ALUMNI ALIVE!
Your Chance to Visit the World Without Leaving the Country
Newsletter for Alumni and Friends SPRING 2019
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VE VI t, R U ou
S Sc TOEaglePg. 6)
W ing t! ( HOtstandtewar
N u S ARith OCreek E L W
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
2 Message From the Director
3 Honor Those Who Serve
7 Philmont is Open for Business
9 Separating Fact from Fiction
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Back to Gilwell Happy Land
Meet This Wildland Firefighter
A Message From The Director Every reader of Boys’ Life magazine has a favorite section— “Pee Wee Harris,” perhaps, or the groaners in “Think & Grin.” For me, a highlight was always “A True Story of Scouts in Action,” which tells the vivid tales of Scouts who’ve saved lives using the skills we learned and practiced in troop meetings. I’ll bet I’m not the only Boys’ Life reader who has longed for the chance to do the same thing—and not just for the glory of appearing in the magazine. A few years ago, Scouting magazine—the publication for BSA volunteers—got in on the action, so to speak, by adding a feature called “A True Story of Scouters in Action.” Drawn by Grant Miehm, the same illustrator Boys’ Life uses, the feature recognizes adults who have saved lives while risking their own. The very first installment, which appeared in the January/February 2015 issue, focused on Eagle Scout and Navy Capt. Edward Leo Zawislak, a hero of the 2013 Navy Yard shooting in Washington, D.C. Most of us, of course, will never be featured in either Boys’ Life or Scouting for our acts of heroism. Unless you’re a first responder or medical professional, you have to be in the right place at the right time to get the chance to save a life. But that’s not to say that each of us can’t make a difference. Consider, for example, Scouter Richard Gardner Williams, who was featured in the March-April 2019 issue of Scouting. Williams and a cousin saved two men from a boat fire just before the boat exploded, which was an incredible achievement. But when Williams isn’t saving boaters in Credit: Scouting Magazine distress, he’s a council executive board member and troop committee chair in Derby, Ct. While those jobs won’t earn him any headlines, my guess is he has a far larger impact in those roles than he did that day on Long Island Sound. So, what’s your story? How are you using the skills you learned and practiced in Scouting to make a difference in the world? How are you being a Scout or Scouter in action?
Once a Scout, Always a Scout,
Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni and Friends
ALUMNI NEWS Special Commendation Honors Those Who Serve On the last Sunday in December 2018, 90-year-old John Sanchez attended an Eagle Scout court of honor near his Schererville, Ind., home, something he’d done many times in his 70-plus years of Scouting involvement. This court of honor was different, however. At the end of the ceremony, two young Eagle Scouts walked to the microphone and asked the audience to be seated. They then read off Sanchez’s impressive Scouting resume—which includes service at the unit and district levels, leadership at Owasippe Scout Reservation, and a slew of awards—and asked him to come forward to receive the Scouting Service Commendation. “As he started to walk down the aisle, he got a standing ovation,” says John Beede, a member of the Scouting Alumni and Friends Committee. “He was completely caught off guard, and you could see the great big smile on his face that he was being remembered not only for Scouting, but for what he did in the community.” Being remembered for Scouting and community service is exactly what the Scouting Service Commendation is all about. Developed by Scouting and Alumni and Friends, it’s designed to honor Scouting alumni for giving back to their communities, to their professions, to their religions, to their families, and to Scouting and other youth-serving organizations. It recognizes that recipients’ sense of duty and service to others is based in part on the training, experience, and challenges Scouting provides. “This is really a celebration of service and those who provide it,” says Mike Movius, Scouting Alumni and Friends’ vice-chair for awards and recognition. In some cases, the commendation goes to those who, like Sanchez, are well known for their service. In other cases, it goes to people who’ve been passed over for other awards, perhaps because they shunned the spotlight or moved around frequently or simply never got nominated for an award like the Silver Beaver (the highest award a local council can give) or the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award. Unlike those better-known awards, the Scouting Service Commendation, which is available from http://bsaalumnistore. com/safrecognitions-awards/, has no nomination forms or documentation requirements. Instead, you simply certify that 3
the person you want to honor has served in Scouting for at least 25, 50, or 75 years. Each commendation—a medallion on a neck ribbon accompanied by a certificate—costs $29. Beede has been on a campaign to recognize deserving volunteers in his state of Indiana and far beyond the state’s borders. In fact, he’s talked up the commendation with friends from Massachusetts to California. “We don’t thank our volunteers enough, and this is a great way to thank them—not only for their Scouting, but for what they do in the community and what they did as a professional,” he says. Although there’s no right way to present a commendation, Beede’s preference is to have them presented by young Eagle Scouts, as he did with John Sanchez. “The big thrill for him was two Eagle Scouts making the presentation,” he says. “He made that very clear to me.” Movius says there’s nothing wrong with veteran Scouters ordering a commendation for themselves. “This is an important commendation,” he says. “People shouldn’t be reluctant to step forward and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve been giving service that I learned and practiced through Scouting.’”
