Scouting Magazine

When Life Scout Phillip Bolick told people he planned to ride a bike 4,200 miles across the United States, they reacted in one of two ways. “I was either told, ‘That’s incredible. I wish I could go,’ ” he says, “or, ‘You couldn’t pay me to do that.’ ” At 15, Phillip...

District chairman and former Scoutmaster Mike DiTrani has completed five Philmont treks and frequently hikes in the Adirondacks, but some of his favorite hiking happens much closer to his Staten Island home. “Urban hiking turns sidewalks into trails,” he says....

If you live in or near Jackson, Wyo., you know all about Elkfest. Thousands of residents and visitors gather each spring in Jackson Town Square for the weekend-long community celebration and its premier event: the hugely popular Boy Scout Elk Antler Auction. The...

From New York’s steel towers to the bayous of Louisiana, these five Scouting families make their world a better place. In the process, Scouting helps them become stronger together. The Castle family Pack 68, Charleston, W.Va. Dianna and Shawn Castle describe...

It’s a season of first pages, blank notebooks and new shoes. A time to share stories of adventures with old friends and meet new faces in unfamiliar halls. For the Boy Scouts of America, the new school year is a time of hospitality and invitation. This is our...

A ninth-grader at Provo High School in Utah gave his watch to his best friend, saying he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. He told five other friends he planned to kill himself, but no one told an adult. The young man committed suicide the next day. Tragedies like this...

Jake, Meredith and John Jack BoozerAs I travel across the country I am always introduced to Scouters I haven’t met before, and many times in the course of the introduction I hear the phrase, “This is a great Scouting family.” There are literally thousands and...

The Dilemma Life in the Flaming Scorpion Patrol is good. All seven members came up through Cub Scouting as a den, they enjoy hanging out together and they work well as a team. On campouts, patrol leader Maya rarely has to give orders or even worry about who’s on the...

Picture a stack of 174 newspapers, each 85 pages thick. Back in 2007, researcher Martin Hilbert calculated that’s how much information the average person received every single day. And that was before Instagram, Snapchat and an endless stream of hashtags. Is it any...

Tiffany Ta didn’t get the chance to be a Scout when she was growing up in Vietnam. So when she moved to the United States in 1975, Ta had limited awareness of Scouting’s many benefits. That changed when her son, Philip, became a Cub Scout and her daughter, Breigh,...

“Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” These words from Theodore Roosevelt fittingly describe what Scouts from Troop 6 in Bismarck, N.D., were up to last summer. There was some work worth doing in Medora, N.D.,...

The latest research is startling: More than half of all children have been involved in bullying as a perpetrator, target or both. Those who aren’t directly involved often witness others being bullied. Bullying affects kids of every race, gender identity, grade and...

Tens of thousands of Scouts and Scouters from around the globe will attend this summer’s World Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia. But international Scouts and Scouters have been coming to America since the BSA’s earliest days, bringing with...

Jan Helge Bøhn joined Cub Scouting in the second grade, as did all but two of the other 13 boys in his grade-school class. Eight were still active when they graduated from high school. That’s no surprise, considering how the Norwegian Scout program combined rugged...

Marcelo Guerra Hahn’s memories of Scouting in Uruguay revolve around camping, games and lots of singing and clapping. “What you hear at campfires here we do there all the time,” he says. Earning badges, which is so important to many BSA youth, was far less meaningful...

Natasha Brand has no trouble remembering what Scouting was like back home. That’s because she and her youngest child, Sam, spend two months in the U.K. each summer. Sam is a Cub Scout in both countries, while his mom is a den leader here and a group section assistant...

Frank Fernández was on the path to Boy Scouting when revolution intervened. In 1961, Fidel Castro’s government disbanded the Association of Scouts of Cuba, replacing it with the state-controlled José Martí Pioneer Organization. A year later, the former Cub Scout and...

Osama Mourad became a Cub Scout when he was in the fifth grade. Before he left high school, he was an assistant Scout leader, helping younger Scouts. The Egyptian Scout Federation, like many national Scouting organizations, puts a premium on leadership by older Scouts...

This is a landmark year for the Boy Scouts of America. From July 22 to Aug. 2, the BSA will co-host the 24th World Scout Jamboree alongside Scouts Canada and Asociación de Scouts de México. Scouts from around the world will journey to the Summit Bechtel Reserve in the...

Scouting is a window to the rest of the world. So many kids in our units are familiar with their hometowns but not much beyond that. Scouting offers opportunities for them to broaden their horizons. The merit badge system introduces Scouts to career and avocation...

If you’ve remembered the Scout motto — “Be Prepared” — you won’t be too alarmed when your phone blares a severe weather alert during a Scout outing. Savvy Scouters plan for the possibility of bad weather, knowing tornadoes, lightning, hail, flash flooding and heavy...

When members of the Palmetto Council in Spartanburg, S.C., committed to an aggressive multicultural marketing program several years ago, they weren’t messing around. They promoted Scouting to predominantly African-American communities where it wasn’t already a staple....

Let’s go fly some kites, a sport every Scout can enjoy even though there are always strings attached. Kites can be the focus of STEM activities featuring the science of weather, technology of flight, engineering of aeronautical design, and math for figuring angles and...

The Dilemma Born three years apart, siblings Tyson and Taylor are sometimes the best of friends and sometimes the worst of foes. Tyson, 15, can’t seem to decide whether to treat his 12-year-old sister as a sidekick or as a kid. And Taylor, truth be told, can’t seem to...

“Scouters in Action” subjects come from the National BSA Court of Honor. If you know of an act of heroism that should be recognized, contact your local BSA council office for a lifesaving or meritorious award application. Note: Consult approved safety guidelines, as...

Most of us see the footage of a disastrous event on the news. Wildfires blazing. Mass evacuations. We watch it; we feel terrible about it; we go back to our lives and move on. But when the burning neighborhoods on TV are your neighborhoods, it’s not that simple....

For more than a century, the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s national honor society, has recognized Scouts and Scouters who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Scout Law in their daily lives. More important, it has helped them deepen their commitment to those values....

Hats off to the Palmetto Council for reaching out to the deaf community through Scouting! What an awesome opportunity for these kids. (Read about this great program here.) As I think about it, I’m reminded of Scouting individuals who have reached out to groups of kids...

Perhaps no gear category has witnessed more rapid improvement in recent years than backcountry tents. Here are some of the best: SlingFin 2Lite Trek: The 2Lite Trek shines for its balance between minimalist weight, strength and livability. When pitched properly —...

One of the many things I appreciate about the Scout Motto is the way it demands self-reliance. To “Be Prepared,” one must take personal responsibility. Self-reliance is one of the main values we work to instill in Scouts, and our program is uniquely positioned to help...