ALUMNI ALIVE!
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Newsletter for Alumni and Friends SUMMER 2019
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N u S ARith OCreek E L W
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
2 Director’s Message
4 The American Legion and Scouting
7 Roadtripping to the Summit
10 More Than a High Adventure Facility
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Meet the 2019 Alumnus of the Year
How This Scout is Overcoming Obstacles
A Message From The Director As Scouters, our most important influence in Scouting is as role models. Role models for Cub Scouts on the road to Scouts BSA, for Scouts BSA on the road to Eagle, for Eagle Scouts on the road to lifelong success. And, perhaps more important, role models for future adult leaders of the BSA. The magic of Scouting happens when youth get together with effective adult leaders in settings that ensure fun gatherings and positive outcomes — settings where character is caught. The word “caught” says a lot about how kids learn life’s lessons. These lessons are more often caught then taught. When Scouting’s founder, Lord Baden-Powell, explained how the new program worked, he would call it a “scheme”; the key to the scheme was proper bait. You’ve probably heard B-P’s quote, “A fisherman does not bait his hook with food he likes. He uses food the fish likes. So, with youth.” Scouting’s bait: Outdoor adventures. Useful skills. Belonging to a highminded fraternity of achievers who share excitement and fun. As your SAF director, my mission is to create a lifelong and nationwide community of alumni, a community that works together to strengthen Scouting’s “bait” and to model leadership. Together, we’ll stress volunteer involvement and philanthropic commitment to local Scouting. Our SAF committee is a group of top-notch professionals from across the country. These members are dedicated to building an alumni association that fosters fellowship and encourages the physical, mental, and spiritual growth of Scouting. Our goals are to connect national, regional, and local alumni initiatives. We will strive to provide rewarding service opportunities, promote interaction and highlight achievements of our alumni. Finally, a top priority is to provide an opportunity to connect with other alumni.
Once a Scout, Always a Scout,
Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni and Friends
ALUMNI NEWS Over There: How One Council Connects with Alumni Overseas When it comes to alumni relations, every BSA council faces unique challenges. That’s especially true of the Transatlantic Council, which encompasses Europe, Africa, the Middle East, parts of Asia, and even Greenland. The council, whose membership is split fairly evenly between military families and expatriates, is headquartered in Belgium, but council leaders can’t exactly expect people to travel there for alumni events. Fortunately, the Transatlantic Council has some unique assets, including an executive board whose members span the globe and the presence within its borders of such iconic Scouting sites as Brownsea Island, Gilwell Park, and the Kandersteg International Scout Chalet. And then there’s Normandy, where earlier this summer dignitaries and ordinary people alike gathered to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe and the turning point of World War II. In a sense, those people were late to the party. The council had already celebrated D-Day — and a whole lot more —at its Normandy Camporee in April. The event, which is held every three or so years, offered a powerful experience for the 3,500 Scouts in attendance, who camped on Omaha Beach and placed flowers on graves at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. But it also offered the council a chance to reengage with alumni in a unique, historic setting. On the first evening of the camporee, the council held a 1940s-style dinner dance at a nearby hotel featuring a threecourse dinner prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. “We thought it would be nice to have some type of venue for adults, a very small group gathering, sometime during the three or four days we had everybody there,” says council Scout Executive, Tom Jansen. Unlike the Scouts camped out nearby, the 100 or so guests, who were encouraged to wear period dress, enjoyed duckbreast salad, roasted cod, and apple cake with honey and vanilla sauce. They also got an update on Scouting in the Transatlantic Council, and they had the chance to order a unique souvenir: an American flag flown over Omaha Beach.
