During the Second Matabele War of 1896-97, a very resourceful British general held the strategic town of Mafeking for 217 days against a much larger force until another army group broke through the Boer lines and relieved him and his men. His name was Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell.
Baden-Powell retired from the army shortly afterward and returned to England as the greatest hero of the Boer War. He decided to make use of his fame by helping British boys become better men.
He slowly developed his ideas and in 1907 he held the first Boy Scout camp on the British island of Brownsea to test his ideas. Out of this test came a book called “Scouting for Boys.”
One of his early teachings was for every scout to do a good turn daily by helping someone else.
One day in 1909, an American, William D. Boyce, was in England looking for an address. Out of the fog, a boy approached him and asked if he could help. Boyce replied, “You sure can, I’m looking for this address.”
The boy looked at the address and said, “I’ll take you there.” When they got to the destination, Boyce reached into his pocket to pay the boy for his service, but the boy refused.
“No thank you sir. I am a Boy Scout. I can’t take anything for helping.”
“A Scout? And what might that be?” Boyce asked. So the boy told Boyce 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.
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.
On Feb. 8, 1910, in Washington, D.C., Boyce along with other outstanding men founded the Boy Scouts of America. From that time on, Feb. 8 has been known as the birthday of Scouting in the United States.
No one knows the identity of the boy who so impressed William D. Boyce. He was never heard from again. He simply did his good turn and went home, but that good turn to Boyce became a good turn to millions of American boys. One can never imagine the power of one good turn to another.
I became a Cub Scout in the 1950s and a Boy Scout in 1957. My leaders tried hard to engrain the Scout Oath and Scout Law into me as I progressed through the program. I think my biggest mistake was to be so focused on showing and training horses for my father’s Arabian horse ranch that I didn’t ever get my Eagle Scout rank.
However, that lesson wasn’t lost on me when my son became a Cub Scout and progressed through the Scouting program. I encouraged him to not let anything stop him from getting his Order of the Arrow and finally becoming an Eagle Scout.
The principles and skills learned in the Scouting program set the way both my son and I have responded to challenges as adults. The confidence to do whatever needs to be done and to be of service to others has become an important part of our lives.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started sponsoring Boy Scout Troops in 1913 and held a celebration commemorating 100 years of partnership with the Boy Scouts of America in 2013.
For a little more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America has been a critical part of our young men’s program, and our church is currently the largest sponsor of Boy Scout Troops in America. That relationship and partnership with the Boy Scouts of America will end in 2020.
It is tough to dissolve our relationship with the BSA, but the church has more members in countries outside of the United States than it does in the U.S. Our leaders have been working for several years to design a youth program that is consistent globally, and that youth program will be implemented in 2020.
Personally, I understand the need to redesign our youth program to better serve a globally expanding membership. I know that the loss of almost 20 percent of the BSA’s scout troops will hurt the program initially, but I wish the Boy Scouts of America well.
I also hope that the new youth program to be implemented in 2020 by our church will incorporate those important aspects of the BSA that we have been using for 100 years. It was an outstanding and mutually beneficial partnership.
Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He was a member of the faculty of Texas A&M University for 25 years. There he taught orienteering, marksmanship, self-defense, fencing, scuba diving and boxing. He was among the first DPS-certified Texas Concealed Handgun Instructors. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.
