Alumni Alive - Summer 2018

ALUMNI ALIVE!

Update on Girls in Scouting

Newsletter for Alumni and Friends SUMMER 2018

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

2 Message From the Director

4 Have You Upgraded Your SAF Membership Level?

5 National Scouting Museum Set to Open

10 Eagles Exploring the World

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A Look at How Scouting Changes You

A Scouting Hero’s Profile

A Message From The Director A former G.M. said, “My interest is in the future. I am going to spend the rest of my life there.” Seems like a good idea. The youth we serve in Scouting are going to spend a lifetime influenced by the values, habits, interests and spiritual growth experienced now. Lots of people play a part – parents, schools, and churches.

Scouting serves all three of these foundations of society. Many times I have heard a person say, “I was a Scout and I’ll never forget it,” or “I don’t remember my teacher’s names, but I remember my Scout leader,” or “I use skills from Scouting every day.” As a Scouter, you shape the future, and my guess is you do it more than you know.

I was recently assigned to report what is new with the Boy Scouts of America. Since the Boy Scouts is always improving, that is not too difficult an assignment. After giving it some thought, however, I decided it wasn’t the new training materials or program improvements or even camp developments that I ought to report on. I thought about how little statistics tell us about what really happened in past months or years.

Rather, the life that was saved through Scouting skills, the new units that were organized and what they meant to youth and families, the experience of young people mastering a mile swim, or watching a ground squirrel one sunny afternoon at camp, were the important new things. Others are passing that Eagle Board Review, or being elected patrol leader for the first time, or how a new Cub Scout felt putting on their uniform or the first time. All these things, and many more like them, are the real new experiences of Scouting.

I challenge you to get engaged or reengaged in Scouting. I hope to see you on the trail.

Once a Scout, Always a Scout,

Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni and Friends

ALUMNI NEWS Affiliate Profile: Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association Scouting Alumni & Friends is not the only group within the BSA that seeks to reconnect with and reengage alumni. In fact, the Scouting map is dotted with groups both large and small that share that mission. On occasion, Alumni Alive profiles these groups and the ways they serve members and Scouting alike. Here’s a profile of the Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association.

The Charles L. Sommers Alumni Association launched in 1992, 69 years after the first Scouts participated in what is now known as the Northern Tier High Adventure Program. The Philmont Staff Association was formed in 1974, 35 years after Philmont Scout Ranch opened for business. It took exactly a quartercentury for former staff members of the Florida Sea Base to launch the Sea Base Alumni and Friends Association.

And then there’s the Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association (SBRSA), which welcomed its first members just 18 months after its namesake high-adventure base welcomed its first campers.

You can’t form an alumni association without a strong alumni base, which is why the BSA’s other high-adventure bases took decades to establish alumni groups. So how did the Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association move so quickly? The secret, according to President Russell Smart, was the 2013 National Scout Jamboree. That event, the first official event held at the new West Virginia camp, was staffed by some 6,000 volunteers. “We immediately had a huge number of folks who had worked in that capacity at the Summit,” he says.

What’s more, many of those volunteers — perhaps a majority — were also members of the Northern Tier, Philmont and Sea Base groups, so they instinctively knew the value of the new organization. Which is probably why 639 of them signed on as charter members. (Membership currently stands at ~1,000.)

Alumni groups exist for many reasons, but Smart says the SBRSA’s number-one reason for existence is to support seasonal staff members, primarily college-age, young people who could be earning more money and living in more comfortable surroundings elsewhere. “Because of our connection with the jamboree, a lot of our members are past the point of being seasonal staff, but they are also perhaps more 3

financially able and understand the necessity of supporting the seasonal group,” he says.

What does that support look like? Each summer, the group provides thank-you gifts and throws parties for seasonal staffers to let them know their service is appreciated. Last summer, the group provided $7,500 in end-of-season gifts to about 250 seasonal staff members (including stainless steel cups for all staff and multi-tools for third-year returners). This year, in addition to thank-you gifts, staff members are also receiving free laundry detergent for the new washing machines in Base Camp Echo.

