I have to…” that I so often hear from others. In Boy Scouts, everyone pitches in to get things done. It’s simply the ethos within the organization, and it’s seeped into my child.

At the Fourth of July parade this past year, his new troop didn’t march (they have in the past) as they were the honor guard for the Memorial Day parade instead. I was so impressed by how well all the boys did preparing the cemetery for the arrival of the veterans and other observers and maintaining their silence during the solemn presentation.

Watching the Fourth of July parade as a spectator for the first time in years, Mister Man and the rest of the friends we were with were focused on gathering as much candy as they could.

As soon as Mister Man saw the first veteran, he snapped to attention. All his focus on the candy was instantly transferred, and he stayed in that position until they had all passed, even while the others continued their search for candy.

Seriously a Proud Mom Moment.

Now that Mister Man is in Boy Scouts, this is a little less the case, but in Cub Scouts, Mister Man and my husband spent more time together than they would have otherwise, both at meetings and events. They learned how to set up a tent together and slept long nights often in cold, wet conditions (because the weather was always the worst when they were away, thank you Murphy).

The drives to and from camping, the fishing derbies, the Raingutter Regatta, archery lessons, and more. It was all time they spent together, both learning and having fun.

As a Boy Scout now, we drop him off at meetings that the boys plan themselves instead of my husband being involved each week. He no longer goes on the campouts with Mister Man (after the first one this spring to verify he wouldn’t be homesick or have any other issues).

As Mister Man continue with Scouts, however, he’ll once again have some amazing opportunities to bond with my husband (or me – I may insist on going!) when he will have the opportunity to go on some amazing adventures from sailing in the Caribbean to canoe treks in Minnesota or Canada with one of us in tow.

Seeing those challenges through and being there together creates an amazing bond, as I’ve heard from so many other older Scouting parents, not just between the families but amongst the Scouts themselves who make lifelong friendships.

Especially with Mister Man in Boy Scouts, he has exposure to older boys – not just the 5th graders but all the way through high school – who develop and run the meetings and activities. They take it seriously, and this is one of the most important benefits from Boy Scouts that I’ve seen.

When Mister Man was at his first solo campout, the Scouts participated in a flag retirement ceremony. Not only did they learn the importance and significance of the ceremony, but they understand the appropriate respect that you show in such a situation.

Mister Man told me how some of the middle school Scouts were not paying attention and goofing around during the ceremony that involved not just their own troop but also a few others who were camping at the same time. As soon as the ceremony ended and they went back to their campsite, the older boys in their troop pulled the offenders aside and apparently lit into them about their behavior.

The boys were chastised, and it came from older kids they respect. This isn’t just another parent or teacher lecturing them, and it had a much greater impact.

The next campout apparently went off without a hitch, and the boys who had been messing around were amongst the most helpful that time.

They have good role models who will call them out when they don’t behave as they should, and that’s a benefit that will never disappear.

Beyond that, the Boy Scouts can also be involved in being role models for Cub Scouts. Even though Mister Man is one of the younger Boy Scouts, he is still expected to assist with the Pinewood Derby and run it. He becomes someone the Cub Scouts look up to, and that creates such a sense of pride.

As Cub Scouts, the boys were always expected to assist with campouts and other activities. They learned how to set up tents, how to build a fire, how to safely use a knife and more.

All the badges they earned, they had to actually earn. Nothing was handed to them, and not every boy earned the same badges because they didn’t all do the same work.

At Mister Man’s second campout, each patrol within his troop cooked for themselves. There was a silver spoon competition Saturday night where the boys had to agree on a menu, determine how much food to bring, and make it themselves.

Just getting the boys to agree to a menu they all wanted to eat was a challenge. They had to figure out what encompassed a meal without an adult telling them, which is a skill not many kids have these days.

Mister Man’s patrol didn’t win the silver spoon competition – even with their homemade salsa and chips, bbq chicken, carrot sticks, and chocolate covered strawberries (yes, the boys made all that – they can!). As disappointed as Mister Man was, he saw what the other patrols did and learned from it. Next time, they’ll be better, and they still did it all themselves.