Scouts Celebrate Their Future and Past Through Traditions In 1916—just six years after the Boy Scouts of America was founded—Boy Scout Troop 5 opened for business at Pasadena’s Polytechnic School. The following spring, members of the troop asked Principal Grace Henley if they could bring their pets to school one day. She said “yes,” and the Poly Pet and Hobby Show was born. More than a century later, the show is still going strong. “They literally have a big show ring where kids can bring their pets— their dogs or whatever—and show them off like at a regular dog show,” says Poly parent Mike Bryant. “But there’s all sorts of other games and activities that are sponsored by a variety of people. They do a Maypole; they do all sorts of different activities.” And the Scouts are still in the mix, according to Bryant, who became Troop 5’s Scoutmaster in January. “A couple of years we had kids try to make fires with a bow and a stick,” he says. “The last few years we lashed together a great big trebuchet and were launching water balloons and stuff.” The Poly Pet and Hobby Show is just one of Troop 5’s enduring traditions. New members receive their troop neckerchiefs on their first camping trip, and the troop always attends summer camp at Camp Cherry Valley on Catalina Island. Summers are usually given over to high adventure at one of the BSA’s four high adventure bases. “If we don’t do that, we have the Sierras in our backyard here, so we go toward Yosemite or someplace and do weeklong, 50-mile backpacking trips,” Bryant says.
who also led a short-lived Venturing crew for girls that the troop spun off. “I think the troop was kind of ahead of its time in a way because they recognized that there was interest out there,” she says. Troop 55 now has a dozen members, a few from Poly and the rest from the local community. Some have Troop 5 connections— which is convenient since troop meetings are held concurrently—while others have brothers who became Eagle Scouts in troops that haven’t launched sister troops. Terrile thinks starting a girls’ troop is key to the survival of Scouting at Poly. “In this day and age, limiting it to boys is sort of discriminatory,” she says. “Making it accessible to girls helps us with our community, so it doesn’t seem as closed off.” Troop 55 held its first outing in March and already has plans to join Troop 5 at Florida Sea Base this summer. The aquatic adventure will continue in September with a kayaking trip in the Channel Islands.
Even being in Troop 5 is a tradition for many families. Bryant’s predecessor as Scoutmaster, Dom Femino, is a Troop 5 Eagle Scout and Poly alumnus—and he’s not the only current Scouter who can claim that double honor.
Terrile says it’s too early to know what traditions her troop will establish, but she says things are off to a great start. “It’s all new,” she says. “You don’t know how it will go, but so far it’s worked out really well.”
But Troop 5 isn’t stuck in the past—far from it. “I don’t think we dwell too much on heritage,” Bryant says. “I think we just try to keep it fun for the boys—and the girls now.”
And who knows? Perhaps the girls will create a new tradition in their first few years that will still be going strong a century from now. It’s happened before.
That’s right—girls.
In 1985, the BSA celebrated its diamond jubilee with a fitting theme: “Pride in the Past ... Footsteps to the Future.” Today, the Scouts of Troops 5 and 55 are living out that theme as they continue a second century of service to their community.
