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BSA Showcases Adventures of Scouting at Outdoor Retailer

The first day of Outdoor Retailer kicked off yesterday in Denver, Colorado, with several Boy Scouts of America representatives in attendance, highlighting the fun and adventure Scouting offers the whole family.

As part of the BSA’s ongoing partnership with Outdoor Retailer — the world’s leading business-to-business outdoor sports show — Boy Scouts of America sponsored the Outdoor Inspiration Awards which honor inspiring individuals and groups in the outdoor community. Outdoor Retailer invited John Stewart, BSA’s Director of Corporate Engagement and Chief Sustainability Officer, along with two Cub Scouts participating in the Early Adopter program in the Denver Area Council, to introduce two categories of the award. Local Denver-area media were on-hand to celebrate the event and hear from the newest Cub Scout members.

Caroline G. of the Denver Area Council Early Adopter program prepares to share her experience growing up in a Scouting family with CBS 4.

Additionally, Shelley ONeill of Philmont Scout Ranch presented the Non-Profit Inspiration Award to the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. The member-driven Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics teaches the foundational Scouting principle of Leave No Trace that encourages Scouts of all ages to enjoy the outdoors ethically and responsibly.

Jumanji’s Jack Black Talks Scouting with Jimmy Kimmel

Photo: Jimmy Kimmel Live/ ABC

Earlier this week, actor Jack Black revealed a surprising goal from his childhood on Jimmy Kimmel Live —he always wanted to be an Eagle Scout!

In his younger days, this multi-talented comedian participated in both the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs, but he aged out of Scouting before he was able to reach his life-long wish to reach the Eagle Scout rank.

His love of the great outdoors didn’t end after Scouting, however. Black explained to Kimmel that as a young adult, he continued to pursue outdoor adventure through other avenues. This just goes to show, the skills and passions youth develop in Scouting are, without a doubt, tenacious.

“I was a rambunctious youth… I was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout, and I didn’t reach the level of Eagle Scout and I do plan on doing that. I want to go back. You can go back and get that later, right?” Black joked to the late show host.

Kimmel replied, “I don’t think so, no.”

Sorry, Jack, but Jimmy was correct— all Scouts must meet Eagle Scout rank requirements before age 18. But that doesn’t have to mean your Scouting days are over!

While the Jumanji star may have already aged out of Eagle Scout eligibility, we’re certain Black could find the outdoor adventure he loves, should he ever decide to join the fun as a parent volunteer.  

What do you say, Jack?

STEM Scout Named America’s Top Young Scientist

Photo: Andy King, Discovery Education

Last week, STEM Scout Gitanjali “Anjali” Rao was named the winner of the 2017 Discovery Education and 3M Young Scientist Challenge, making the world a better place in the process.

Anjali’s award-winning project, the Tethys, enables users to test for lead levels in water with greater ease and effectiveness than many existing testing processes. This tool, named after the Greek goddess of fresh water, has potentially life-saving implications for communities around the globe.

However, this isn’t Anjali’s first Good Turn in the world of STEM. We met this 11-year-old innovator back in February, after her life-saving device for snake bites earned her the title of Middle Tennessee Council’s STEM Scout of the Year. Flash forward to October, and she’s already invented yet another way to save lives before the year has even ended (classic Anjali).

Be sure to check out Anjali’s Tethys device in the video below from Good Morning America.

Read more about Anjali’s inventions, her thoughts on girls in STEM, and more by reading her recent interview from TIME for Kids magazine.

Find out how you can follow your curiosities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math by heading to STEMscouts.org to find a lab near you!

Time Names Boy Scouts of America One of the Best Nonprofits to Work for

Boy Scouts of America is committed to delivering fun, character-building programs youth can’t experience anywhere else. But what’s also great about Scouting is not only do the kids love experiencing the program, but the adults love to design and deliver it!

Boy Scouts of America was named number four on Indeed’s best non-profits to work for list. The careers site releases its ranking annually based on employee reviews around five factors: compensation and benefits, work/life balance, job security and advancement, management, and culture.

Check out the rankings for yourself by visiting the original article on Time.

OA Hackathon Brings Opportunities for Innovation

Photo: Bryan on Scouting

This Fall, tech-savvy Arrowmen from across the country will gather at the Intel offices in Folsom, Calif., for the OA Hackathon, bringing new innovations to the Order of the Arrow.