The boys in his patrol learned a good lesson, too.

One of them merely thought they had to plan the menu. He was in charge of breakfast Saturday morning, but he brought no food, simply assuming it would be there.

With each patrol in charge of their own food, the boys had to scramble. Mister Man fortunately brought a gallon of milk, so he was able to share much of that. They scrounged through their other supplies and cobbled together a breakfast, but they ended up a little hungry by Sunday morning because they had eaten everything.

Being a little hungry isn’t a big deal. Learning that you have to follow instructions and that there are consequences for not doing what you should is a lesson I’d much rather my children learn at a young age when the consequences are small than when they’re 25 and are much more life changing.

One of the benefits from Boy Scouts? You bet! You know no one in his patrol will every forget to bring food or other items they plan again.

In Cub Scouts, you generally join the pack that is at your school. Once you graduate to Boy Scouts in fifth grade, it’s a whole new ballgame.

The troops aren’t associated so much with schools anymore. They develop their own personalities and areas of focus. Each troop is not like the one down the road, which is great because every kid is different.

This past fall and into the winter, local troops hosted a variety of activities to showcase their troops. It’s sort of like fraternity rush, but way healthier.

The troops that were STEM focused provided STEM activities. The ones focused on outdoor activities provided some of those, though not a full campout. The ones that do more fun experiments had nights with balloon launching, and so forth.

Each troop showed its personality, and Cub Scouts are invited to any or all of the events they want to attend so they can choose the best fit for them. Many of the try out events were open to the whole family, too, which allows us to see how the troop works and see how our children fit into each troop.

Mister Man knew he wanted to continue in Scouting, but he has a wide range of interests.

He wanted to find a troop that was very active, which would allow him to earn more badges. He also looked for a troop with a high number of Eagle Scouts, knowing that this would be a troop more likely to give him compatriots as he goes through the rigorous process of earning his Eagle Scout honors.

Lastly, his favorite part of Scouts is camping. He found a troop that camps and does a variety of outdoor activities all the time. It’s a great fit for him, even though it isn’t the closest one to us.

Mister Man wants to be an Eagle Scout. He’s determined and convinced that this is the path he wants to go down, and that’s wonderful.

But there won’t be an adult telling him that this assignment is due on this day like in school. Instead, he has to decide what he will do to get there and how quickly he wants to earn it. If he doesn’t get it done, it won’t happen.

There were kids in Cub Scouts who were amazingly motivated and earned badges left and right outside of the official troop activities. All kids have that opportunity, but not all will take it. And that’s fine, too.

There isn’t pressure for the kids to earn a certain number of badges, so if there’s something else going on, the kids aren’t made to feel as though they aren’t doing what they should.

At the Boy Scout level, the boys plan and run the meetings. They have to determine the activities each meeting and make them happen.

That is where the true self starter is required. Boys aren’t thrown into the deep end; as younger Scouts, the older Scouts lead the way, and there are always adults on hand for guidance, but the boys are the ones who have to make the time and effort to ensure the meeting run smoothly and are of interest to the group as a whole.

One of the early badges Mister Man earned was for swimming. He’s always been a good swimmer, and the activities required were easy for him.

They weren’t for every boy, but they all worked through it and earned the badge. When it came to sports badges later, Mister Man pushed back against trying some of them.

He declared he simply wasn’t good at sports. He had to do some of them, and this is where he first discovered basketball.

I had tried for years to convince him to try basketball or another team sport, and he always resisted. When he was pushed into it, he discovered that he enjoyed it.

A fifth grader who’s never picked up a ball isn’t going to be good right away, but that isn’t the point. He asked to attend basketball skills sessions and played basketball this winter.

He’s gotten much better – not a star, but he’s really improved – and he wants to keep playing. Without Boy Scouts pushing him to try this and other activities, he would never have discovered how much he loves the sport.