This winter, Troop 5 spun off a new troop for girls, Troop 55, which is also chartered to the school. Leading the new troop is Scoutmaster Christine Terrile, whose college-age sons are Troop 5 Eagle Scouts. Terrile herself is a longtime Troop 5 volunteer
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Survival Hacks with
Former President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” This is precisely what Creek Stewart, our contributor to this new series, had in mind for Survival Hacks with CR///EK. Creek gives the definition as: Sur-VIV-al Hack-ing: (v) The act of using what you have to get what you need to stay alive in any situation. He continues to say that “hacking” is making due with what you’ve got. It has three aspects: using knowledge of basic survival principles; innovative thinking; and exploiting available resources. We think he is right! Scouts are resourceful and prepared. And, they are always open to learning new things. So take a look and maybe you will learn a new trick or two!
About Creek Stewart CR///EK Stewart: Survival Instructor, Author, Host. Creek’s survival knowledge comes from experience. His life-long study of outdoor living and survival skills is backed by thousands of man-hours in the field. Creek is a frequent guest survival expert in the media and has been featured in/on magazines, talk shows, and countless radio and online events. He is a regular contributing author to the hugely popular men’s interest blog ArtofManliness.com, and his survival writings have been featured on thousands of websites. Creek is a published author of many titles, including Survival Hacks available here. In 2015, Creek was presented with the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award (NOESA) by the Boy Scouts of America. The NOESA is a prestigious recognition granted to Eagle Scouts who have demonstrated outstanding achievement at the local, state, or regional level. Creek recognizes his experiences while earning the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge in the Boy Scouts of America as the fuel for a lifelong passion in learning and teaching self-reliant skills. Creek is the owner of and lead instructor at Willow Haven Outdoor Survival School in Central Indiana. He is also the owner and curator of APOCABOX, a bi-monthly subscription survival box. Currently, Creek is the lead survival instructor for the traveling survival training and competition series, ESCAPE THE WOODS. 5
Cr///ek Stewart here! I am extremely excited to be a contributor to Alumni Alive and share some more of my favorite survival hacks! My first hack is a quick and easy way to ensure your dinner is hot. My second hack will prepare you for the first one as you prepare your coals to get your fire started. Enjoy! And remember, it’s not IF but WHEN.
Shelf Bracket Stove Being able to efficiently support or hang a cooking pot over a fire is sometimes easier said than done. One of my favorite quickie stove hacks involves three metal shelf brackets that cost under $5! They are also very lightweight and packable if you need to take them on the move. Once you have a good bed of coals going, stab the metal L-shaped brackets into the ground (as shown) and scoop the coals underneath. This makes for a very sturdy surface on which to cook stews, fry meats and wild veggies, or boil water. You can stab the short ends deeper in the ground to create a surface closer to the coals if necessary. Use four brackets to mkae a larger, square-shaped raised platform.
Make Your Own Lint for Tinder Most people know that dryer lint makes awesome fire tinder. It’s dry, fibrous, and almost always contains cotton fibers, which are incredibly flammable. However, there are no dryer lint trees in the wilderness, or at least none that I’ve found. If you have an ignition source that will create a spark, such as a busted cigarette lighter or a ferro rod, here is a little trick to make your own lint tinder. Scrape any cotton garment at a 90-degree angle with a knife or sharp tool - even a rock. You will slowly reveal a small pile of cotton fibers. Collect enough of them to create a tinder bundle large enough to ignite with just a spark. Note: Don’t pack your lint too tightly when trying to ignite it. Pull the fibers apart to expose more surface area and you’ll increase the chances that a spark will hold.
