IRVING, Tex. (May 7, 2024) – The Boy Scouts of America today announced that it will rebrand to Scouting America, reflecting the organization’s ongoing commitment to welcome every youth and family in America to experience the benefits of Scouting. The change will go into effect on February 8, 2025, the organization’s 115th anniversary.
This announcement also comes as the organization celebrates the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Cub Scouting and Scouts BSA programs. Scouting America currently serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all programs, including over 6,000 who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
“Though our name will be new, our mission remains unchanged: we are committed to teaching young people to be Prepared. For Life,” said Roger A. Krone, president and chief executive officer of Scouting America. “This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting.”
Scouting America builds on the organization’s 114 years of helping America’s youth. Its ongoing goal is to provide young people with a safe environment where they can learn meaningful life skills and have fun, educational experiences, fostering their growth and future outcomes as leaders, and be prepared for life. At the same time, values instilled by the Scout Oath and Law help prepare young people for lives of purpose and impact.
More than 130 million Americans have been through Scouting programs since its founding in 1910, and currently, more than 1 million youth, including both men and women, are served by 477,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country. To date, more than 2.75 million youth have earned Scouting’s highest rank of Eagle Scout.
In addition to supporting the nation’s youth, Scouting America will continue to be an important asset to strengthen our communities, having provided more than 7 million hours of volunteer services for community improvement and other projects across the country annually.
“Scouting America provides a welcoming, safe environment where youth can become the best version of themselves by learning from and respecting each other,” said Krone. “I encourage everyone to join us and experience the benefits of Scouting.”
About Scouting America
Scouting America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®”
Scouting America welcomes all of America’s youth into its programs. Our goal is to give them fantastic experiences in the outdoors, and elsewhere, where they can grow with us in a safe environment. More than 130 million Americans have been through our programs since our founding, and currently more than 1 million youth are served by 477,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country.
“The wilderness is gone, the buckskin man is gone, the painted Indian has hit the trail over the Great Divide, the hardships and privations of pioneer life which did so much to develop sterling manhood are now but a legend in history, and we must depend upon the Boy Scout movement to produce the MEN of the future.”
–- Daniel Carter Beard
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Yeah, I know the scouts, like all other institutions, had their fall from grace, but in the growing up years, they represented the best of what youth could become. Here are a few quotes from the founder, Robert Baden-Powell
“Boys can see adventure in a dirty old duck puddle, and if the Scoutmaster is a boys’ man he can see it too.”
“An invaluable step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.”
“There is no teaching to compare with example.”
“The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.”
“Scoutmasters deal with the individual, rather than with the mass.”
“Scouting is not a club or a Sunday school class, but a school of the woods.”
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“A boy has no greater teacher than a strong, loving father.”
— Someone
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they should just get it over with and call it ..Pedophiles R Us
Even in the worst train-wreck, there might be something worth salvaging.
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