Local scouting leaders say they are looking forward to blazing new trails while holding fast to traditions and values as they celebrate the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th anniversary this year.

The Boy Scouts of America incorporated Feb. 8, 1910, and there are more than 4,700 active Scouts in Central Texas today, with more than 1,000 in Waco, according to Boy Scouts of America officials.

Local Scouts, young and old, gathered at the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce building Monday afternoon to talk about plans for the centennial year.

Cub Scout Carter Rogers, 7, has his neckerchief fastened by his mother, Francie Rogers, before Monday’s press conference.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

Mark Miller, who was a Scout 35 years ago and is a scouting dad with local Troop 476 today, said the organization wants to bring the past into the future in the coming year.

Plans for the year include a scouting video competition on Youtube.com, a scouting reunion in Waco in the fall and a campaign to collect the oral and pictorial history of scouting in Central Texas.

Ed Brown, local 100th anniversary chairman, said as he has been spreading the word about the centennial, people have expressed a desire to see the U.S. get back to embracing the values found in scouting.

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to do,” Brown said.

While the values and tenets have not changed in the past century, the way BSA reaches out to communities has. Becky Oppermann, field director for the Longhorn Council of the BSA, said Waco now has an urban Boy Scouts program, which goes into campus after-school programs to reach students.

Oppermann said the council is planning to expand the program and take Boy Scouts to after-school programs at Waco community centers.

“I look for our numbers to go way up this year,” she said.

Oppermann said BSA has adapted not only by finding new ways to recruit Scouts but by meeting the new needs of troops, as well.

For example, learning to run a program in which the parents work multiple jobs and can’t be as involved as traditional scouting parents.

“We have to adapt if we’re going to keep growing,” Oppermann said. “At the same time, we don’t want to stray from our original program because that’s what everyone knows.”

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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