2023-07 The Story of a Good Turn

How good must a Good Turn be to be GOOD? The answer is best given by telling you the story of how Scouting came to America. It shows that it isn't the size of the Good Turn that counts. It's the doing of it, whether large or small.

A GOOD TURN TO AN AMERICAN.

One day in the year 1909 the great city of London was in the grip of a dense fog. An American businessman, William D. Boyce, stopped under a street lamp to locate himself. Out of the gloom a boy approached him and asked if he could be of help.

"You certainly can," said Boyce. He told the boy that he wanted to find a certain business office in the center of the city.
'I'll take you there," said the boy.
When they got to the destination, the American reached into his pocket for a tip. But the boy stopped him.
"No thank you, sir. I am a Scout. I can't take anything for helping."
"A Scout? And what might that be?" asked Boyce.
And so the boy told the American about himself and his brother Scouts. Boyce became very interested. After finishing his errand, he had the boy take him to the British Scout office.
There the boy disappeared.

At the office Boyce met Baden-Powell, the famous British general who had founded the Scouting movement. Boyce was so impressed with what he learned that he decided to bring Scouting home with him.

And so, on February 8, 1910, in Washington, D.C., Boyce and a group of outstanding men founded the Boy Scouts of America. Ever since then this day has been known as the birthday of Scouting in the United States.

What happened to the boy? No one knows. He was never heard of again, but he will never be forgotten. In the British
Scout Training Center at Gilwell Park, England, a statue of a buffalo was put up in honor of this "Unknown Scout." His Good Turn had brought the Scouting movement to our country.

One Good Turn to one man became a Good Turn to millions of American boys. Such is the power of a Good Turn. You never can tell...

2022-33 Help Other People At All Times

Here is a fun one found in the 1958 printing of ideas and stories for the Scoutmaster’s Minute entitled “Help Other People At All Times.”

I have in front of me two plates, an apple on one; a few apple seeds on the other.

If I gave you a choice, which of these plates would you rather have? Well, I guess most of us would choose the one with the apple, wouldn't we?

About a hundred and fifty years ago, there was as a fellow who would have taken the seeds. He was a nut on apple seeds, so much so that people called him Johnny Appleseed. He walked across hundreds of miles of our frontier lands year after year, until he died, and everywhere he went he planted apple seeds. The trees that grew from those seeds fed thousands of people with their fruit. All because of a screwball called Johnny Appleseed!

Most of us seem to be interested only in the present. We haven't time to plant seeds. We want just the brightest fruit, and we want it right now.

But you know it would be easy for us to plant a few seeds along the way, seeds that would bring good to many people for years to come. How? Just by living our slogan, "Do a Good Turn Daily." Every time we help another person we are planting a little seed of good feeling. Just one such seed can start the growth of a tree of good deeds in each person you help. You can see how important your Good Turn is. It can lead to thousands of good deeds throughout many years of the future, affecting the lives of thousands of people.

Remember your Good Turn every day!

2022-26 Tale of the Unknown Scout

Scouting was brought to America by William D. Boyce, a Chicago publisher, and the way Boyce discovered Scouting is one of the movement’s most colorful stories. Boyce, it seems, was in London in the fall of 1909 and was out in a famed London fog looking for an office in the center of the city. Nearly at his wit’s end, Boyce stopped a young man and asked directions. Not only did the youth tell Boyce how to reach his destination, he actually led Boyce there to make certain the American found his way without becoming lost again. Boyce, to show his gratitude, offered the youth a tip, but the youth would not accept it. When asked why, the young man told Boyce he was a Boy Scout and taking a tip would negate the good deed he had done and violate his Scouting code.

The youth’s gesture impressed Boyce, who later visited with Lord Baden-Powell himself. Boyce was so taken with Baden-Powell and the Scouting idea that back in America he and other men interested in youth development founded the Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C., on February 8th, 1910. No one knows who the Scout was who performed his Good Turn for Boyce, but he has not been forgotten. In Gilwell Park in London, American Scouts had a statue erected in his honor. A large-scale representation of the Silver Buffalo Award, the statue bears the inscription, “To the Unknown Scout Whose Faithfulness in the Performance of the Daily Good Turn brought the Scout Movement to the United States of America.”

2022-12 Don't Get Lost

How many of us have felt lost?

How many of us have been lost before?

Years and years ago, when I was about 6 years old. I was lost. It was Christmas time and Mom and Dad were doing some shopping at the mall. There were 3 of us kids at the time with me being the oldest. And somehow, I lost my family in the crowd. I can’t recall if someone took me to the security office, or if the security officer was the one that found me, but either way, I was lucky that kind people helped me along the way. I do remember sitting at a desk with a typewriter in front of me and typing, “I am lost” over and over. I think my mother still has that piece of paper tucked away in a box somewhere. Eventually I was reunited with my parents. The real scary part of this story was told to me a few years later. Apparently as my parents were trying to get to the security office in the mall to claim me, there were 3 or 4 additional adults that were also trying to claim me as their lost child. One woman was even calling out my name as the security officers mistakenly broadcasted it throughout the mall in the hopes that it would assist my parents in finding me faster. I can only imagine the anxiety and fear that my parents had during this ordeal.

In Cub Scouts we are taught at an early age to use the buddy system. And if you are ever lost, to STOP. Which stands for Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan. As a Cub Scout I was also told to hug a tree and start blowing your whistle that you should have in your essentials bag. As a Scout, we continue to use the buddy system. While hiking it is recommended that scouts hike in buddy groups of at least 4. In the event that one of the members becomes injured and needs help. Two of the members can go run for help together as the other member stays with the injured member. In this scenario, all four have greatly reduced their chances of becoming lost as they are with their buddy.

Sometimes we lose our way. And sometimes we are not just physically lost, but also emotionally. One thing to always remember is that if you are emotionally lost, you are never truly alone. Someone is always thinking about you and cares about you. Those individuals, or emotional buddies, could be family members, friends, neighbors, leaders, and teachers. If you do feel lost, sound off your whistle for help, don’t bottle it up.

Let us all continue to do our best to be buddies for each other as we do our good turn daily, along with helping each other at all times and being kind to each other.