The Story of One Good Turn

One day in 1909 in London, England, An American Visitor, William D. Boyce, lost his way in a dense fog. He stopped under a street lamp and tried to figure out where he was. A boy approached him and asked if he could be of help.

 

"You certainly can," said Boyce. He told the boy that he wanted to find a certain business office in the center of the city.

"I'll take you there," said the boy.

When they got to the destination, Mr. Boyce reached into his pocket for a tip. But the boy stopped him.

"No thank you, sir. I am a Scout. I won't take anything for helping."

"A Scout? And what might that be?" asked Boyce.

The boy told the American about himself and about his brother scouts. Boyce became very interested. After finishing his errand, he had the boy take him to the British Scouting office. At the office, Boyce met Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the famous British general who had founded the Scouting movement in Great Britain. Boyce was so impressed with what he learned that he decided to bring Scouting home with him.

On February 8, 1910, Boyce and a group of outstanding leaders founded the Boy Scouts of America. From that day forth, Scouts have celebrated February 8 as the birthday of Scouting in the United States.

What happened to the boy who helped Mr.Boyce find his way in the fog? No one knows. He had neither asked for money nor given his name, but he will never be forgotten. His Good Turn helped bring the scouting movement to our country.

In the British Scout Training Center at Gilwell Park, England, Scouts from the United States erected a statue of an American Buffalo in honor of this unknown scout. One Good Turn to one man became a Good Turn to millions of American Boys. Such is the power of a Good Turn.

Legolas We Were Not, But. . .

Troop 1513 took a divide and conquer approach to our activity last night.  We had a number of boys who joined with the 11-year old scouts to work on their compass work required for their 2nd Class rank.   The rest of the troop worked on the archery merit badge, some of which had nearly completed while at Camp Tifie. Good shooting, gents!

Special thanks for Cory Walker for hosting and running our range and to Kevin Goulding in helping us secure bows from the district.  Cory, when farmer Brown's sprinklers are off, let us know and we'll help find some of the errant arrows that went missing. 

If anyone is looking for a test of strength, seek out Mike "Muscle Man" Merrill and ask to draw back on his 70+ lb compound bow.  Not only did I struggle to draw the bow back during my turn, I think I heard Vince whisper to Mike, "boy if you think he's a sissy now, you should have heard him squeal when he thought a bear was outside his tent at Tifie".