IRVING, TX (November 13, 2019) – The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Boy Scouts of America have announced the official roll out of the Auxiliary’s Sea Scouts youth development initiative, which integrates members of Sea Scout ships (units) into Auxiliary shore-side and underway training and missions both shoreside and underway. In 2018, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and Coast Guard Auxiliary signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) establishing BSA’s Sea Scout program as the Auxiliary’s official youth program. The agreement broadens the Auxiliary’s efforts to reach out to young boaters and encourages them to consider Coast Guard and maritime careers.
“Designating Sea Scouts as the official youth program of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is the most important initiative the Auxiliary has ever undertaken. I believe working with our Sea Scout partners will bring new opportunities to both groups,” said Larry King, Auxiliary National Commodore.
“Working with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will give Sea Scouts an opportunity to benefit from Coast Guard seamanship and vocational training, while giving Sea Scouts a unique introduction to the Coast Guard,” said T.W. Cook, Sea Scout National Commodore.
Recognizing Sea Scouts as the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary’s official youth program provides a number of important benefits, including:
- Auxiliary flotillas are encouraged to support existing Sea Scout ships and to establish new Sea Scout ships where there are currently none.
- Working with Auxiliary members greatly enhances the resources available to youth in the Sea Scout program by engaging more adult leaders with seamanship skills, training and access to vessels into the program
- All Sea Scouts and leaders are now automatically associate members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary Association. Additionally, any Sea Scout may apply for full Auxiliary membership. The minimum joining age remains 17 years old for non-Sea Scouts.
- Auxiliary programs will facilitate advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-oriented training.
Details of these changes and more are available on the Auxiliary’s AuxBWiki website at tinyurl.com/AuxBWiki .
Starting with an initial MOA in 2009, which established a framework for cooperation between the two organizations, the BSA and Coast Guard Auxiliary have been working together to promote recreational boating safety, as well as to share communications and manpower resources over the past decade.
“The BSA is proud to continue our partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary as we continually strive to improve leadership development, real-life skill-building and unique STEM training through the Sea Scout program,” said Patrick Sterrett, Assistant Chief Scout Executive and National Director of Field Service of the Boy Scouts of America.
For more information about the Sea Scout program or to find a Sea Scout ship near you, visit www.beascout.org.
About the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life.®” The Scouting organization is composed of nearly 2.2 million youth members between the ages of 5 and 21 and approximately 960,000 volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information on the Boy Scouts of America, please visit www.Scouting.org .
About the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed volunteer component of the United States Coast Guard created by an Act of Congress in 1939. The Auxiliary, America’s Volunteer Guardians, supports the Coast Guard in nearly all of the service’s missions. For more information about the Coast Guard Auxiliary visit http://www.cgaux.org
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