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During each Normandy Camporee, troops of Scouts volunteer to raise flags over the beach, much as flags are flown over the U.S. Capitol as souvenirs. “We fold them appropriately into a triangle and put them in a nice wooden case with a plaque that says, ‘This U.S. flag was flown over Normandy Beach — April 2019’,” Jansen explains. Despite the $1,000 price tag, about a quarter of the dinner guests purchased one or more flags. (The flags are also available through the council’s website at https://tac-bsa.org/donate.) Proceeds from this year’s Flags Over Normandy campaign, which is expected to raise $75,000, are targeted to support the camporee, the expansion of BSA programs to incorporate girls, and a new summer camp the council is operating in Croatia. “The following year, we will market Flags Over Normandy as a way for us to raise endowment money,” Jansen says. “That way, even in a year where we don’t have the camporee, we can still offer the Flags Over Normandy program.” In addition to the 1940s-style dinner dance, the council held an Eagle Scout reception during the camporee, inviting Eagle Scouts of any age to meet each other and former U.S. Army medic Charles Shay, a veteran of the D-Day invasion. “I was pretty surprised that there were still war survivors from D-Day; I actually got to shake hands with and take a picture with one of the last survivors still around,” says Chris Forbes, who traveled to the camporee with a contingent of Scouts from Minnesota. While the transient nature of the council’s membership can be a challenge, it also presents an opportunity, since alumni are spread across the globe. That point was brought home to Jansen at this year’s BSA National Annual Meeting in Denver, where he met a volunteer he learned had been a Transatlantic Council district chairman two decades ago. “Once we got to that point in the conversation, he just couldn’t stop talking, and I couldn’t either,” Jansen says. That man might never show up at a council event in Belgium — or even at the next Normandy Camporee — but there’s no doubt that he, like thousands of other men and women, has an affinity for the BSA’s most sprawling council.
A Century of Service with the American Legion In November 1919, exactly a year after the Great War ended, The American Legion held its first convention in Minneapolis. Over three days, the delegates adopted a constitution, chose a headquarters location, set their chief executive’s salary ($6,000 plus expenses) and adopted resolutions on everything from disabled veterans’ compensation to compulsory military service. The delegates also endorsed the Boy Scouts of America, resolving “that the American Legion heartily commends the principles and achievements of the Boy Scouts and recommends that each post assist the Scout troops in its community in whatever manner practicable.” Scouting thus became the Legion’s first recognized national youth activity, predating American Legion Baseball by six years and American Legion Boys State by 16. “Since then, The American Legion’s support for the Boy Scouts has never wavered because we have identified mutual values between our organizations: duty to God and country, personal honor, respect for the beliefs of others, volunteerism, and interdependence with the environment, principles which are conducive to good character, citizenship, and health,” says Scouting alumnus Jeff L. Hendricks, who serves as deputy director of the Legion’s Americanism Division and its national liaison to the BSA. The BSA was only nine years old in 1919 — and decidedly not militaristic — so the Legion’s endorsement might seem surprising in retrospect. However, Scouting neatly aligns with two of the Legion’s four pillars: Americanism and children and youth. Moreover, Hendricks says, in the early days both groups were working to create a shared American ideal that transcended region and ethnicity. The goal was for people to think of themselves as Americans first and Italians from New York or Poles from Wisconsin second. A hundred years later, the two organizations continue to work closely together to benefit the youth of America, even if their goals and tactics have changed. Today, The American Legion charters more Scouting units than any other civic group. In 2018, the Legion served more than 61,000 Scouts in 2,365 units across the country and even overseas. And Hendricks is hoping to beef up these numbers, in
part by spreading the word about the creation of all-girl troops, and also by encouraging Scouting chairs in the Legion’s coastal departments to consider starting Sea Scout ships. The Legion is also responding to the decision by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to stop sponsoring Scouting units. The church is encouraging members to continue in community-based units, and Hendricks thinks the Legion can play an important role, by either adopting whole units or welcoming individual Scouts into existing units. “This works well because some don’t want to join a church-based organization that may be looking to proselytize their youths, whereas we’re a secular organization,” he says. “The only thing we’re interested in is having them become the best youths they can be to become the best Americans they can be.” Speaking of the best, the Legion sponsors a highly competitive scholarship program for Eagle Scouts. At each annual convention, the group names its Eagle Scout of the Year, an award that comes with a $10,000 scholarship; three runnersup receive scholarships of $2,500. In addition to having earned the Eagle Scout Award, nominees must have earned their faith group’s religious emblem and must be connected to the Legion in some way. (This could mean being in a Legion-sponsored Scout troop or being the child or grandchild of a Legionnaire or American Legion Auxiliary member; complete requirements are at www.legion.org/scouting). Beyond traditional Scouting programs, the Legion is working closely with Law Enforcement Exploring on mutually beneficial efforts. For example, the Legion’s weeklong Youth Cadet Law Enforcement program neatly complements Law Enforcement Exploring, which only offers limited capstone experiences. “We have programs locally, but we’re having difficulties getting the youths; the Law Enforcement Explorer program has the youths, but they are looking for a capstone program,” he says. “This may be a good win-win.” In fact, the 100-year relationship between Scouting and the Legion is really a win-win-win. Scouting wins, the Legion wins, and most of all America wins as young people become the best adults they can be.