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HAPPENINGS Two Great Reasons to Visit Philmont This Summer Scouting alumni who return to Philmont Scout Ranch as adults are often surprised to discover how much steeper the trails are than they remember. And when they crawl into their tents at night, they realize the ground has gotten a whole lot harder in the intervening decades. Thanks to the Philmont Training Center (PTC), alumni can enjoy two on-site training events in comfort. The first option is the annual Scouting Alumni Conference, which is offered jointly by Scouting Alumni and Friends and the National Eagle Scout Association. Scheduled for June 16-22 at Philmont, this interactive conference helps local council volunteers learn how to reengage alumni in the Scouting program. If you’re involved in local alumni efforts—or would like to get involved—this conference is for you. The other option is a new program called BSA Family Adventure Camp, which lets families experience the excitement of the BSA’s New Mexico high adventure base while enjoying more creature comforts. This summer, PTC is offering BSA Family Adventure Camp during four weeks: June 23-29, June 30-July 6, July 28-August 3, and August 4-10. Each session runs from Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning, although half-week sessions are also available. “This is a way to get family members to experience BSA’s outdoor program,” says Andrea Watson, team lead, camping services. “This could be a way to experience Philmont’s outdoor adventure with your entire family.” Being comfortable starts with housing options, all of which promise a better night’s sleep than a backpacking tent. In addition to the familiar wall tents with cots that PTC has long offered, participants can use roofed housing that’s typically reserved for conference faculty and brand-new Eco Tents that include space for the entire family. Each tent has a main room with a queen-sized bed for the parents and a side room with bunks for up to four kids. “They all face the Tooth of Time, which is nice,” Watson says. (The Tooth of Time is the iconic 9,003-foot peak that looms over camping headquarters.)
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Besides choosing their own housing, families get to choose their own activities and their own level of challenge. Options include hiking, fishing, shooting sports, a ropes course, horseback riding, crafts, and more. Those options will be familiar to people who’ve attended PTC conferences in the past. What’s different with Family Adventure Camp is that families will participate in activities together, not in age-based program groups. (The Small Fry Center offers care for kids ages 2 months to 5 years during the day.) In addition, families can choose to skip formal programming to either hang out in camp or travel to other area attractions, such as the famed artists’ community of Taos. And, says Watson, Mom and Dad will have opportunities to leave the kids with the PTC staff while they go out for a special dinner. Watson expects all four sessions to sell out—an impressive feat given that weekly capacity is about 500 participants. But she already has plans to expand. What’s happening at Philmont will over the next few years move to the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia. And the program won’t be limited to summer: Watson wants each site to be open for at least 105 nights a year. “When you consider most Scout camps average being open 55 nights a year, this will be a good stretch for us to utilize our facilities more often,” she says. “We’re really excited about opening up our properties for families in new ways.” Both locations will offer tiered housing options, but programming will vary by site and season. According to Watson, every site will include activities that tie directly to Scouting values, which won’t be hard to do. “Strengthening family relationships has always been a core value of Scouting,” she says. “The addition of the BSA Family Adventure Camp program lets us do this in a new and exciting way.” For more information on Family Adventure Camp at Philmont, visit https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/ptc/ philmontfamilyadventure/. To learn more about the Philmont Alumni Conference and other PTC offerings, visit https://www. philmontscoutranch.org/ptc/conferenceso/.
See the World in West Virginia This Summer At Disney’s Epcot theme park, you can visit 11 countries in an afternoon. That’s not bad, but this summer another park—the Summit Bechtel Reserve—will offer an even bigger international experience. From July 22 to August 2, 45,000 Scouts and Scouters from over 165 different countries will be there to participate in the 24th World Scout Jamboree. If you’re not signed up to participate, you can still get a taste of the jamboree experience as a day visitor. “It’s a way to travel around the world in an afternoon,” says Mark Kriebel, the Scouter who is the event’s Chief of Base Camp and Subcamp Operations. Kriebel, who hails from Endwell, N.Y., will be staffing his third world jamboree. (He previously served as Northeast Region chief for the 20th World Jamboree, held in Thailand in the winter of 2002-2003, and the 23rd World Jamboree, held in Japan in the summer of 2015.) He says that unlike national jamborees, which he has also staffed, world jamborees focus more on interpersonal connections than program activities. That will start in the Summit’s base camps, where troops from around the world will be jumbled together rather than grouped by country or region. The base camps and most program areas won’t be accessible to day visitors, but there will still be plenty to see in the heart of the jamboree site. Highlights will include Centro Mondial, the event’s main hub; the Global Development Village, where participants will exchange ideas about how to build a better world; and World Point, where Scouts from around the world will show off their talents. If you get hungry, you can stop by one of the International Food Houses to sample the cuisine of Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, or the United Kingdom. And everywhere you go, you’ll see people from countries you’ve never visited—or perhaps never even heard of. You can’t just show up at the jamboree site, however. Instead, you must purchase a visitor pass online and start your adventure at the nearby J.W. and Hazel Ruby Welcome Center.
