A Great Boy Talk

We try to get into the schools and give the boys a peptalk about joining Scouting. At Cherry Creek school near the office, Cub Master Jim Yates and I had the opportunity to go in during noon time. The Pack had participated in the Cardboard Classic race on the Marquette Mountain Ski Hill and Jim brought the winning sled in as a prop while I had the Pinewood Derby car samples. We gave our pitch and at the end there was some time remaining so Jim asked if anyone had any questions. One boy who was already a Cub Scout excitedly blurted out, "Mr. Yates is my leader....and my bus driver....and I made one of those cars....and built a boat....and that sled....and we are going to Lake Superior.... and we are gonna pick up trash....so the birds won't eat it and get sick....and we are going to save the world."

I had learned some time ago to temper my rhetoric on what Scouting can accomplish. I figure that if Scouting were going to save the world, it would have done so some time in the last hundred years. Rather, our goal should be what Baden Powell asked in his last letter, to motivate people "to leave the world a better place than they found it." So I don't think Pack 361's service project will save the world, but there is a boy at Cherry Creek School who I am sure will leave the world a better place than he found it because of Scouting.