I love the Pinewood Derby. It’s one of Mister Man’s favorite parts of Cub Scouts, and he’s sad that as a Boy Scout, he won’t be eligible to participate anymore.

This is one of those activities that requires kids to be creative and thoughtful – and persistent. Mister Man every year has gone for the design award rather than just speed. I love that Boy Scouts gives a nod to the fact that things don’t just have to be fast to be spectacular.

While many families have the parents design and build the cars, we’ve always gone another route. He chooses what he wants to make – and it’s been everything from a LEGO guy riding in a gold car with fire shooting from the back to an RV to a model Pinewood Derby track to an aircraft carrier this year.

They’ve never been fast, but he quickly figured out that’s not his strength (another of the benefits of Boy Scouts – with so many ways to succeed, you’re always finding where your strengths lie).

He’s incredibly creative, and he’s used that to his advantage. When he didn’t place in his first Pinewood Derby, he was upset and sad, but he channeled that and did better the next year.

He has chosen paint colors and painted his cars only to get all the way done and make a mistake that requires him to redo a section. He could give up, but he knows the reward he’ll have when he looks at his gorgeous Pinewood Derby car.

Instead, he just went back to work each time and improved on his work.

Giving up has always been something we’ve struggled with. The first time going gets tough, he wants to quit in frustration.

Sometimes I can’t blame him, but life doesn’t let you quit. He’s taken his lessons from building his Pinewood Derby cars (which have placed in the regional competition, awesome!) and putting up tents that want to fall down and building fires that don’t want to light and used it elsewhere.

Getting his math homework done even when it’s hard has become less challenging, and his persistence in sticking with basketball and tae kwon do when they haven’t provided him the immediate results and improvement he wants come from the lessons he’s learning as a Scout.

Mister Man is a unique kid (aren’t they all?), and he doesn’t always fit in perfectly with the boys at school who are more interested in messing around and football. The love of basketball he discovered thanks to Boy Scouts has helped him bond with many of the boys he sees in class on a daily basis, and that’s been huge.

In addition, the kids who are in Boy Scouts with him are becoming his friends. They have Scouts in common, and they all chose the same troop because they have a love of the outdoors and camping.

Because the troop pulls from a variety of geographic areas and not just the school Mister Man attends, he’s meeting and making friends with boys he otherwise wouldn’t have met, not only because they go to different schools but because they’re different ages, too.

They get along beautifully and complement each other so well. These are deep friendships that will last long after they’ve all graduated and moved on simply because of the experiences they’ve shared together.

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Scouting helps youth develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills that influence their adult lives. Try new things. Provide service to others.

The World Scouting Movement celebrated its 100th birthday in 2007, making it one of the oldest youth movements on the planet. Since Sir Robert Baden-Powell of England founded the movement in 1907, 500 million boys (and, more recently, girls) have gone through the programs in their own countries. Boy Scouts are famous for their uniforms, their high moral values, their skills in the outdoors, their preparedness, and their service. We may know Boy Scouts from afar, however, and not realize the impact this relatively small group of people has had on the modern world. Here are ten Scouts who have changed the world as we know it.

Image from andoideando.com

Image from pics-about-space.com

We know Neil fondly as the first human being to step on the moon. Although he earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1947, it was another 22 years until Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and uttered the famous words that will forever be remembered on Earth: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Next time you hear his other famous line – “The Eagle has landed”— you’ll hear both its meanings.

Luc Panissod, Secretary General of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, said, “As one might expect of an Eagle Scout, Neil Armstrong was always modest about his personal leadership role on that famous mission and the first to acknowledge the scores of people who contributed in so many ways to making it happen. He will always be an inspiration to ourselves and future generations of Scouts worldwide.”

Image from shanehannon.com

Lovell, like Armstrong, was also an astronaut. He became famous, however, under very different circumstances. In 1970, Lovell was commander of the Apollo 13 mission. On the way to land on the moon, his spacecraft suffered severe damage, making the moon landing impossible. Through the excellent leadership of Lovell and the cooperation of his crew with each other and mission control, the mission made it back to the Earth safely. The story was depicted several years later in the movie “Apollo 13” in which Tom Hanks plays Lovell.