From October 6 to 8, 2017, participants will be offered hands-on opportunities to develop their skills and “reimagine the way the Order of the Arrow uses technology,” according to Bryan Wendell of Bryan on Scouting.

In his recent blog post, Wendell explains, “this is what cheerful service looks like in the era of smartwatches, self-driving cars and Snapchat.”

Wendell reports that Arrowmen attending the OA Hackathon will learn from Intel engineers and other technology experts, enhance their coding expertise, and collaborate on a range of projects, such as:

  • Developing an OA app
  • Revamping LodgeMaster— OA’s online system for managing lodge membership
  • Experimenting with new technologies, such as NFC (near-field communication) and facial recognition

Participants will even be able to focus on their areas of interest by joining one of three leagues—the Games League, the Communications League, or the Delivery League.

Learn more about how the OA Hackathon will help bring more innovation to the world of Scouting by reading the full blog post from Bryan on Scouting.

These Brave Scouts Stopped a Wildfire

A wildfire might not be a normal part of a hiking experience, but every year, thousands of Scouts go hiking, and, while they don’t always know what they’ll encounter on those hikes, a good Scout knows it’s important to be prepared.

Scouts Stop Wildfire
Scouts talk about stopping a wildfire while on a hike (photo: NBC KING 5 News)

Such was the case for several Scouts from the Boy Scouts of America Chief Seattle Council. They were on a multi-day hike through the Central Cascades when they came upon a wildfire. When the Scouts saw the wildfire, the flames were small, but they were beginning to spread and had an ample fuel source of dried brush and wood nearby.

The Scouts knew that, in this remote area, if they didn’t act quickly and carefully, the wildfire could spread and damage a much larger area.

“The fire was very close to a heavily treed area with a lot of flammable material,” said one of the Scout’s fathers who was on the hiking trip. “If they would not have found this when they did, it could have been much worse.”

The Scouts grabbed items from their packs that would hold water, and they started a bucket brigade to carefully transfer water from a nearby stream to help put out the fire.

“Plan for the worst; hope for the best,” said Jesse F., the Scout troop’s historian. “The Scout’s motto is: be prepared. Luckily we had lots of pots.”

It took the Scouts and their leaders nearly two hours of steady water to extinguish the flames. As they did so, one of the leaders from the group used a satellite phone to call for additional assistance from forest rangers.

Two firefighters hiked into the forest the following day to help ensure that the wildfire was completely extinguished and had not spread.

To learn more about how these Scouts acted bravely to help prevent a fire from burning more of the forest, be sure to see the full story from NBC KING 5 News.

Teen Earns Eagle Scout by Helping Puppies

Roberto D. has always been a fan of animals. In particular, he loves puppies.

He and his family are big supporters of their SPCA, so when it came time for Roberto to complete his Eagle Scout project, helping out the puppies at the SPCA was a natural fit.

Teen Earns Eagle Scout by Helping Puppies
He constructed dog beds for a local animal shelter. (photo: Ryan Miller, Enid News & Eagle)

Roberto worked with a team of family members and other Scouts to construct several dog beds so that the puppies at the SPCA could lounge in comfort.

Earning Eagle Scout is something that runs in Roberto’s family. His father Jaime and his two uncles had earned Eagle Scout in the same Scout Troop years ago, so when Roberto joined Cub Scouts, he always knew he was going to work to earn Eagle one day.

Of course, Roberto’s journey toward Eagle required him to overcome some challenges his father and uncles never had to face.

Diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at a young age, Roberto was aware that he would have issues with mobility as he grew older, but he never let that stop him from experiencing all that Scouting has to offer. He went on hikes and trips with his Scout unit, and other Scouts would help him along the trails so that they could all complete the hikes together.

He also earned all of the merit badges necessary for Eagle as well as many additional badges – some even his father thought he wouldn’t be able to earn.

“It’s always in the back of my mind he’s going to have so many difficulties, but seeing him flourish and be able to do a lot of the things in my mind I didn’t think he’d be able to do, I was really proud that he was able to prove me wrong with a lot of things,” his father said.