Passes cost $55 for those 14 and older and $30 for youths age 6 to 13. (Those under 6 are free.) Visitor days are as follows: • Wednesday, July 24 (first visitor day): 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Thursday, July 25: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Saturday, July 27: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Sunday, July 28: Noon to 5 p.m. • Monday, July 29: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Tuesday, July 30: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. • Wednesday, July 31 (last visitor day): 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Capacity is limited, so officials recommend registering early. Note that the jamboree is closed to visitors on Friday, July 26. World jamborees are held every four years, but only two have ever been held in North America: the 1967 World Jamboree in Idaho and the 1983 World Jamboree in Alberta, Canada. “It’s been 50 years since the BSA has had a world jamboree,” Kriebel says. “I likely won’t be around for the next one.” While the jamboree will only last a couple of weeks, the memories will last a lifetime. Kriebel is still in touch with a Tanzanian Scouter he connected with in Thailand, for example. (Their friendship started via email, then transitioned to Facebook.) At the same jamboree, he had lunch with both the King of Sweden and Thailand’s national Scouting commissioner, whose father happened to be president of Kriebel’s other favorite organization, Rotary International. “That was quite a coup from my Rotary experience that I would have met the son of the international president of Rotary at a Scouting event in Thailand,” he says. It really is a small world after all.
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Program Girls in the BSA: Going Beyond the Headlines When the Boy Scouts of America fully opened all its programs to young women on Feb. 1, 2019, most observers were elated, some were concerned, and many were simply confused. In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion, Alumni Alive! has waded into the weeds to find clear answers to some common questions. What’s the difference between Boy Scouting and Scouts BSA? Scouts BSA is the new name for the Boy Scout program, Scouting’s iconic program for youths ages 11 through 17. Dropping ‘boy’ from the name made it clear that girls are welcome in the program. So the Boy Scouts of America is now called Scouts BSA? No. Despite what you may have read in some news reports, the name of the organization remains the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouting) is a program offered by the BSA, along with Cub Scouting, Venturing, Sea Scouts, Exploring, STEM Scouts, and Learning for Life. Is it correct to say that the BSA is now co-ed? Not exactly. Although girls are now welcome in all BSA programs, only Venturing, Sea Scouts, Exploring, STEM Scouts, and Learning for Life are truly co-ed. Cub Scouting and Scouts BSA use a unique hybrid model that offers families convenience while preserving the value of single-sex programming. In this model, boys and girls can learn and grow at the pace that is unique to their development. How does this model work in Cub Scouting? Chartered organizations (the religious, civic, and other groups that provide Scouting in their local communities) may choose to serve only boys, only girls, or both boys and girls. If they choose to serve both boys and girls, they form separate boy dens and girl dens within the same pack. (So Pack 123 might have one Wolf den for boys and one Wolf den for girls.) While dens meet separately, pack meetings and outings involve all pack members. How does this model work in Scouts BSA? Boys and girls join separate gender-specific troops. However, a chartered organization may choose to have both a boy troop and a girl troop that share a common troop committee but have different Scoutmasters; these are called linked troops and can share 9
the same troop number. Linked troops could hold their opening and closing ceremonies together, depending on space and the desire of the chartered organization and unit leadership, but the other components of the Scout meeting run separately. Joint courts of honor and outings are permissible, and council and district events may involve both boy troops and girl troops if they follow the Guide to Safe Scouting and all Youth Protection Guidelines. What about the Girl Scouts? The Girl Scouts of the USA is and always has been a separate organization. The BSA applauds the work of all youth-serving organizations that serve our nation’s youth and believes that there is an opportunity for all such organizations to serve girls and boys in our communities. I think Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said it best: “The reality is that most families in this country are not currently engaged with any character-building youth development program. There are over 70 million children in America that could benefit from our programs, and