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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! If you’re caught in a rescue situation, but are near a large body of water, these hacks will definitely come in handy. My first hack is a great way to create a make-shift boat, and my second hack will get you noticed. Enjoy! And remember, it’s not IF but WHEN.
Hack Tarp Boat This hack is about using your tarp shelter to make an improvised boat. 1. Lay your tarp flat on the ground. I used a 9’ x 12’ tarp. 2. Pile pine boughs or leafy branches in a circle about 12” high. This will be the diamter of your boat. Leave at least 1’ - 2’ of tarp around the permiter. 3. Lay a grid of sturdy sticks, 1’ - 2’ in diameter, on top of the circle. 4. Pile another 12” of green boughs on top, again in a circle pattern. 5. Wrap the tarp around the circle and tie it to the grid of sticks. 6. Cross your fingers and set sail.
Glow Stick Buzz Saw When most people think of a glow stick nowadays, what comes to mind are roller rinks, sporting events, or rave dance parties. Although I am not a big fan of glow sticks for survival lighting, there is a hack way to use one that makes an excellent (and really simple) rescue signal. Tie a 3’ length of rope to one end of the glow stick and spin it as fast as you can in a circle facing the direction of your rescue party. At night, this will create a glowing orb, 6’ in diameter, that forms an effective visual rescue signal - a big out-of-place moving object. A rescue signal like this one can be seen for miles by a ship or plane.
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HAPPENINGS The Summit or Bust: Michigan Scouters Head to the WSJ Love at first sight happens all the time in the movies, but not so often in real life. Deep, lasting relationships take time to develop — even if they start with five-minute speed-dating meet-andgreets. The same thing is true of deep, lasting friendships in Scouting, according to Denver Laabs, director of development for the Great Lakes Field Service Council (which is part of the Michigan Crossroads Council). “The magic happens when you put a bunch of people together at a Scouting event for a couple of days,” he says. “No matter what happens, positive memories are formed by the overcoming of objectives and obstacles that are put in your way, and you laugh about it afterwards.” Michigan Crossroads Council will test that hypothesis in July with perhaps the ultimate Scouting road trip. On the last weekend of the month, a busload of alumni and council board members from all four field service councils will travel to West Virginia and back to spend a day visiting the 24th World Scout Jamboree, which is being held at the Summit Bechtel Reserve. They’ll spend 8 hours on site, 15 hours driving, and one short night in an Ohio hotel. “You’ve got a captive audience for a couple of days,” Laabs says. “Just like what happened with youths in Scouting, I think there’s a binding camaraderie that manifests itself through the shared adventure experience.” Not surprisingly, Michigan Crossroads Council is far from the only council seeking to maximize the jamboree experience. Councils in Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey, and other states are also chartering buses to bring key volunteers to the site, where special VIP staff members will be on hand to greet them. Those other councils won’t have one unique advantage that Michigan Crossroads Council enjoys. In addition to his day job, Laabs is co-creative director for the jamboree’s arena shows. And since two of those shows will have already occurred when the bus leaves from Detroit, he says, “we will actually replay the media content on the bus TVs on the way down just to kind of get people fired up.”
