SCOUTING SMOKE SIGNALS
COMING TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU – IT’S BOY SCOUT FALL POPCORN SALE TIME
Many Scouts earn their way to summer camps and outings by selling popcorn so support Scouting by saying, “Yes,” the next time you’re asked to buy some Boy Scout popcorn. Parents – make sure that you get sales materials from your unit leaders early!
ATTENTION SCOUTMASTERS AND CUBMASTERS
Please make every effort to deliver your applications to the Scout Office within a few days after your recruitment meeting! By delivering the applications in a timely manner, Scouts will begin to receive their BOYS’ LIFE Magazines quickly and their insurance coverage starts immediately! If you need assistance in getting your applications delivered on time, please call your District Executive!
A CODE TO LIVE BY . . .
Jim Molebsh, Field Director
A SCOUT IS COURTEOUS. . . “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” These eleven simple words make up the Golden Rule. If you expect courtesy from others – treat them courteously. Courtesy is more than opening doors for the elderly or saying please and thank you. Courtesy is an attitude that says to all around, “I value your presence and respect you.”
Courtesy is a practical attribute. By being courteous, you open doors to friendship and build bridges to beneficial relationships. The most successful businesses in today’s society place a high value on customer service. Courtesy to the customer is a cornerstone of customer service. We all need to try more to make “common courtesy” a little more common. Being courteous is a practical way to treat others – it is part of our code to live by.
A PLEA TO AREA SCOUTMASTERS (and parents)
I have been to your meetings, I have seen your Boy Scouts, and I am displeased in what I have observed and heard. I’m sorry to say this, but some of your boys are not in proper uniform. In fact, most aren’t in uniforms at all. Some of the ones that are partly in uniform wear their clothes like the ‘cool’ street people downtown that they are trying to pattern themselves after. A Boy Scout uniform should be: neat in appearance, clean, repaired, have all the proper patches sewn on, and they should fit. The pants shouldn’t be hung down around the hips with the underwear showing, pant legs worn long, dirty, and ragged at the cuffs, and a belt is surly in order. I know the current ‘fad’ in clothes is to look just as dirty as you can, ragged as possible, and as my father would have said, “Stupid”.
And to you parents: who is running the program at your home, the lazy cruddy, unkempt youth living under your roofs or you the parents and money earners? I know that the Boy Scout organization is not a military outfit but come on, have a little pride in the way you look when you are in uniform. Look at our Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corp personnel. You look up to them; why not try to emulate them? Did you ever see a city, state, county policeman or a DNR Conservation Officer with a dirty, ragged ill-fitting uniform? I don’t think so – they would be fired in a Fort Wayne minute.
Shouldn’t we expect the same from the members of one of the oldest, most honored, respected organizations in the world?
A Scout ‘should be’: trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, ‘CLEAN’, and reverent. No where does it say, “A Scout should be ragged, unkempt, dirty, foul-mouthed, disrespectful, sarcastic, and look stupid trying to walk while tripping over the crotch in their pants.” Maybe we should start firing those ‘Scouts’ (and leaders) that refuse to live up to the Scout Law, Oath, and Motto and just go with a few that are proud to wear the Boy Scout Uniform.
Ok, send your hate mail to Ray McCune, c/o The Waynedale News, 2700 Lower Huntington Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46809.
NOTE: Get all the members of your troop, pack, or crew in complete uniform, take a picture of them, and we’ll put it in SCOUTING SMOKE SIGNALS complete with members’ names. In fact, I will even come and take the picture. Let’s see how many pictures we publish between now and the end of the year. I say we don’t have one …!
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