Table of contents for March - April 2019 in Scouting

When Dick Van Dyke gives you his endorsement, you know you’re doing something right. In 1971, as the Emmy-winning actor was preparing to make his return to TV in The New Dick Van Dyke Show, the actor talked with Scouting magazine about his time as a Boy Scout, his opinion of Scout leaders and the challenges of parenting in a fast-paced world. “They call themselves Scouters,” Van Dyke said, “these people who are being so wisely selfish in their desire to help a movement which today has more relevance and significance to human welfare than ever before in its 61-year history.” When viewed nearly 50 years later, Van Dyke’s words retain their value. The BSA remains relevant and significant to humanity. And families feel like they’re pulled in a million…

WHEN LT. COL. SARAH DEAL was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in 2009, she and her husband, airline pilot Phil Burrow, needed someone to help take care of their boys, 7-year-old twins Troy and Brandon, and Eric, who was 2. Their friends, the Barfuss family, volunteered, instantly growing in size from six kids to nine. Deal’s boys tagged along with the Barfuss kids when they started in Pack 611 in St. Joseph, Mich., the next fall. Deal got involved in Scouting with her sons’ pack after her 13-month deployment. She eventually moved the boys to Troop 623 and became the troop’s high-adventure coordinator. At the start of a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan in August 2017, Deal learned that people on the NATO base where she was stationed volunteered with local…

THINK THE VOTE Voting is more than just showing up at a polling place on election day. Scouts 13 and older can learn about and debate all sides of a variety of key issues. Youth can comment for a chance to win prizes and scholarship funds on thinkthevote.com AP PREP WEBINARS Our AP Prep Webinars offer youths the chance to hone their AP test-taking skills for the AP U.S. History and the AP Government tests. DEBATE PREP WEBINARS Members of your organization can join our hosted webinars to discuss topics chosen by the National Speech and Debate Association. Though particularly useful for debate students, these webinars are open to anyone interested in the topics. CONSTITUTIONAL ACADEMY High school age Scouts in your troops can spend a week in Washington, D.C.…

LET’S EAT! FOR THIS installment of “Scouting Show and Tell,” we asked Scouters to share their favorite Dutch oven meals, whether they or their Scouts created them. Either way, they look amazing. Check out these recipes and visit go.scoutingmagazine.org/showandtell to send us yours. You can also show us other ways you make Scouting shine through the online form, by emailing us at scoutingmag@gmail.com or via social media using #ScoutingShowandTell Focaccia Pizza Jennifer Breen, communications chair for Troop 1 in Chicago, shared this recipe prepared by Star Scout Will Khoury during a campout last September at Camp Betz in Berrien Springs, Mich. “His fellow Scouts were excited and surprised to have pizza for dinner,” Breen says. “Typical Dutch oven dinners are usually chili or stew, so the boys were thrilled to…

Inside the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, a Webelos Scout stands tall. His right hand at his brow, he salutes the casket carrying President George H.W. Bush. Hours later, six Boy Scouts and five adult leaders pause in reverential silence to honor our nation’s 41st president, who died Nov. 30, 2018. These separate moments, streamed live on C-SPAN and covered by local and national news outlets, epitomize the first words of the Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country.…” The Webelos Scout is Eliot Dupree of Pack 116 from Arlington, Va. The Boy Scouts are members of Troop 1717 of Hartwood, Va. All are from the BSA’s National Capital Area Council. We talked to Eliot, his mom, and…

Four out of every five people at the 2019 World Scout Jamboree will be from a country that isn’t the United States. Translation: The odds are excellent that members of the U.S. contingent will meet tons of Scouts from other countries. More than 45,000 Scouts from 133 countries across six continents will unite for the quadrennial event, which will be the first held on U.S. soil since 1967. The World Scout Jamboree runs from July 22 to Aug. 2. During their 12 days at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, participants will discover other cultures, try international food and learn how Scouting is the same — and different — in other parts of the world. Spending nearly two weeks at the BSA’s high-adventure base in West Virginia? That’s its own kind of…

FOR MORE THAN a century, the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s national honor society, has recognized Scouts and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Scout Law in their daily lives. More important, it has helped them deepen their commitment to those values. With membership in the OA now expanded to include Venturers, Sea Scouts and girls in troops, it’s a good time to review unit election procedures. WHAT ARE THE YOUTH QUALIFICATIONS? Be a registered Scout, Venturer or Sea Scout; be younger than 21; have experienced 15 nights of Scout camping within the past two years (including one long-term camp); hold the First Class rank, the Venturing Discovery Award or the Sea Scout Ordinary rank; be approved by the unit leader; and be elected by the youth members…

The Dilemma BORN THREE YEARS apart, siblings Tyson and Taylor are sometimes the best of friends and sometimes the worst of foes. Tyson, 15, can’t seem to decide whether to treat his 12-year-old sister as a sidekick or as a kid. And Taylor, truth be told, can’t seem to decide whether she wants to grow up. During one of their friendly periods, they decide to sign up for a fantasy baseball league, a friendly competition where the loser cleans the winner’s room for a month. Baseball is their favorite sport, and they love the idea of seeing how Tyson’s Cubs stack up against Taylor’s White Sox. The only problem is the warning on the sign-up page: It says players must be at least 13 years old, but Taylor won’t be…