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Of course, when they reach the Summit, there will be plenty more to get them fired up. “I describe the Summit to people who haven’t been there as a mix between the Olympics, a national park, and Disney,” he says. “You inject that with tens of thousands of people amped up on Scout spirit that want to give our very, very best to our nation’s future leaders, and you’ve got a recipe for the absolutely perfect event that you could have for youth.” And to make the trip even more special, this will be the first World Jamboree held in the United States since 1967 (and the first held in North America since 1983). So it’s truly a once-in-ageneration — if not a once-in-a-lifetime — event. Although Michigan Crossroads Council is charging $400 per person for the trip, Laabs emphasizes that the trip is more of a friend-raiser than a fundraiser. But that doesn’t mean participants won’t be moved to increase their support of Scouting. At the Summit, Laabs says, “you can’t help but feel there’s something really special happening in the program, and you want to leave a legacy and ensure that continues.” Note: Council-organized trips aren’t the only way to visit the World Scout Jamboree. For information on individual day passes, see https://www.2019wsj.org/attend/day-visitors/.
The BSA Honors a Long-time Partner Organization When representatives of the Boy Scouts of America traveled to Washington, D.C., earlier this year for the Report to the Nation, they came bearing gifts for the dignitaries they met. Perhaps none of those carried as much significance as the William T. Hornaday Gold Certificate they gave to Dan Smith, acting director of the National Park Service. According to the BSA website, that rare award — a maximum of six may be given each year — goes to an individual or organization for “outstanding contribution to youth conservation education for at least three years.” In this case, 103 years is more like it. The National Park Service was created in 1916 — coincidentally the same year the BSA received its Congressional charter — and it has been teaching young people about conservation ever since. And much of that teaching has involved Scouts. In fact, the connection between Scouting and the National Park Service stretches back more than a century. Today, the two organizations collaborate under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was signed in 2016 and will automatically renew in 2021. Under the MOU, the NPS will, among other things, help BSA units and councils coordinate conservation projects, offer conservation advice to the BSA, and recognize Scouts and Scouting units through the Resource Stewardship Scout Ranger Program (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/youthprograms/scout-ranger). Under this program, Scouts who participate in organized education activities and/or service projects through the National Park Service can receive a Scout Ranger certificate (for five hours of participation) or a Scout Ranger patch (for 10 hours of participation). Not surprisingly, many Scouts pursue careers with the National Park Service and other outdoor agencies after they hang up their Scout uniforms. “I think it’s pretty easy for a young Scout to put together the notion of growing up and still being able to play outside,” says Scouting alumnus Ethan McKinley, the superintendent of Channel Islands National Park in California. When McKinley joined the National Park Service in 2005, he felt right at home. As an Eagle Scout, he was obviously comfortable in the outdoors. Plus, his new work uniform looked a lot like the Scout uniform he’d worn back in Troop 36 in Littleton, CO.
McKinley is far from the only former Scout at the National Park Service. Dan Smith, the acting director who received that Hornaday Gold Certificate, is also an Eagle Scout — a fact he includes in his official biography. (“The last two things on my resume say that I served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army and that I’m an Eagle Scout,” he says.) There’s yet another connection, albeit not with a former Scout. The namesake of the William T. Hornaday Awards helped found both the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the New York Zoological Park, which he led for more than 20 years. But Hornaday got his real start in conservation when he visited what would become Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s. He went there to look for bison and discovered they’d been nearly hunted to extinction. In response, he founded the American Bison Society, which helped save the species, and he went on to write nearly two dozen books, including the bestseller Our Vanishing Wildlife: Its Extermination and Preservation, which highlighted the dangers of overhunting. And he contributed to both Boys’ Life and the Handbook for Boys, teaching Scouts lessons that they carried with them into America’s national parks.