today, organizations like ours and others only serve a fraction of them. That is a huge unmet need, but one we can help address.” Can a girl participate in both Scouts BSA and Girl Scouting? Of course. Just as many kids choose to play two sports, many girls are choosing to participate in both Scouts BSA and Girl Scouting. Is it true that girls can become Eagle Scouts? Yes. The Scouts BSA program, including the advancement program, is identical for boys and girls. But I heard the BSA was making exceptions to the requirements. The only exception is that new Scouts BSA members in 2019 (both boys and girls) who are 16 or 17 when they join may petition the National Council for a time extension. The logic is that they would otherwise not have the 19-20 months that are the minimum period of time to complete all the requirements. Will there be a race to become the first female Eagle Scout? There shouldn’t be. The BSA announced earlier this year that it won’t identify the first female Eagle Scout. Instead, it will officially recognize the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in the fall of 2020.
New Book Takes Readers Back to Gilwell As a seasonal staff member at Philmont Scout Ranch in the early 1960s, Eagle Scout Kenneth P. Davis learned how to spot the people most responsible for Scouting’s success. “It was clear that everybody who’d ever done very much in Scouting as an adult was wearing Wood Badge beads,” he recalls. “So I figured, even though I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into, I would try to go.” That’s exactly what he did in August 1963. He was 21 years old and just starting a lifelong involvement with Scouting’s premier training course. In fact, he has since served on at least 35 Wood Badge staffs—including several as course director—and is part of the task force developing the latest version of the training. (Scheduled for release later this year, it will be the fourth major version of Wood Badge.) “I’ve actually served on staff for every version of the course, and there aren’t many people like me around,” he says. “It’s partly because I went when I was so young and stayed involved.” Davis’ experience, coupled with his two college degrees in history, made him the perfect person to write The History of Wood Badge in the United States, which is now available for purchase from Seattle Book Company. And if that weren’t enough, Davis, who donated his time, actually wrote a previous version of the book three decades ago. (That book got its start in 1976, when someone at a Wood Badge course gave him a mimeographed copy of a paper on early Wood Badge history.) In the new book’s introduction, Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh echoes what Davis discovered about Wood Badge back in the 1960s. “Wood Badge has long been a powerful force for learning, inspiration, and motivation for hundreds of thousands of Scout leaders throughout the world,” he says. “Wherever you go in Scouting, you find top leaders wearing Wood Badge beads.” So what is Wood Badge and why is it so magical? The program began in England in 1919, when 20 British Scout leaders came together at Gilwell Park near London for a new course devised by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell. For the next 11 days, they learned and practiced all the skills they would need to teach their Scouts—everything from fire-building to signaling to tree identification. “They weren’t sitting in a classroom, taking
notes, and taking a test at the end of it,” Davis says. “They were practicing stuff that would be helpful to them back in their units.” But the real magic of Wood Badge was that the participants operated as a model troop, which gave them a Scout’s-eye view of the program. That essential element remains, even as the course’s content has shifted from Scoutcraft skills to leadership development, and as participation has broadened to include Cub Scout and Venturing leaders. “I think all of our courses have been true to what Baden-Powell wanted to do, which was for Scouters to live like Scouts,” Davis says. “I can tell you with personal certainty that each one of these courses has been an extraordinarily good leadership course.” Along the way, of course, much has changed in Scouting and the world around it. Most people today take Wood Badge over two long weekends, and modern technology plays a role in the delivery of the newer version. Reflecting America’s growing diversity, courses are now offered in Spanish, Vietnamese, and even American Sign Language. There have been intriguing variations as well over the years, including Cub Scout Trainer Wood Badge, experimental courses using rafts and canoes, and “walking” Wood Badge courses at Philmont. In his book, Davis traces how Wood Badge has changed over the past 100 years, but he never forgets that Wood Badge for all its mystique and traditions has a higher purpose. “You do Wood Badge right, and you’re improving what happens in kids’ lives,” he says.