SLINGFIN 2LITE TREK The 2Lite Trek shines for its balance between minimalist weight, strength and livability. When pitched properly — which takes only a little practice — this non-freestanding ultralight tent stands up to strong gusts. A short pole over the tent’s peak can be tensioned to maximize stability. Livability is quite good for its weight, with almost 29 square feet of floor space and a peak height of 41 inches, plus two doors and vestibules with unusually good amounts of space. 2 lbs. 6 oz. ($329) BIG AGNES COPPER SPUR HV UL2 Lighter than 3 pounds, the Copper Spur offers 29 square feet of floor area for two people, but even more: a 40-inch peak height and a pole configuration that magnifies the headroom, giving the feel of a…

IT’S EASY TO romanticize living as long as possible in the wilderness, using your wits to build things like an intricate three-point, slip-trigger, spring-activated pole snare trap to catch a meal. But in a true survival situation, who cares? You’re likely scared, hungry, tired and cold. You just want out of this nightmare. Signaling can be one of the keys to getting you home, and sooner rather than later. Once you’ve established your safety and shelter, you should get your signals ready. And since you never really know when potential rescuers will appear, you need to Be Prepared to signal immediately and at all times. Tech Helps First, keep in mind that technology shines during a survival situation since it can carry your message much greater distances than anything else.…

Ken Fineran, the longtime leader of Troop 17 in Short Hills, N.J., was active in Scouting for a total of 57 years, since his youth as a Cub Scout. As Scoutmaster, he helped 84 boys achieve the rank of Eagle. That’s why, when he died of cancer in 2016, his troop decided to memorialize what he meant to their community. “During his 36-year tenure, Scoutmaster Fineran made an indescribable impact on the community and the residents of Millburn Township,” Eagle Scout Jamie Serruto says. Eight of the Scouts who earned their Eagle rank under Fineran have returned as registered adult leaders of the troop. Thanks to the eff orts of the current youth and adults in Troop 17, a road called Fineran Way is officially part of Millburn Township. (Short…

Now that the National Scouting Museum – Philmont Scout Ranch has officially opened, the procedure for completing requirement 4B of the Scouting Heritage merit badge has changed. Scouts still have the option to visit the museum in person and see its stunning new digs. Or they may complete the requirement by writing to the museum via email or traditional mail. To learn more, we talked to museum director David Werhane. WHAT IS SCOUTING HERITAGE MERIT BADGE REQUIREMENT 4B? One of three options in requirement 4 reads: “Write or visit the National Scouting Museum. Obtain information about this facility. Give a short report on what you think the role of this museum is in the Scouting program.” WHAT IF SCOUTS WANT TO VISIT THE MUSEUM IN PERSON? Great idea! The museum…

WHEN PAULA CASTLEMAN looked at her district’s track record for Webelos-to-Scout transition a couple of years ago, she was not impressed. “We only had about 25 percent of our boys going from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts,” she says. “There was a problem there, and we needed to make sure we worked on it.” As a partial fix (and as a Wood Badge ticket item), the Scouter from Lenoir, N.C., organized a daylong event in which local troops taught basic Scout skills like fire-building and knot-tying, round-robin style, to Webelos dens. “They all got to experiment a little with every troop there,” she says. “That wasn’t what I told them we were doing, but that was the goal.” Castleman knew from her time as a Scout mom, den leader, troop…

Most of us see the footage of a disastrous event on the news. Wildfires blazing. Mass evacuations. We watch it; we feel terrible about it; we go back to our lives and move on. But when the burning neighborhoods on TV are your neighborhoods, it’s not that simple. There’s no going back to normal the next day, or the next week, or maybe even the next month. When it’s your own community that’s affected by a disaster, things are different. The Thomas Fire was a 2017 wildfire that devastated parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara in Southern California. Investigators believe it started as two separate brush fires that quickly merged into one giant monster, burning for three weeks and resulting in $2.2 billion worth of damage over 440 square miles.…

SITTING, THEY SAY, is the “new smoking.” If you regularly sit for more than eight hours a day — as many of us with office or driving jobs do — you are at a similar risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes, just as if you smoked a couple of packs a day for years. But there’s a more immediate reason to get up out of that chair: Sitting for too long can make you feel just awful. Prolonged sitting in a hunched-over-the-keyboard position causes postural problems that can trigger pain in your back, neck and knees. It has even been linked to stomach trouble, irritability, insomnia and depression. You can do something to stay healthy. Here are six daily exercises to counteract chronic symptoms of buttin-chair-too-long syndrome. JEFF CSATARI is…

IF YOU’VE REMEMBERED the Scout motto — “Be Prepared” — you won’t be too alarmed when your phone blares a severe weather alert during a Scout outing. Savvy Scouters plan for the possibility of bad weather, knowing tornadoes, lightning, hail, flash flooding and heavy rain can happen at any time. When the forecast looks particu-larly daunting, the safest course is to stay home. Other times, you’ll need to prepare for the types of weather hazards associated with your destination. Even extremely cold or hot weather, while not always a reason to cancel a trip, requires special planning. Before your next outing, take the BSA’s free online Hazardous Weather Training, available through the BSA Learn Center at my.scouting.org. The course teaches the essentials and should be renewed every two years. Then…