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Program Leading Cub Scout Dens: There’s (Now) an App for That The BSA made headlines last year when it welcomed girls into Cub Scouting for the first time. But that was just the latest in a long series of changes to bring the BSA’s programs to younger kids. In fact, since Cub Scouts debuted in 1930, nearly every aspect of the program has evolved, from age limits to advancement requirements to leadership standards. But families’ lives changed even more. Today, single-parent and dual-earner families are the norm, which cuts into volunteers’ available time. Services like Uber, Amazon, and Venmo have reset people’s expectations for service and convenience. What’s more, parents want to know they’re getting a good value for their investment of time and money in youth programs. To address those challenges, a cross-functional team of some 20+ BSA employees is putting the finishing touches on an innovative set of features for Scoutbook, the free web app used by Scout leaders and parents alike. “We want to help new den leaders feel equipped and empowered to run awesome den meetings that the kids enjoy and that parents consider to be a valuable use of their family’s time,” says Ryan Hill, the BSA’s national director for digital marketing and strategy. The new features will simplify planning, preparing, and recordkeeping for den leaders beginning this fall. Rather than having to juggle leader books and other resources, den leaders will be able to do everything they need from within the app— everything from organizing meetings for the year to preparing for their next meeting to tracking attendance and advancement. They will even be able to communicate with parents of absent Scouts about what their kids need to do at home to get caught up. A big part of the project involves packaging the required adventures for each Cub Scout rank into about 12 meetings per year. “If you attend these required meetings, and your den leader simply keeps attendance in the app, then you have earned your advancement and you’ve benefited by the lessons of character and leadership that we’ve always designed for you to get out of Scouting,” Hill says.
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And communicating that value to parents is a key part of Scoutbook’s new features. Although experienced Scout leaders understand the life lessons that come with building a birdhouse or taking a hike, newcomers to Scouting may not. So Scoutbook directly makes the connections for parents. For example, when a Tiger completes the My Tiger Jungle adventure, parents will learn that the adventure “starts your child on a path of understanding the natural world around them. Building on their natural sense of curiosity, this adventure teaches your Scout about appreciation for animals and nature, all while having fun in the outdoors.” Like most mobile apps, the new Scouting app is expected to evolve over time. Even as they prepare to unveil the new features, the BSA team is thinking about what comes next. “We’ve spent a lot of time interviewing den leaders, parents, and Scouts from around the country,” Hill says. “We’ve received a lot of really great ideas that we’re excited to roll out in future phases to bring new levels of fun and simplicity to everyone in Scouting.” Despite all the changes in Cub Scouting over the last 89 years, one thing has remained consistent. “When the program is delivered the way it was designed, it works,” Hill says. Now, delivering it will just be much easier.
High Adventure and Deep Conversation at the Summit Imagine stepping out of your council’s board retreat to enjoy a panoramic view of the West Virginia mountains … or ending a camp-staff reunion with a rafting trip down the New River … or attending a Scout-leader training course in air-conditioned comfort. Those are just the sorts of opportunities that the Summit Bechtel Reserve (the Summit) in West Virginia is beginning to offer as an array of new conference facilities come online. The facilities are being underwritten by high-profile alumni like hotelier J. Willard Marriott , Jr. and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who were shaped by Scouting in the past and are now shaping Scouting for future generations. While the base is best known for hosting jamborees — this summer’s World Scout Jamboree will be the third since it opened in 2013 — the 10,600-acre site is active throughout every summer and increasingly in the offseason, too. In fact, that’s been the plan from the very beginning; in 2011, the BSA announced that the site would host four types of activities: jamborees, high adventure programs, summer camp, and leadership training. As Eagle Scout Jack Furst, the volunteer who led site selection, said at the time, “That was one of the key objectives in purchasing the property: It was more than just a jamboree site.” At the same time, the assets that make the Summit perfect for jamborees also make it perfect for Scouting-related retreats and reunions. After all, how many conference and retreat centers — no matter how fancy they are — feature onsite shooting ranges, BMX and ATV trails, zip lines, and ropes courses? “Those are just some of the things that we offer,” says Jim Rushton, the Summit’s senior business development officer and team lead. “Most are seasonal, because there are some times of the year that we don’t have the staff on hand; however, with advanced planning, there’s a good chance we can accommodate people.” What about the conference facilities themselves? They’re as impressive as the adventure venues. “We’ve got absolutely state-of-the-art conference facilities, state-of-the-art dining accomodations, and very comfortable housing,” he says.