Another major focus is providing college scholarships to seasonal staff members. In 2017, the group honored retiring Summit Director Dan McCarthy by awarding $2,000 scholarships in his name to five staff members. “After Dan retired we thought this is a very good opportunity to do the first scholarships,” Smart says. “It suited Dan very well to establish a scholarship fund in his name rather than receive a personal gift.”

Rather than rely on future retirements to generate donations, the SBRSA recently created the 37 North Society, which invites life members to pledge $37 per quarter to the scholarship fund.

By this spring, 48 people had already joined, donating more than $6,300.

The importance of the support provided to seasonal staff was demonstrated in the essays submitted by last summer’s applicants. One of them, Nate Steele, explained the ripple effect of such support. “While I greatly enjoy serving in this role [Venturing Advisor in Central Region Area 4] and on camp staff, the burden of paying for these additional activities as well as pay for school can often be overwhelming,” he wrote. “By receiving this scholarship, this allows me to not only further sustain my ability to stay as a student, but it also allows me to spend more time doing the thing I love: Scouting.”

And in the end, that’s what most Scouting alumni want to do, isn’t it?

For more information on the Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association, visit www.sbrstaff.org.

Scouting Alumni & Friends Introduces New Supporter Levels Membership may have its privileges, but that’s not why people join alumni organizations, says Tony Fiori, Scouting Alumni and Friends’ vice-chair for membership. “You’re not giving us $35 so you can get the tchotchke,” he says. “You’re giving us $35 because you feel like you want to make a contribution to Scouting.”

What’s more, he says, you shouldn’t have to do anything extra to prove you belong. If you’ve been there, done that and gotten the T-shirt, that ought to be enough. And so, effective July 1, 2018, Scouting Alumni & Friends is doing away with the concept of membership levels. “We’re adopting the vernacular of universities so that everyone who is an alum of the Scouting movement — and by extension their friends — is a member of Scouting Alumni and Friends,” Fiori says. “You don’t have to pay to become a member.”

That means Scouting Alumni & Friends now has something like 50 million members — zero of whom have paid to join.

Of course, many of those members want to support Scouting through the alumni group, and that opportunity has now expanded. Instead of two membership levels — the free Hiker level and the $35/year Pathfinder level — Scouting Alumni & Friends now has three supporter levels: Pathfinder at $35/year, Climber at $144/year and Trailblazer at $540/year. Free Hiker registration is still available.

“Before, we felt we were capping support,” says Scouting Alumni & Friends Associate Director Ryan Larson. “People wanted to give more; this gives them the ability to do so, with some perks as a thank-you for their support.”

Yes, perks. Although people don’t join alumni groups for the tchotchke, they do appreciate tangible thank-yous. The new supporter levels offer plenty of those. All levels offer electronic subscriptions to Alumni Alive and Scouting Wire — Alumni Edition, along with the popular bugle-call ringtones. All paid supporters receive Scouting Alumni & Friends window clings, luggage tags, affiliation cards and lapel pins; discounts from majority retailers through partner Abenity; a 10% Scout Shop coupon; a subscription to Scouting magazine; and a membership in the Survival Skill of the Month Club, produced by survival instructor (and Eagle Scout) CR///EK Stewart.

The new Climber and Trailblazer levels offer these additional thank-you items: • Climber: a subscription to Eagles’ Call magazine and membership in the Wild Edible Plant of the Month Club (also produced by CR///EK Stewart).

• Trailblazer: the Climber-level benefits plus a National Park Service annual pass and discounts to national Scouting Alumni & Friends trips and events.

In addition, a portion of Trailblazer-level gifts goes into the alumni endowment, which is distributed to councils in the form of recruitment and innovation grants.

And there’s an extra incentive for becoming a paid supporter, according to Larson. “If they sign up for a 10-year term, they’ll get the 10th year free,” he says. “They can pay that monthly or annually, and they can sign up at any time.”

Which thank-you gifts will prove to be the most popular? Larson leans toward the Wild Edible Plant of the Month Club. “I envision people making some pretty neat recipes,” he says. Fiori is more excited about the national parks pass. “I think we’ll probably hear from the folks who do give at that level that it is one of the more valuable ways to say thank you,” he says.

And Fiori wants to say thank you if people want to give. “If you want to contribute, we’d love to have your donations, and we’ll put it to good use,” he says.

