Let’s salute Boy Scouts

Opinion

February 5, 2010

W. TERRY SMITH The Daily Southerner Fri Feb 05, 2010, 12:43 PM EST

I am a big fan of the Boy Scouts of America. “Be prepared” is a great motto. I like what they stand for.

The Boy Scout program is the last major youth development program to still maintain a belief in God as a requirement for membership and advancement. The Scouts won their right to maintain the belief in God requirement before the Supreme Court.

This is a big weekend during a big year for Scouting.

Boys Scouts and Cubs will be picking up bags of groceries we are to leave on our front doors Saturday morning.

It's the Scouting for Food effort. In spite of the snow and ice last weekend you probably got a door hanger informing you of the annual drive. Place food in a plastic bag on the front porch by 9 a.m. Saturday. Boys will collect the bags and bring them to Tarboro Community Outreach.

Scouts from the 20 counties served by East Carolina Council, BSA will collect food from their neighborhoods.

It's a big year because its the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouts.

Boy Scouts in North Carolina have pledged to Gov. Perdue to complete 100,000 hours of community service as a gift to North Carolina in honor of the 100th anniversary of the BSA.

The governor is going to salute the Boys Scouts at the Capitol on Monday, the actual date of the anniversary. One hundred Scouts representing the state's 100 counties will be present, including Ryan Rogerson of Tarboro and Rocky Mount Troop 11, representing Edgecombe County. He is the 15-year-old son of Tim and Carolyn Rogerson.

Rogerson's service project toward his Eagle rank is to replace all the flags at Edgecombe County Public Schools.

There are 503 Boy Scouts in Edgecombe County in nine Cub packs (grades 1-5), nine Boy Scout troops grades (6-12) and one Venture outfit.

It takes money to do all that Scouts do. Some of that money comes from our contributions to United Way. Some of it comes from the annual Friends of Scouting Banquet.

This year’s banquet is March 18 at Stack's restaurant. Tickets are $75 per person and $100 per couple. Last year the banquet raised more than $12,000. This year's goal is $15,000.

The Scouts name an outstanding citizen each year. Joe Bourne, Dr. Brookes Peters, Charlie Harrell are just a few that have been honored.

This year the Scouts will honor the Golden K Kiwanis Club, the gentlemen with the yellow ball caps who raise more money than anyone in the Twin Counties for The Salvation Army during the red kettle drive. They also sponsor the monthly flag-raising ceremony on the Town Common. Again, the Scouts of the Tar River District, which includes Edgecombe and Nash counties, has came up with a winner.

The 2010 Boy Scout Regional Jamboree and Cub Scout Family Camp will be April 23-25 in Kinston.

About 6,000 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts – plus their family members – are expected to descend on Kinston that weekend, setting up camp and taking part in activities on 600 acres of land and its adjoining lake along U.S. 70 West.

Scouts will have the opportunity to canoe, row and kayak on the lake and take part in shooting and archery competitions, run through obstacle courses on land and swim and scuba dive in the nearby Galaxy of Sports swimming pool.

There will also be vendors and display areas, along with a stage for shows and talent competitions.

Finally, here’s an e-mail from a former Boy Scout in Iraq last year:

"It happened this morning when I noticed that my .50-caliber (machine gun) was not on full automatic fire. Immediately I tried to correct this, but it wouldn't come off single-shot fire mode.

“I tried everything I could, including putting some lubricating oil to loosen it up, and as we were already rolling and almost outside the wire, I did not have time to take it apart to assess it further.

“So thinking on my feet, (I was literally standing), I looked around at what I had available to me. I had a Gerber multi-tool, and some small loops of line hanging off the sniper blind that sits above my head. I cut off enough line to lash down the part that allows the .50 cal to be on full automatic fire mode.

“I credit this ingenuity to my many years of Boy Scouting and all the time spent tying knots and lashing stuff together. Had I actually needed to use my machine gun this day, it probably would have saved my life and that of many others.

“Thanks, Boy Scouts."

W. Terry Smith is editor of The Daily Southerner.

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