Dining Hall and Thomas G. Pigott Dining Hall feature rustic but elegant post-and-beam construction. Each of the dining halls is connected to a bunkhouse that offers 36 six-person rooms, 24 single-use restrooms, linen service, and laundry facilities. That means group meetings can be totally self-contained — until, that is, it’s time to hit the zip line or the ATV trail. A key benefit of the new facilities is the ability to hold conferences and training courses regardless of weather. In January, for example, the Summit will host the first Wood Badge course using a new syllabus that reflects the inclusion of girls in Scouts BSA. “A central goal since we started the Summit project was to enable us to operate that facility 365 days a year — 365-24-7 was our saying,” says former National President Wayne Perry. “With the completion of these buildings, we will now be able to operate the Summit in all seasons.” In fact, aside from a few major holidays, the only time the conference facilities won’t be available is during jamborees. Both Scouting and non-Scouting groups can use the facilities, although Rushton says the priority is on youths and on adults serving youths. From one perspective, however, every group who uses the facilities will be serving youths since rental fees support operations at the Summit. In fact, that’s one reason Rushton encourages BSA-related groups to choose the Summit or one of the BSA’s other high-adventure bases, which also offer conferencing options. “If we’re going to be expending Scouting dollars and we can expend them on Scouting property, it’s a winwin,” he says. “We give them a good value, and the revenue stays in-house.” What’s more, participants get to see the BSA’s high-adventure options firsthand, and they’re likely to return home as cheerleaders. “They all leave as converts,” he says. “They leave after two or three days here, and they’re like, ‘Hey, this is much more than I thought it was. I want my Scouts to enjoy this.’” For more information, visit www.summitbsa.org or contact Rushton at James.Rushton@Scouting.org.
For example, Fenneman Hall has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the heart of the Summit, while the new Fork in the Road 10
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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Adam from Rhode Island
Francisco from Puerto Rico
Jim and Sam from Alabama
Matthew from New Mexico
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.”
Nicholas and Jacob from Indiana
Ryan from Texas
Seth from Colorado
Will from Kentucky
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Profiles Todd Plotner, 2019 National Alumnus of the Year Todd Plotner of Ann Arbor, MI, was named the 2019 National Alumnus of the Year at this year’s BSA National Annual Meeting. Here’s his story: W h e n To d d P l o t n e r moved to Chicago after law school, he called the local council to see how he could get involved. No one called him back, so he remained as uninvolved as he’d been during law school. “The demands Todd Plotner of the job and family kind of took over, so I lost a goodly number of years where I could have been involved in Scouting,” he says. That situation began to change when his oldest son joined Cub Scout Pack 559 in Glenview, IL, in 2008 and he became a den leader. But it really changed when he attended the Chicago Area Council’s annual Eagle Scout recognition dinner and met some fellow Eagle Scouts, many of whom, like him, were transplants to the Chicago area. He was looking forward to the next gathering until the organizer told him it would happen in exactly 12 months at the following year’s Eagle Scout recognition dinner. Thinking there should be a gathering the next month, not the next year, Plotner worked with a couple of other Eagle Scouts in 2009 to create NESA Chicago, an organization designed to reengage adult Eagle Scouts with the BSA. In its first year alone, NESA Chicago held more than a dozen events, connected with at least 400 Eagle Scouts, built a steering committee of 32 men (half of whom had been disconnected from Scouting), and got three members placed on the Chicago Area Council’s executive board. The only thing they didn’t do — by design — was raise money for the council. “We actually made the professional staff promise that for one year, they wouldn’t ask people for money,” Plotner says. 13
Not surprisingly, leaders at the local council soon had Plotner on speed dial. So, too, did the leaders of the National Eagle Scout Association, which named him national vice-president for special events in 2011, and Scouting Alumni and Friends, which recruited him to its national committee in 2014. In those roles, Plotner has had the opportunity to share the success of NESA Chicago with councils across the country. The model has been replicated and adapted in every BSA region, and he has helped facilitate alumni training sessions at Philmont Scout Ranch, National Order of the Arrow Conferences, and BSA National Annual Meetings. Although Plotner didn’t earn a merit badge in alumni relations, he says his experience as a Scout in Philo, IL, gave him the confidence to create something that didn’t exist. “Two of the greatest things about Scouting are providing a safe opportunity for youth to make mistakes in a controlled environment and the confidence that you can rebound from those mistakes and get better at what you’re doing,” he says. Over the past decade, Plotner has worked to repay his debt to Scouting — and not just through alumni efforts. He directed NESA’s presence at the 2013 and 2017 national jamborees, has served as a Philmont Training Center weekly chair, and in January will help lead Wood Badge Course BSA-20-1, the first course to use a newly released syllabus. He’s excited about both the all-star staff and the chance for dozens of volunteers from around the country to experience both the new Wood Badge syllabus and the Summit’s new conference facilities. Although Plotner has become one of the BSA’s leading volunteers in alumni relations, he’s quick to point out that reengaging alumni is, at its heart, simply about connecting with people one at a time. “Almost anyone can organize a pizza party or an after-hours social or a cookout,” he says. “If they present an opportunity like that and listen to the people who come share their Scouting stories, they’ll build deeper relationships that will yield new friends and supporters of the program.” And who knows? One of those new friends may eventually earn the National Alumnus of the Year Award.