Credit: Darren Wirth Photography
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Scouts: Then and Now If we look at photos from those two phases of life, the visible changes will be obvious. The non-visible changes — more confidence, better character, stronger leadership skills — are there, too. This life-changing power of Scouting inspired Scouts Then and Now, a Bryan on Scouting (blog.scoutingmagazine.org/) blog series. The premise is simple. He shares two photos of the same Scout or Venturer: once in their early Scouting years, and again in their later Scouting years. We are continuing his project here in AlumniAlive!
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Aris from Pennsylvania
Henry and Clarke from Pennsylvania
Jason from North Dakota
Joseph from Vermont
We are excited to see our alumni and friends as they have progressed in Scouting! If you would like to feature your young Scout, or even yourself, in Bryan on Scouting’s blog, here’s how. Send two photos of your Scout(s) or yourself: one in their early years and one in their later years - and include their name and home state. The photos will be combined as a side-byside, so no need to fret about that. Send the images as attachments in an email to scoutingmag@gmail.com with the subject line “Scouts Then and Now.”
Max from Louisiana
Oscar from New York
Thad from Utah
William from Oklahoma
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Profiles Dave Jorgenson, Washington Post Video Producer The Washington Post is best known for hard-hitting journalism, most notably its coverage of Watergate. It has received 47 Pulitzer Prizes and been featured in such films as “All the President’s Men” and “The Post.”
we all learned while growing through Scouting: citizenship, community involvement, courtesy, love of country.” The spirit of “Dear Dave” lives on in Washington Post videos like the one where Jorgenson and colleague Hannah Jewell interview high-schoolers about why lockers aren’t cool anymore. In between interviews, he dances across the hallway, models a girl’s school backpack, and repeatedly slams himself into a locker.
But if Scouting alumnus Dave Jorgenson has his way, the Post will soon be known for something else entirely: the sort of quirky, satirical videos usually Dave Jorgenson found on Comedy Central and late-night talk shows. A producer/editor on the newspaper’s creative video team, Jorgen specializes in creating videos that comment on the news and, more importantly, introduce the Post to a generation that’s used to getting its news from TV and Twitter rather than newspapers. “I think the written word is still extremely important, but if you can bring people there with video and visuals, that’s a really great thing,” he says.
It’s that video, perhaps more than any other, that proved the value of video to people in the newsroom. Veteran reporter Joe Heim was writing a story about school lockers and asked the creative video team to shoot a companion video. Since the story ran in January 2018, the video has been viewed 2.7 million times, and it still gets comments from high-schoolers debating its main premise.
Jorgenson works on these videos in the editing booth and in front of the camera. For example, on the weekend of the Academy Award show, he visited a California beach to invite kids to audition to host the event. (In keeping with the setting, he wore a tuxedo/swimsuit combo.)
After graduating from DePauw, Jorgenson joined the staff of IJR in 2014. When IJR folded—mostly because all the talent had been poached by other media companies—he joined the Post in 2017. Today, he produces a couple of videos a week, sometimes building sets using skills he learned while working on the Home Repairs merit badge.
The “Short Takes” kid videos are reminiscent of the videos that first brought Jorgenson a measure of internet fame. When he worked for the Independent Journal Review, he created a series of “Dear Dave” videos in which he asked people to, for example, define chivalry or what it means to be an adult. Since he did the interviews in his Scout uniform—and since he’s bearded and stands 6’ 4”—the videos had a definite “Elf” quality to them. At the time, IJR Communications Director Matt Manda (another Scouting alumnus) said the videos were “highly entertaining and feel-good videos that spread far and wide across social media. Also—perhaps more importantly— while fun and humorous, they’re centered around the values 13
When he himself was a high-schooler, Jorgenson became an Eagle Scout in Troop 247 in Merriam, Kan. But his favorite Scouting memories occurred a little later. He traveled to Florida Sea Base in 2009 as an 18-year-old assistant Scoutmaster, then returned as a staff member during his first two summers at DePauw University. “I was living in the Keys and basically playing ‘Survivor’ each week with a different crew from around the country,” he says.
