Sentinel Letter to the Editor -- 26 July 07

“On my honor, I will do my best”

For nearly a century, young people around central Ohio and here in Licking County have said those words as a promise, the Scout Promise, rooted in the World Scouting Movement founded by Robert Baden-Powell.

“To do my duty, to God, and my country”

Wednesday morning, August 1, at 8:00 am in England, on the shores of Brownsea Island where Scouting’s first campout took place (a test run of the system B-P had dreamt up), thousands will say the Scout Promise of their nation’s Scout organization together.

“To obey the Scout law, to help other people at all times”

In each time zone, hour by hour around the globe, at 8 am all Scouts, past and present, are invited by the World Scouting Movement to gather in a public place and simply say their Scout Promise together. From 22 boys and 3 men on August 1 in 1907, Scouting today is found in 216 nations with over 38 million members, male and female.

The Boy Scouts of America include Cub Scout packs for 1st through 5th grade, Boy Scout troops to age 18, and Venturing crews for young men and women ages 14 to 21. Girl Scouting shares the same roots, extending to this country through a friend of Baden-Powell’s, Juliette Low, who began the GSA in Savannah, GA in 1912.

But it all traces back to those first four patrols, the original Brownsea troop of Scouts, trying out advancement that is measured against one’s own growth, not in competition to defeat another, trying out teamwork as patrols, with each youth getting a chance to experience leadership in practice. They sang songs by campfires, learned constellations in the night sky, and slept out in tents.

To salute those beginnings, Granville area Scouts and scouters, past and present, are invited to join in Opera House Park by 8:00 am on August 1, where we will greet the new day and Scouting’s second century by saying our respective Scout Promises together. St. Luke’s Parish Hall will provide a weather backup (“Be Prepared” is our motto, you know), and wherever Scouts gather, coffee is very likely to be served. Please come join us!

Jeff Gill
Asst. Cubmaster
Granville Super Pack 3