After all, membership may have its privileges, but the chance to give back to Scouting is priceless.

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HAPPENINGS BSA Museum Moves to Philmont In its 15 years in Irving, Texas, the National Scouting Museum let visitors gawk at the first Eagle Scout badge, dozens of original Norman Rockwell paintings, and many other artifacts from its 600,000-item collection. What they didn’t get to see was the underground river that made controlling temperature and humidity a constant struggle.

And that was just one challenge the museum faced. Housed in a converted warehouse in a generic office park far from other cultural attractions, it never received the attention it deserved.

“The only good thing about it was that it was right next door to the national office and people could go next door and see something they associated with Scouting,” says Rick Bragga, who chairs the National Scouting Museum Committee.

The problems evaporated this year when the museum moved to Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. After a soft opening in May, the museum (now known as the National Scouting Museum – Philmont Scout Ranch) will hold a public grand opening on Sept. 15. (Despite a major fire at Philmont earlier this year, these plans are still on track.)

The move represents more than just a change of zip code and time zone. It also builds on an already planned expansion of the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library, which opened in 1967. That facility was at first slated to go from about 6,000 square feet to 12,500 square feet. “We ended up adding about 7,000 square feet to the layout, so the new building is approximately 19,500 square feet,” says Museum Director Dave Werhane. “We essentially doubled the size of the exhibit space and more than doubled the size of the collection storage space.”

They also doubled the museum’s scope. One of the two main galleries focuses on the history of Scouting; the other focuses on the history of Philmont and the American Southwest. (Much of that latter story is told through Native American artifacts collected by author and Scouting founder Ernest Thompson Seton; the Seton Memorial Library, a popular destination for researchers studying the American Southwest, remains a part of the facility.)

But the museum is more than a repository for artifacts. There’s a large outdoor plaza with views of Philmont’s iconic Tooth of Time, the 88-seat Carl M. Marchetti, M.D. Order of the Arrow Room, and a lobby and gift shop that will serve as the entry point where visitors can learn more about Philmont and the ranch’s other three museums—the Villa Philmonte, the Kit Carson Museum at Rayado, and the Historic Chase Ranch Museum.

Bragga says planning the move gave the BSA and his committee the opportunity to rethink what the museum should display and how it should function. The Rockwell paintings aren’t moving to New Mexico — a separate task force of Scouters and art historians is looking at how best to deploy them — nor are the adventure-oriented displays. “The audience at Philmont already has all the play they can handle,” he says.

The BSA is also looking at ways to display parts of its collection at the national office and at other high-adventure bases. For example, the J.W. and Hazel Ruby West Virginia Welcome Center, the entry point for the Summit Bechtel Reserve, includes a temporary exhibit on world Scouting in the lead-up to next summer’s World Scout Jamboree, which will occur at the Summit. Online and traveling exhibits are also possible in the future. “We tended to be stuck in the box in Irving,” Bragga says.

“This brand-new facility will allow us to focus not only on what’s there but what people can access on the internet and potentially at other sites across the country.”

Like the Scouting program, the new museum will continue to grow and change. “If you come this year, you can come back next year and it’s going to be different. You can come back the following year and it’ll be different again,” Werhane says. “For the long haul, I think this is going to be a wonderful anchor for the National Scouting Museum.”

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On the Road with Patriot’s Path Council Open any issue of your college alumni magazine and you’ll probably find an article about the alumni association’s next big trip. Perhaps it’s a river cruise through the heart of Europe, an ecotourism trip to the Galápagos or a safari in Tanzania.

Whatever it is, it’s a way to explore the world while spending time with your fellow alumni.

The alumni committee of the Patriots’ Path Council does something similar, although they often head to places Harvard and Yale may never visit, such as Islamorada, FL, Cimarron, NM, and Glen Jean, WV. As you probably know, those communities are home to Florida Sea Base, Philmont Scout Ranch, and the Summit Bechtel Reserve, respectively.

According to Amy Schwartz, the council’s team leader of council operations, the goal is simply to keep alumni engaged with Scouting. “I just think it’s such a positive way to keep people engaged,” she says, “especially the people whose kids have gone off to college and who don’t know what to do with themselves after they’ve been on the troop committee for seven or eight years.”

