In 2012, the Boy Scouts of America made good on their commitment to serve by collectively performing nearly $300 million worth of service. This was achieved by the more than 2.7 members in the BSA of America and about a million volunteers. It is truly spectacular, then, to note how all of this began with a foreign man lost in the fog of a strange, strange place.
Chicago publisher and newspaper man W.D. Boyce visited London in 1909 during a larger trip en route to Africa. As the legend goes, Boyce became lost in the thick fog of an unknown street when he was helped by an unknown young boy to find his way again. When Boyce went to tip him for his services, the young boy — who later came to be known as the Unknown Scout — politely refused, saying he was merely performing a good work as per the oaths he took as a Scout.
Boyce was floored. Upon returning to America, he promptly founded the BSA national organization which was heavily inspired by the original British movement begun in 1907 by General Robert Baden-Powell. Today, the BSA continues to pursue its service of communities at large, the progress of which you can now follow via the web at the Boy Scouts blog.
Boy Scouts everywhere are perhaps most widely recognized for their impressive collections of merit badges, a pursuit that has long been a staple of the organization. There are over 125 different badges a Scout can earn, and over 117 million have been earned nationally in the century since the organization began. The most popular badges earned are for first aid, swimming, camping, cooking and citizenship in the community — a cornerstone of the entire movement.
The Boy Scouts blog online also details some quick trivia not necessarily widely known outside of the scouting community. For example, most Americans know that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. However, you might not know that Armstrong was, in fact, an Eagle Scout, and radioed into a National Jamboree gathering of Scouts from space in 1969.
Furthermore, the Boy Scouts blog also details the most current projects its members are undertaking to better serve their communities. This is all in close proximity to the Boy Scouts store, where the trademark earth-tone uniforms that make a Scout a Scout are sold. Of course, the Boy Scouts blog page is much more than that, and you can discover it for yourself.