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July 27, 2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized |

Scouting and America
- By Hans Zeiger

It was nine years ago this month that I sat at a picnic table under rain-soaked tarps at Camp Hahobas learning the basics of Boy Scouting. Brad and I were the new Scouts in Troop 174, and to us, getting to Eagle Scout seemed like a daunting task. While older Scouts went off to work on merit badges, Brad and I stayed back in our campsite with my grandpa, our Scoutmaster, learning the essentials of survival, environmental stewardship, First Aid, knots, plant identification, and Scout spirit.

My grandpa has been involved in Scouting for nearly six decades of his life. Four of his sons, and seven grandsons have been involved in Troop 174. He spent a career as an elementary school principal, but he likes to say that he himself got more out of Scouting as a kid than he ever got out of school. Now that I’ve experienced Scouting, I have to agree.

And a new study by Harris Interactive shows that Boy Scouts are more confident, more skilled at leadership, more interested in helping other people, and more likely to graduate from high school and college than their non-Scout peers. Of former Scouts surveyed, over 80 percent say that Scouting has taught them respect for life and property, care for the environment, honesty, and group cooperation. Two-thirds of former Scouts, and 83 percent of Scouts with at least five years in the program, say that they have been better leaders in real-life situations as a result of having been Scouts ………
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