Enjoy the media below which will show you the great fun Troop 25 Scouts
have in addition to learning to be
trustworthy, loyal,
helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave,
clean and reverent.
BOY SCOUTS MOVEMENT BEGINS:
January 24, 1908
On January
24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of
the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. The
name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands
of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the
serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu
Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain. In 1900, Baden-Powell
became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the
South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he
had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience.
Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate
games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a
nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the
importance of morality and good deeds. First, however, he decided to
try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he
took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire
where they set up camp for a fortnight. With the aid of other instructors,
he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft,
boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were
learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The
first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success. With the success of
Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which
registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were
60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth
countries across the globe. In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout
meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed
up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl
Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate
organization. The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an
event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was
lost in one of the city's classic fogs when a Boy Scout came to his aid.
After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining
that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This
anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth
organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel
Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the
movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low
founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia. In 1916,
Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in
the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first
international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was
acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.
