Scouting, Volume 58, Number 3, May-June 1970 Page: 23
48 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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OMETHING MORE"
By ROBERT H. FINCH, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
high school organizations, my interest
in Scouting continued and I eventually
served for awhile as assistant Scout-
master of that same troop.
Motivator for service
I think Scouting did more to shape
my life than anything else I did as a
boy or young man. I remember with
fondness the skills I learned and the
fun I had. But, even more important
was that the Scout program has such
a strong, built-in, motivational force it
makes a boy want to continue to learn
and to serve his community and fellow-
man. This emphasis on service is defi-
nitely what lead me into public life
and politics. After a good Scouting
experience you just naturally move
into a life of service.
I still recall one of our troop's most
memorable service projects. Part of the
troop was organized into a drum and
bugle corps. I was a bugler and was
called upon many times to play "Taps"
at funerals of area veterans. This type
of personal service is a great example
for later life and work.
Educational fun
Scouting, then, is not just fun and
games. It is a great educational force
that can do wonders for the youth of
our country. Scouting gently prods the
boy into doing new things, learning
new skills, and serving his fellowman,
even though he may not realize this is
happening because he is having so
much fun and living so many new
adventures.
The Scout program definitely rein-
forces school and church experiences.
Its greatest lesson is in showing boys
how to live with one another and how
to get along with adults and leaders.
When a troop is under the right leader-
ship—and mine was—the boy-man re-
lationships can be a powerful motiva-
tion for good. This was especially true
in my case. My father died suddenly
while I was still in the troop, and my
friendship with the Scoutmaster and
other leaders helped fill that terrible
void. My Scout training was also an
excellent introduction to my later
service in the U.S. Marines. By this
time I already had learned many
leadership and technical skills in Scout-
ing and they enabled me more quickly
to become a Marine officer and leader.
Scouting is still doing the same good
job for boys that it did for me. I know
this to be a fact, because my son
Kevin recently completed several years
in a troop. Like me, he started in Cub
Scouting, served a hitch as patrol
leader in the troop, and had many
wonderful outdoor experiences. He es-
pecially enjoyed the high adventure of
a mountain trek at Philmont Scout
Ranch and Explorer Base in New
Mexico. The way he told it, that man-
building trek was the type of experi-
ence every boy should have.
For a representative one-third
Now, Scouting is attempting to make
its program available to every boy in
our country through a program called
BOYPOWER '76. It's an exciting, ambi-
tious, and much needed program that
is accelerating the extension of the
Boy Scouts of America into the inner-
city where it is so vitally needed.
Scouting's top leaders say the objective
is to bring the program into the homes
of a representative one-third of Amer-
ican boys.
Much hard work will be required
to succeed in the inner-city but will be
well worthwhile. Scouting does pro-
duce results. It offers a systemized, in-
structive force for good that, properly
presented, is unmatched by any other
youth program in the country.
As always, one of Scouting's greatest
problems will be getting enough of the
right men and women to serve as
leaders, committeemen, merit badge
counselors, and administrators. Adults
must be challenged to do this vital
volunteer work. They must be made
to realize that although there are
many good volunteer causes in our
country today, nothing is more impor-
tant than a program that positively
challenges its youth to do their best.
Besides the sheer necessity of their
work, new leaders in Scouting will be
amazed to see how soon their "pay-
off" arrives. They will be highly re-
warded just watching how quickly the
boys respond to opportunities given
them.
Recognize volunteer leader
One incentive for volunteer involve-
ment should be greater recognition of
the volunteer leader and the job he is
doing. These men and women are true
community leaders and must be ag-
gressively promoted as a positive force
for good in their neighborhoods and
communities. This type of recognition
will also help stimulate greater parental
interest and support so necessary in
the life of a Scout unit. My wife Carol
was a volunteer Girl Scout leader and
thoroughly enjoyed it.
It is encouraging that the Boy Scout
program continues to emphasize the
outdoors. All around we see evidence
of our dwindling natural resources,
of pollution that is suffocating much
of our natural life and beauty, and of
a civilization that is obliterating much
of our national landscape in the name
of progress. Boys who grow up in the
clean outdoors and learn to appreciate
it will want to do all they can in the
future toward helping to keep it that
way.
I am also encouraged to see that
Exploring, the BSA program for older
teen-agers, is exhibiting a much
greater spirit of urgency and relevance
in the last year or two. Exploring's
emphasis on developing the special
interests of these young people seems
to be stimulating them much better
than many other attempts at organized
teen-age activities. This program should
Continued on page 46
Present HEW Secretary Robert H. Finch, left.
Future HEW Secretary Robert H. Finch, left end of line.
23
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 58, Number 3, May-June 1970, periodical, May 1970; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth331806/m1/29/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.