The council’s series of alumni outings began a few years ago with day trips (which still continue). But gradually the council added longer trips — a four-day weekend at Colonial Williamsburg, for example — and big excursions, like this October’s nine-day New Mexico outing.

“We’re going to spend about three days in Albuquerque and about three days in Santa Fe,” Schwartz says. “I guess you could figure out where our last three days are going to be.” That will be Philmont Scout Ranch, where the group will stay in roofed housing, take day hikes, and even venture into the backcountry in the ranch’s fleet of Chevy Suburbans.

important to inform and engage people before you ask them for donations — and there shouldn’t be a hard sell to give.”

Schwartz said an important part of her councils’ trips is having a hospitality room where participants can gather before dinner or at the end of the day. “We do talk about our families and those sorts of things, but basically it comes around to what’s new in Scouting,” she says.

Ideally, each alumni event is self-sustaining. “Hopefully it’s either a wash or not a lot of money that we’re making,” Schwartz says.

The New Mexico trip, for example, will cost $1,387 (double occupancy) and $1,897 (single occupancy), while a day trip to see a Broadway show back in March cost $80.

Patriots’ Path Council has about 1,500 alumni on its mailing list and can generally fill a charter bus for most non-local events.

Last summer, the council shared a bus with the Northern New Jersey Council for a trip to the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. (A similar trip is planned for next summer’s World Scout Jamboree at the Summit.)

Although planning alumni events takes a lot of work, Schwartz enjoys her role as travel agent and tour director. “I’ve always said I wanted to do a camporee for adults at a hotel or something,” she says. “That’s kind of what I do now.”

For more information on the council’s events, visit https:// ppcbsa.org/committees/alumni/. And to see a calendar events from councils around the country, visit http://scoutingalumni.org.

Schwartz emphasizes that the goal of the trips is to keep alumni engaged — not to solicit donations. “We will do an ask after they’ve been involved with the alumni for a while, and they do seem to want to contribute,” she says.

“Patriots’ Path Council is on the right path — no pun intended,” says Scouting Alumni & Friends Director Dustin Farris. “It’s

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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 bimonthly subscription survival box. Currently, Creek is the lead survival instructor for the traveling survival training and competition series, ESCAPE THE WOODS.

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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 great way to get clean, drinkable water no mater where you are.

My second entry is a follow-up to a hack I previously shared with you. You can use both if you ever find yourself in need of a meal.

Enjoy! And remember, it’s not IF but WHEN.

Trash Bottle Solar Distiller Distillation is the process of evaporating water and then condensing it again in a container. This process removes impurities, chemicals, salt, and even waterborne pathogens. All life raft survival kits include a solar distiller to desalinate the salty ocean water in a survival scenario. You can easily hack a mini distiller from a clear trash bottle, such as a 2-liter bottle, in just a few minutes.

Cut the bottom off the bottle and fold the bottom 2” up under and inside the bottle. I’ve found it helpful to heat the bottom edge over fire to make it more pliable. Place this bottle in a mud puddle, on wet sand, on a wet rag, or over a cup filled with dirty water and let the sun go to work.

Soon, clean, drinkable water will evaporate and condense on the inside of the bottle. It will then run down and collect in the folded lip that you created. It can then be drunk from the bottle without further purification. Note: Full sun is required for the distillation process to work.

The Fisherman’s Bracelet Survival hacking sometimes involves preplanning. This is a simple and easy project that ensures you always have fishing tools.

String and tie off 25’ of fishing line between the eyelets of 2 fishing swivels so that the total length from swivel tip to swivel tip will wrap around your wrist. This forms a bracelet, and the swivel clips act as the clasp.

Because making a usable hook in the wild is not easy, and they’re not nearly as effective as modern hooks, I keep three different-sized fish hooks under the sole inserts of all my shoes.

Now, with a hook, line, and optional swivel, you have everything you need to effectively hack a fishing pole to catch fish.

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Program Update on Girls in Scouting In 1938, Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell made a remarkably progressive statement: “If she is to be equally efficient with her brother for work in the world, a girl must be given equal chances with him; equal chances for picking up character and skill, discipline; and bodily health, and equal chances for using these when she has them.”