To learn more about this impressive Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America Cimarron Council, be sure to read the full story in the Enid News & Eagle.

 

Scouts’ Experiment Launches into Outer Space

(Photo credit: Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

Monday, a team of Scouts watched in amazement as the project they had diligently designed and built over the last two years blasted into outer space.

The launch is part of a unique partnership between the Boy Scouts of America Pathway to Adventure Council and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) —a non-profit organization that manages the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS).

The project, now headed for the ISS, is an experiment in DNA mutation. While among the stars, the experiment will test a range of biological samples to see how E. coli cultures mutate in a low-gravity environment.

The experiment will test DNA mutations in space. (Photo credit: Kate Jacobs)

“At the beginning, it’s just really cool to do something that’s going into outer space,” the team’s mentor Norm McFarland told the Chicago Tribune. “By the end, the Scouts were coming up with their own solutions to problems they were finding.”

In about one month, astronauts aboard the ISS will send the experiment back to Earth, where the Scouts will then compare these cosmic mutations to how the same cultures mutate on Earth.

If the Scouts and scientists find gravitationally-based variances in the mutations, the discovery could carry tremendous implications for medical science, such as new methods for growing tissue, or even fighting cancer.

(Photo credit: Kate Jacobs)

“It’s been a huge learning experience,” Scout Andrew F., 16, told the Chicago Tribune.  “I had never done anything like this.”

Learn more about the Scouts’ out-of-this-world experiment by reading the full story from the Chicago Tribune and the official announcement from Pathway to Adventure Council.

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle Scout Saves Four Lives While Surfing

When Eagle Scout Caden E. hit the beach with his family to go surfing, little did he know that another family at the beach that day would need his help to save their lives.

It all started like a normal day with a few small waves and plenty of fun in the sun for Caden and his family. As a kid who has been surfing for several years, Caden decided to paddle a little farther down the beach in search of a bit more of a challenge.

Eagle Scout Saves Four Lives While Surfing
Caden saved four lives while surfing. (photo: Sherry Morrison)

As he paddled toward another break, he noticed a woman far out in the water, frantically waving her hands. He paddled toward her and saw that she had two small children clinging to her, and another small boy was a few feet away. All of them were struggling to stay above water.

The family had been pulled out to sea by a rip current, and they’d been unable to fight the current and swim back to shore. Fatigue was beginning to set in for all of them.

Caden managed to help the woman and the two children with her onto his longboard to help them stay afloat, but as he was doing so, the young boy was overtaken by exhaustion and slipped beneath the waves.

In that moment, Caden knew he had to do something, so he dove down into the water and retrieved the boy, pulling him back to the surface and onto his surfboard.

Once everyone was on the board, Caden began paddling away from the rip current and eventually back toward shore. As he did so, lifeguards and others were swimming out to help bring everyone all the way back to the beach.

“This is an example of the highest ideals of the Boy Scout program,” said John Crowder, a district representative with the Boy Scouts of America Tidewater Council. “This is the sort of person that you’d want to be or want your son to be.”

For his lifesaving efforts, Caden received the Medal of Merit.

To learn more about this remarkable Eagle Scout, be sure to read the full story in The Virginian-Pilot.

jamboree

How Scouts Served the West Virginia Community at the 2017 National Jamboree

During the 2017 National Jamboree, approximately 40,000 attendees flooded the grounds of the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Mount Hope, West Virginia, ready to not only have fun, but also to serve the surrounding West Virginia community.

As part of the complete Jamboree experience, Scouts participated in more than 200 local service projects to benefit 45 of the state’s 55 counties.

The Boy Scouts of America partnered with the Citizens Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Day of Service team to identify service projects ranging from restoring and preserving historical sites and flood remediation to creating art murals and installing a butterfly garden.

“Our efforts had a tremendous impact in 2013, and the response to this statewide opportunity in 2017 has been incredible,” said Robert A. Martin, CEO of CCC in an article published by The Register-Herald. “We are grateful to Governor Justice for his support and we have enjoyed the response from citizens throughout the state as they have nominated projects and worked to see those projects happen.”

For a list of some of the community service projects conducted at the Jamboree and to read the full story, head to The Register-Herald. To learn more about how Scouts contributed during these days of service at the 2017 Jamboree, read the complete press release.