On the Scouting Path…
Our family had
always been involved in Scouting as we were moved to different places around
the country, but I knew the older our sons became, the harder it would be to
keep them involved. There were other
priorities, distractions from so much that we loved about Scouting. As parents in the modern world, we believe in
the ideals of Scouting: duty to God,
self and others. Our sons are not
perfect, but we wanted to affirm the positive as we sought to help them
eliminate the negative from all of the societal and peer pressures around
them. We believe that Scouting helped us
to actively support our sons in building good character that promotes active
and confident leadership in their Faith lives, respectful citizenship to help
make our society and world a better place by doing a good turn daily and
understanding and appreciating God’s beauty in nature. The merit badges that they earned were
examples of the skills and knowledge we felt they needed to know and be able to
do before they left us to go out into the world. As parents, we couldn’t do that on our own.
Scouting gave us
more than we can ever repay, and that is why I try to stay involved even now
after both our sons have achieved Eagle Scout and have moved away to
college. As a family who moved to a new
community in 2006- 1,500 miles away from
friends and family, we didn’t know anyone or anything except that we wanted our
boys to be involved in Scouting. God
blessed us with an active Troop 208, and it gave us an identity, a sense of
purpose and a strong network of support.
Colin and Ian now have a dozen sets of parents watching out for them
instead of just one set. These amazing
people are like family to us and to our sons even now as they are away at
college. In their college experiences
and in their lives, Scouting has given them the credentials and skills for
success. Both of our sons were accepted
into elite programs at an excellent University and their part-time jobs
flourish, I believe, because of their Scouting habits. They see themselves as citizens of the world
and seek to travel and serve others as they learn and earn their degrees. More importantly, we pray that their Scouting
experiences will empower them to continue to be successful, independent men,
who will someday be proactive fathers and leaders. As we try to be blessings to others around
us, we too have truly been blessed by Scouting in our lives.