Eighty years later, Baden-Powell’s vision is coming true in the Boy Scouts of America. Cub Scouting welcomed its first female members earlier this year, and next February girls will join Scouts BSA — as the Boy Scout program will now be called. (Venturing, the BSA’s teen program, has been co-ed for decades.)

While it’s been said that the only person who likes change is a wet baby, plenty of people are excited about the inclusion of girls at all levels of Scouting. Among them is Joost Bende of San Diego, who has a unique perspective. A 24-year Scouting veteran, Bende has twin children, Ronald and Rhonda, who are Cub Scouts now.

Ronald joined Pack 626 in 2014, along with his dad. At the same time, Rhonda and other girls from her school and neighborhood joined a Girl Scout troop. “They had about 10 girls in their Girl Scout troop, and we had about 10 boys in that Tiger den, so it was pretty cool,” Bende says.

Rhonda, like the sisters of many Cub Scouts, was also a constant presence in Pack 626, doing the same activities as her brother but not earning any of the badges.

Needless to say, she was ecstatic to become an official Cub Scout in June. She’s not abandoning the Girl Scouts, however; in fact, she hopes to earn both the Eagle Scout Award in Scouts BSA and the Gold Award in Girl Scouts.

On Feb. 1, 2019, Ronald and Rhonda will both join troops at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church. Yes, troops. While Cub Scout packs 9

have the option of creating dens for boys and girls (as well as serving only boys or only girls), Scouts BSA troops will be single gender, although they can share some leadership.

That separation is important to Gary Schroeder of Kennett Square, Pa., who chairs the BSA’s Pilots Committee and played a key role in the decision to include girls. An Eagle Scout, he often uses himself as an example of why separate troops are important. “I was late to mature, and Boy Scouting for me was this wonderful haven that allowed me the time and the space to mature,” he says. “It’s just critical that we maintain that space for boys.”

Schroeder also emphasized that the program and advancement requirements will be exactly the same for boys and girls. “We’re not going to allow any shortcuts for the girls to do anything different,” he says.

In fact, about the only change will come in uniforming, where female-specific options will be available, from shirts that fit better to skorts and roll-up pants. Caps will also be styled to accommodate ponytails. “I never thought of that, and I don’t think anybody else did either,” Schroeder says. “Next time we order hats, they’ll change the design a little bit and allow that to happen.”

One thing Schroeder’s not worried about is how boys and girls will act on joint activities. He led a co-ed Venturing crew for eight years and never had problems, even on long trips to New Mexico, Alaska, Canada, Maine and Florida. “The kids themselves set the rules: ‘You’re dating outside Scouting; you’re not dating in Scouting,’” he says. “They laid it out, and it just worked.”

Speaking of work, Joost Bende, who owns an architecture firm, is already looking ahead to when today’s male and female Scouts enter the workforce. “I have men and women collaborating on the projects together; that’s something boys and girls can learn at an early age,” he says. “I think more than ever Scouts is reflecting what society’s all about.”

It’s also reflecting what Baden-Powell talked about 80 years ago, giving girls like Rhonda Bende the same opportunities as their brothers.

Join Scouting, Explore the World STEM learning — short for science, technology, engineering and math — is all the rage in education circles. The BSA has gotten on board as well through the creation of the school-based STEM Scouts program and through the development of several new merit badges, including Robotics, Digital Technology, and Exploration.

But the BSA is also investing in STEM through the NESA World Explorers Program. Now in its seventh year, the unique program sends Eagle Scouts between the ages of 18 and 27 into the field to participate in scientific expeditions. These aren’t mere field trips; instead, the participants do real science with real experts in a variety of fields, perhaps taking the first steps on the road to a lifelong career.

The NESA World Explorers Program was dreamed up by Eagle Scout Michael Manyak, M.D., an expert in wilderness medicine and a member of The Explorers Club. Each year, Manyak and fellow volunteers review dozens of applications to choose the best possible candidates — a decision he says is never easy.

“All of these young men are really top notch,” he says. “The quality of the candidates is so good that I’d like to send them all somewhere.”

