By Mark Bennett
TERRE HAUTE — Nobody understands the impact of a stint in the Boys Scouts on a young man better than Al Siebenmorgen.
His dad helped organize one of Terre Haute’s first troops in 1912. Siebenmorgen himself became a Cub Scout in 1929 and a Boy Scout in 1932. Now 89, he’s been active in local Scouting — except for his U.S. Air Force service during World War II — ever since.
He can see a tangible difference in the character of kids who’ve spent a year or more in Boy Scouts.
“You rarely see those kind getting into trouble,” Siebenmorgen said. “They’re taught what’s right and wrong, and how to behave themselves.”
Scouting values, he added, are “just good, old down-home living.”
Those core principles have been around as long as the Boy Scouts of America organization, itself. According to lore, American businessman William Boyce encountered helpful British Boy Scouts during a trip to England, researched their history and incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910. The BSA is toasting its approaching centennial throughout 2010 with a variety of events. That includes the Wabash Valley District’s Leader Recognition Dinner and Celebration at 6 p.m. Feb. 13 in the Meadows Banquet Center.
Ask Scouting veterans why the youth program has lasted a hundred years, and they’ll often mention words used in the Scout Law. Boy Scouts have recited that guideline since the BSA’s beginning in 1910:
“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”
Bob Hostetter serves as Scoutmaster of Troop 93 in Cloverdale. Now retired from the Army Corps of Engineers, Hostetter is in his 31st year as a Scoutmaster and his 50th year in Scouting since signing up as a youngster. He’s put two sons through Scouting, and currently guides 28 boys in Troop 93. The benefits are numerous, in Hostetter’s view.
“They’re getting good moral values, character-building skills, mental skills, and physical skills they can use throughout their lives — perseverance, citizenship,” he said. “Those are the kind of things the Scouting program is based around.”
That BSA foundation was laid in Terre Haute barely a year after Boyce incorporated the national organization.
According to Siebenmorgen’s research, the first Boy Scout troop in Terre Haute was organized in the Liberty Avenue M.E. Church at 23rd Street and Liberty. The church hired an East Coast minister already familiar with Scouting, and he set up a local troop in 1911 or early 1912, Siebenmorgen said. Impressed by that initial troop, Siebenmorgen’s father and other adults organized a second troop at the Plymouth Congregational Church at 17th and Sycamore streets.
Their activities a hundred years ago wouldn’t be foreign to 21st-century Boy Scouts, Siebenmorgen said, recalling his dad’s stories.
That included “outdoor programs, camping, tying knots and basically the same Scouting skills we have today,” Siebenmorgen said.
In its stated mission, the BSA aims to build character in young people, train them in the responsibilities of participatory citizenship and developing their personal fitness. Nationwide, its ranks include 2.8 million youth members and 1.2 million adult leaders and volunteers, according to 2008 statistics. That 4 million-member total is down from the peak of 6 million boys and adults in 1972. Today, the BSA programs include not only Boy Scouts, but also Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts and Webelos (for first- through fifth-graders), and the coed Venturing program (for 14- through 21-year-olds).
The Wabash Valley Council has 1,850 youth members, said Jaime Wilder, district director. With competition for kids from youth sports and video games, she added, that total “is down slightly” from recent years, “but we are hoping to turn that trend around.”
Ironically, the number of Eagle Scouts — the highest rank in Boy Scouting — has been at an all-time high, nationally, throughout the past decade. In each of the last nine years, more than 50,000 teenagers have reached Eagle status, said Renee Fairrer, manager of public relations at the BSA offices in Dallas. Never before had the 50,000 plateau been topped.
Scout officials aren’t sure of the reason for the Eagle Scout boom, but Fairrer has some theories. Many colleges and universities now base their entrance and scholarship standards around a prospective student’s volunteerism and community service. Scouts must complete an extensive community service project to earn their Eagle rank. Also, Eagle Scouts can get a head start on advancement in the military services, Fairrer said.
But those are only perks, she added. The Scouting experience, especially for teens who reach Eagle, builds lifelong confidence, Fairrer explained.
“To walk away at 15, 16 or 17 years old, with that sense of accomplishment, boy — that probably sets the pace for them,” she said of the climb to Eagle. “They’ll think, ‘If I can do that, I can do anything.’”
Stephen Engles can attest to that. The 18-year-old West Vigo High School senior became an Eagle Scout in September 2008, as a member of Troop 434. For his final Eagle project, Engles repaired portions of a trail on the St. Mary-of-the-Woods property, and placed weather-protected information boxes along its route for hikers. Once he finished, Engles described his work to the nuns at the Sisters of Providence.
He’s already been accepted into the geology program at the University of Southern Indiana, and hopes to become an oceanographer. He saw plenty of geological wonders firsthand thanks to his Scouting. As a member of the BSA’s honor society — the Order of the Arrow — he got to travel to the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M. He worked one week for the BSA, and then, as a reward, got to spend a second week of free time hiking the New Mexico trails.
Scouting, he said, “has affected the way I carry myself in public, my manners, my morals. It’s greatly affected my public speaking. It’s allowed me to do things I’d never dreamed of. So I’d say, it’s affected everything.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