Lovell received his Eagle Scout rank in 1943.

Franklin Roosevelt was quite the man. While he was apparently not a Boy Scout himself, FDR was a long-time Scout leader as an adult. Not only was FDR the only president to be elected for four terms, but those four terms were during a period of economic depression and, at the time, the worst war the world had ever seen.

In his spare time—if you could call it that—he was president of a Boy Scout council and engaged the Boy Scouts to aid the war effort. By the time of his death, he had been involved in Scouting for 24 years.

In a radio address to the Boy Scouts of America, in which he requested the BSA’s help for the war effort, Roosevelt said “. . . Scouting has been one of my active interests for many years. I have visited hundreds of Troops in their home towns and in their camps. I know therefore from personal experience the things we do and stand for as Scouts. We have ideals. We are a growing organization. We believe that we are accomplishing fine American results not only for our own membership, but also for our families, our communities and our Nation.”

Image from stirileprotv.ro

If you don’t know who Sam Walton was, you might have never made a midnight “Walmart run.” Sam Walton revolutionized the retail business in the United States, although quite a while after earning the rank of Eagle Scout at age 13. Walmart’s low prices, wide selection, and quality customer service made it the largest retailer in the country by 1991. In 1993, the year after Sam Walton died, Walmart brought in 1 billion dollars of revenue in a single week.

Walmart, in addition to its retail efforts, has donated over $750 million to the Children’s Miracle Network, an organization that raises funds and awareness for children’s hospitals.

Image from thedailybeast.com

Unlike most of the others on this list, Spielberg’s career can be traced directly back to Boy Scouts: he was working on the photography merit badge and opted to tell a story with film instead of photos.

Spielberg says, “When I went for a Photography merit badge, I made a little 8mm movie. . . And the Boy Scouts in my troop—294, Scottsdale, Ariz.—liked the movie, made a lot of noise, laughed, clapped, and all that. I got that great virus of ‘I’ve got to do this the rest of my life.’ . . . That was how it all started."

IMDB says of Spielberg, “Undoubtedly one of the most influential film personalities in the history of film, Steven Spielberg is perhaps Hollywood's best known director . . .” Spielberg has been involved with movies such as ET, An American Tail, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, and the Back to the Future and Indiana Jones series.

Paul McCartney is one of the most well-known names in music. Talking to PEOPLE magazine in 2008 about practice, he said, “I was a Boy Scout. ‘Be prepared,’ that’s the motto.” Millions of people have enjoyed the fruits of McCartney’s practicing. It’s ironic that McCartney valued Boy Scouts over his music early on—he missed his first scheduled performance with John Lennon to attend Scout camp in Derbyshire.

We don’t know much about John Lennon’s career as a Scout, but we know a lot about his impact on the world through music. Lennon formed the Beatles and wrote songs such as “Imagine,” “Come Together,” “Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds,” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).”

Schinder and Schwartz say of Lennon, “ revolutionised the sound, style, and attitude of popular music.”

"Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws . . . He also did all he could to make people realize that 'all men are created equal.' Because of his great work, in 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize—the youngest person ever  to receive this high honor . . . He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was just 39 years old. His birthday is now observed as a national holiday on the third Monday in January.” (America's Library)

King is one of too many iconic figures whose existing popularity was enhanced by an untimely death. The world we live in today is drastically changed for the better through the sacrifices of people like King.

When Gates received the Silver Buffalo Award in 2010, he talked about his Scouting experience: “I wasn't good at hiking, I wasn't good at cooking the food. It was the overall experience of challenging yourself.” His former Scoutmaster mentioned that during an event where the other boys were demonstrating outdoor skills, Gates was demonstrating computer skills.

As of 2016, Gates is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $78.2 billion. He and wife have given away $30.2 billion to various charitable organizations. Forbes named them the most philanthropic Americans in 2014.

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