Here’s a rundown of this summer’s expeditions: • Four Scouts are spending 10 days at Mammoth Cave working with the Cave Research Foundation and retired NESA Director (and world-class speleologist) Bill Steele: Harison Bhanoo of Ohio, Samuel Pollack of Texas, Max Renner of Kentucky, and Luke Giovanine of Illinois.

• Two are traveling to the Galápagos to help the Galápagos Science Center to study animals vulnerable to natural and manmade threats: Zachary Howard of Florida and Daniel Sanford of California.

• Two are spending 10 days deep in the Ecuadorian rainforest operating camera traps: Gabriel Burgos of Nevada and Evan Dann of Maryland.

• Two are working with NASA scientists in Yellowstone National Park, where heatloving biofilms in geysers may offer clues to extraterrestrial life: Benjamin Alva of Minnesota and Cody Clements of Georgia.

• Two are spending five weeks at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute in Montana to help excavate a 110-foot-long sauropod: Christopher Paul of Georgia and Quintin Powers of Illinois.

• Two are working with raptor expert (and Eagle Scout) Dr. William Bowerman of the University of Maryland to study bald eagles in Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park: Connor Hodges of Massachusetts and Austin Wolfgang Katzer of Texas.

Manyak says it’s no surprise that Bowerman is an Eagle Scout. In fact, Eagle Scouts and other Scouting alumni play a prominent role in several of the expeditions. At Mammoth Cave, for example, the leader is Eagle Scout Bill Steele, a worldrenowned caver and the former director of NESA, while Rodney Mangus, the chief excavator at JDRI is a Life Scout and longtime Scouting volunteer.

Although this year’s expeditions are well underway, Manyak is already looking ahead to 2019. To allow more time to review applications and notify winners, the application window for that season will close on October 31 (the same date as NESA’s college scholarship program). For more information, visit www.nesa.org.

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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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Andrew from Florida

Hunter and Gable from Ohio

Jason from Texas

Jeffrey, Timothy, and Gregory from California

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.”

Matthew and Zach from West Virginia

Matthew from Ohio

Nate from Illinois

Tim from Wisconsin

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Profiles Todd Huston, Mountain Climber Imagine traveling to the highest points in all 50 states, from Britton Hill in Florida (345 ft. elev.) to Denali in Alaska (20,320 ft. elev.). Then imagine accomplishing that feat in just 66 days, 22:47. Now, imagine doing it all with only one leg.

In 1994, that’s just what Eagle Scout Todd Huston did. Since the previous highpointing record was 101 days, Huston also Todd Huston became the first disabled person to break an ablebodied world record in extreme sports. (He was also the first disabled person to become a “50 completer”.)

Huston has been sharing his story this year with cruise-ship passengers in the shadow of Denali and has also told it in his book More Than Mountains.

Growing up in Tulsa, Huston loved the outdoors; from camping trips with Troop 241 to boating excursions with his family. But a freak accident when he was 14 changed his life forever. During a lake outing, he was run over by a ski boat, the propeller causing traumatic damage to both his legs. “My whole left thigh was ripped open. The back of my right leg was missing. My knee had been sliced in half. Blood was squirting out of me like a Texas oil well,” he says.

Doctors saved his life—they twice had to resuscitate him—and his legs. However, due to ongoing infections, he had to have his right leg amputated below the knee seven years later.

Eventually earning a master’s degree in counseling psychology, Huston was working for NovaCare Amputee Resource Center when he heard about an upcoming highpoints expedition that would include amputees. He quickly signed on. But, when a lack of funding caused it to fall through, he organized his own expedition, Summit America and raised the required $50,000.

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The fundraising may have been the easy part—most came from John Shanahan, CEO of Hooked on Phonics after hearing about the expedition by chance. As a desk jockey with a disability, Huston wasn’t exactly in peak condition. “I couldn’t run 10 feet without having to stop because my legs were like noodles,” he says. He stuck to his training, however, working up to 12-mile runs within three months.

When he was ready, Huston set off with guide Whit Rambach, who’d been slated to lead the expedition that was canceled.

The pair drove to the sites in the 48 contiguous states, sometimes hitting several high points in a day. Many were easily accessible by road.

