AT YOUR SERVICE

Boys' Life covers Scouting's proud tradition of helping others

It is a celebrated moment in Scouting history.

On an August 1909 visit to Britain, William D. Boyce, a Chicago newspaper publisher, lost his way in one of London's legendary fogs. Just then, a courteous young man stepped forward to offer Boyce his assistance, and led the American visitor through the pea soup to his destination.

Mr. Boyce offered the youth a tip for his trouble. The boy politely refused, explaining, "Scouts do not accept tips for courtesies or good turns."

William Boyce was so impressed with the British Scout that he studied Robert S.S. Baden-Powell's new organization. (See "The Founding Fathers," January 2001.) He decided that Scouting would be just the thing for American boys. Accordingly, in February 1910, he legally chartered the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C.

The new American Scouts enthusiastically embraced Baden-Powell's emphasis on community service and helping others.

Our Role

That's why Boys' Life has always paid close attention to Scouts' service.

The magazine's very first issue was filled with "Maxims for Scouts." Sample: "One of the chief duties of a Scout is to help those in distress in any possible way that he can."

More recently, we've run features on Scouting for Food (November 1999); Scouts cleaning up the St. Johns River in Florida (January 2000); and Scouts from the Last Frontier Council (May 2000) who pitched in to help their communities after central Oklahoma was savaged by a killer tornado.

Besides reporting on Scout service, the magazine has also long promoted it.

In an April 1926 editorial, for example, we announced a national public-awareness campaign by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "Every red-blooded boy will want to take part in this work," Boys' Life declared. "Get in touch with your local branch. ..."

In January 1977 we cited the selfless example of Baden-Powell himself in exhorting Scouts to choose from a range of "service projects your patrol can decide upon, from a party at a children's home, to refurbishing a local historic site, to collecting paper, glass and aluminum for recycling."

Meeting the Challenge

Scouting's commitment to service burns brightest during wars and emergencies. During World War I, Boys' Life kept readers abreast of the Scout war effort. Stories covered everything from the "war gardens," tended by individual Scouts to make their families more self-sufficient, to the BSA's role in the national hunt for black walnut to make gun stocks.

Helping raise money to fund the overseas fight for freedom, Scouts sold in excess of 2.3 million Liberty Loan bonds, worth almost $150 million during World War I, plus more than $50 million in war savings stamps.

In addition to money, all sorts of materials were also in short supply, and Scouts pitched in to help. During a single two-week period in World War II, Scouts collected 30 million pounds of scrap rubber that would be recycled into everything from engine parts to gas masks. Twenty thousand Scouts were awarded the General Douglas MacArthur medal for growing food that supplemented American farm output.

This service record, and the billions of routine courtesies with which Scouts express their Slogan, "Do a Good Turn Daily," are among the Scouting movement's proudest achievements.

—Stephen G. Michaud
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