Today in History

FamilyNet Newsgate

From: "Bob Hoffman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

  On my honor I will do my best
  to do my duty to God and my country
  and to obey the scout law;
  to help other people at all times;
  to keep myself physically strong;
  mentally awake, and morally straight.
  The Boy Scout Oath

On August 21, 1912, Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, New York achieved the rank
of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. He was the first
person to earn the award.

The Boy Scout movement began with the 1908 publication of British Lieutenant
General Robert S.S. Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. In 1902, nature writer
Ernest Thompson Seton advocated organizing a boys' club called "Woodcraft
Indians." Seton inspired Baden-Powell's efforts to marshall existing boys'
groups into scout patrols. Baden-Powell's book describes the games and
activities he developed to train cavalry troops during the South African War
and suggests an organizational framework for scouting. The appeal of Scouting
for Boys reflected the popular fascination with nature-based recreation as a
means of character development.

The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 with President William Howard
Taft as honorary president. By 1912, every state could claim a band of Scouts.
Soon, the organization inaugurated its program of national civic Good
Turns--promotion of a "sane and safe" Fourth of July was among the earliest of
these campaigns. Congress granted the Boy Scouts a Federal Charter in 1916,
authorizing a Scout uniform similar to a U.S. armed services uniform.

In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia. Her
efforts to bring fresh-air activities to girls proved popular. By the following
year, national headquarters were established in Washington, D.C. The Girl Scout
cookie sale quickly became an important fund raiser for the organization.
Initially homemade, by the 1930s Girl Scouts peddled precursors of the
commercially-baked delicacies we know today.


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