But other peaks posed real challenges. The highest point in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, is “only” 8,749 feet high, but Huston and Rambach faced 118-degree temperatures there. Of course, the biggest challenge was Denali. When the climbers reached a camp at around 16,000 feet, they chose to hunker down, sensing it wasn’t safe to advance ny higher. They were right. A huge storm came in quickly making camping nearly impossible at any higher an elevation.

Once the storm passed, Huston and Rambach continued their climb, taking three breaths for every step because of the thin atmosphere. Eventually reaching the top, they enjoyed the view on a rare clear day before beginning their descent.

Huston didn’t do much mountaineering as a Scout, but he draws clear lessons from his time in Scouting. One is to never panic, an enduring lesson from First Aid merit badge. “I remembered that when I was injured by the propeller, actually calmly talking while they were taking me to the boat dock for help. It helped save my life.”

Perhaps the most enduring lesson, however, is the set of values Scouting teaches. Some might think values learned as a child would be irrelevant to an adult, but Huston disagrees.

“They’re just as relevant, but they’re relevant on a deeper level,” he says. “I think that’s what I walked away from Scouting with more than anything else: the values of being honest, the values of being good to other people, the values of doing the right thing.”

George Oldroyd, Scouting Hero When he was a young Scout in Fairfield, Ct., George Oldroyd was captivated by the illustrations in his Scout handbook of all the awards he could earn. He even joked with his best friend that he would give his right arm for an Honor Medal.

“Turns out it was just my left leg, but that leg was a small price to pay,” Oldroyd says now.

Oldroyd lost his leg in 2016 after rushing to put out a truck fire he happened upon. He shattered his foot running to the fire, but continued fighting the fire as his compound fracture bled profusely. Despite IV antibiotics and hyperbaric oxygen treatments, the wound never healed, and he eventually lost his leg. He later received the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms, the BSA’s highest award for lifesaving, which goes to those who display “unusual heroism and extraordinary skill or resourcefulness in saving or attempting to save life at extreme risk to self.”

Amazingly, that was his third lifesaving award. He received the Heroism Award for saving his mother’s life during a fire when he was a Scout and the Honor Medal (without crossed palms in that case) for fighting yet another fire. Although health problems had prevented him from following his father into the fire service, he says he “inherited the same gene that made Dad and his brother Tim make a living running toward things on fire, instead of away like sane people.”

According to one of his former Scouts, Roger Goodledy, “the only other person we can find who may have received two Honor Medals was Arthur Rose Eldred, who’s famous for other reasons [Ed.: In 1912 Eldred became the first Eagle Scout.]

George is probably the most decorated Scout lifesaver in history, although he bristles at the suggestion. He says talking about it in those terms makes it too much like a contest, and that pulls focus from what’s important.”

So what’s important (aside from the fact that several people are alive thanks to Oldroyd)? For one thing, it’s living by the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law, not just viewing Scouting as a fun activity.

“I used to ask my Life candidates about their Eagle plans, and I’d ask if they wanted to make Eagle, or if they wanted to become

Eagle Scouts,” Oldroyd says. “Was Scouting a program they enjoyed participating in, or was it a movement they subscribed to? Was Scouting something they did, or was Scouting something they were? There weren’t any wrong answers, but it was the start of a lot of really wonderful conversations with these guys as they started discovering something deeper beneath the camping trips and merit George Oldroyd badges. And you can’t ask those questions without your own answers becoming pretty clear.”

Many of those conversations happened when Oldroyd was barely older than his Scouts. He became Scoutmaster the day he turned 21 — instantly becoming America’s youngest Scoutmaster — and was more of a big brother than a father figure to his Scouts. “I’m writing a book about them and the roles that their Scouting experience played in making them what they are,” Oldroyd says. “It’s called Being Prepared.”

Although health problems prevent Oldroyd from being an active volunteer today, he’s doing what he can, including developing a website to provide guidance to those who want to nominate Scouts and Scouters for awards like he’s received. He guesses that many Scouts and Scouters are just as deserving of the awards as he was, but don’t know how to navigate the nomination process.

“Emerson wrote, ‘A man is what he thinks about all day long,’” Oldroyd says. “I’ve spent most of my life thinking about Scouting — what it means, how to live that way in a world full of people who think virtue is a weakness. It hasn’t made me a perfect Scout, but it’s making me try and try and try.”

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