High Achieving Scout Receives Yet Another Award People who live around Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas are used to seeing uniforms festooned with all sorts of ribbons and medals. But Benji Rawald’s uniform probably still attracts stares. That’s because the 17-year-old Scout’s uniform features just about every award the BSA offers. Among others, there’s the Eagle Scout Award, the Ranger Award, the Dr. Albert Einstein Supernova Award, the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal, the National Medal for Outdoor Achievement, and the Ad Altare Dei religious emblem. Besides earning all those awards and more, Benji earned every merit badge available in Scouts BSA — all 136 of them — before he turned 16. (He actually earned 138 merit badges because a couple of badges have changed names during his time as a Scout.) This spring, Benji added one more honor to his résumé: the 2019 Air Force Military Child of the Year® Award. Presented each year by Operation Homefront, the award (along with companion awards for the other service branches) recognizes that those who serve don’t do it alone. The goal, according to Operation Homefront, is to highlight “the positive impact that these special young people have made on their military families, their schools, and their communities.” Positive impact is a good way to describe what Benji has done in 12 years since his dad, Air Force Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brett Rawald, transferred to Laughlin Air Force Base from Germany. He has collected and distributed food and supplies for flood victims, collected 10,000 box tops for Jones Elementary School, recycled more than 11,000 toner cartridges from the Air Force base, run multiple Keep America Beautiful cleanups at San Felipe Creek, coached shooting sports for the Val Verde County 4-H, and honorably retired thousands of American flags. In Scouting alone, he has done the equivalent of five Eagle Scout projects. His actual Eagle project was to create a documentary video for Del Rio’s Laughlin Heritage Foundation Museum, which he completed at age 13. Since then, he has completed four large-scale projects to earn the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal, something barely a thousand Scouts have ever earned.
wetland dries up, the wildlife scatters throughout the base and could go onto the runways,” he told the Del Rio News-Herald. “So to keep wetlands wet and the wildlife in the wetlands, there was a quarter-mile canal dug, and when it rains, it slowly drains into and replenishes the wetlands; so even during dry times, it’s still getting water.” (His other Hornaday projects involved planting milkweed for butterflies, Benji Rawald starting several initiatives to recycle plastic bags, and leading the aforementioned toner cartridge recycling project.) That Benji has accomplished so much is even more surprising when you consider that he rides a school bus 35 miles one way to Bracketville High School, where he is a rising senior. (He’s dual-enrolled at Southwest Texas Junior College.) But he’s also not one to let obstacles stand in his way. As he told Operation Homefront, his favorite quote from author Stephen Covey is “I am not a product of my circumstances; I am a product of my decisions.” One decision that looms in his future is choosing a career. He plans to study computer hardware engineering and computer electrical engineering at the University of West Florida, but he’s not sure whether he wants to join the military or a tech company like Google. If he chooses the former option, he’ll have good company: Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein is a fellow Eagle Scout.
Benji’s favorite of those projects was creating a quarter-mile bioswale to support wildlife near the Air Force base. “There’s a wetlands or a marsh next to Laughlin, and whenever the 14