In fact, Jorgenson credits that and his other 42 merit badges with much of his success because they taught him a valuable life lesson: “Anyone can learn a skill if they put enough work into it, even if it’s not something you’re naturally good at.” It’s a lesson that’s serving him well as he helps the Washington Post navigate the choppy waters of the internet age.
Jordan Moede, Wildland Firefighter Where there’s smoke, there are firefighters, including members of the elite (and accurately named) hotshot crews that take on some of the most demanding tasks in wildland blazes. Eagle Scout Jordan Moede is one such firefighter. He joined the Carson Interagency Hotshot Crew last spring and quickly got a baptism by fire, so to speak, during an eventful fire season across the American West and Southwest. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 58,083 wildfires burned nearly 8.8 million acres of land in 2018. While both those numbers were down from 2017—the costliest fire season on record—several fires stood out for their scope and devastating impact, notably the Carr, Mendocino Complex, and Camp fires in California. And few in Scouting circles will soon forget the Ute Park Fire, which burned more than 36,000 acres on and around Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. A native of Appleton, Wis., Moede actually came to the Carson Hotshots by way of Philmont. Although he never visited Philmont as a Scout—Northern Tier was his troop’s favorite high adventure destination—he jumped at the chance to join the ranch’s seasonal staff in 2010 after his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Over the years, he worked as a conservationist, leading trail building projects with backcountry crews; as an environmental educator; a field coordinator; overseeing backcountry trail and conservation projects; and joined the newly formed trail design team. Moede pursued several U.S. Forest Service jobs before he got the Carson Hotshots position in late February. By March 17, he was on the job at the team’s Taos, N.M., base, despite no formal training. “They had a good hunch from my work at Philmont and experience with backpacking, camping, and outdoor skills,” he says. “It ended up working out super well; I learned a lot very quickly.” Wildland firefighters work a lot differently than those in cities or towns. Their goal is largely to contain fires by getting ahead of them and creating fire lines. “The saw crew will go in and clear a path, almost like in trail building,” Moede says. “They’ll cut a corridor, then we’ll come through and put in a handline, digging all the way to bare ground.” Much of that work is done with hand tools like the Pulaski, which combines an ax and an adze on one handle. And it’s done in
close proximity to the fire. “They always say, ‘One foot in the black and one foot in the green,’” Moede says. “That’s actually the safer area because you’re always able to run into the area that’s already burned.” Hotshot crews generally work 16-hour shifts. But last summer, Moede’s crew pulled two or three 24hour shifts and one epic 32-hour shift. Depending on conditions and Jordan Moede infrastructure, crews may pull back to an established fire camp at night or simple “spike out” near the frontlines. “All the basic stuff I learned in Scouting played such a huge role in just being able to comfortably live that life,” he says. “I just felt comfortable and fell right into everything.” Moede also fell right into his first major fire, although it felt far from comfortable. On May 31, his crew was called out to battle the Ute Park Fire that was threatening Philmont. They were among the first groups to arrive and among the last to leave two weeks later. He spent much of that time in areas where he’d been building trails just months before. “I knew the area like the back of my hand,” he says. “It was weird seeing it burned, but it was really useful in helping plan out what we were going to do.” After the Ute Park Fire, the Carson Hotshots stayed in the Southwest until monsoon season reduced local fire dangers. They then traveled to Montana, Idaho, and California, where they spent two weeks on the Carr Fire. This offseason, Moede returned to Philmont to help with ongoing recovery and fire prevention efforts. He hopes those efforts, along with a wetter winter than last year, will reduce fire dangers this summer. But if there’s another fire, he’ll be ready to return. “I’m really thankful that I got the experience I have working at Philmont and was able to come back and use that to help Philmont out,” he says. 14
