BOY SCOUTING PROVIDES 50 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE

This year, the Southeast Missouri Boy Scout Council celebrates a momentous occasion: A half-century of service to thousands of men and boys.

The council was recognized for its 50th year of incorporation at its annual meeting last Thursday in New Madrid.

That tradition of Scouting is embodied in the many generations of men and boys who have benefited from the program. An outstanding example of this continuing dedication is the Oliver family in Cape Girardeau. Local attorney John Oliver Jr. received the Silver Beaver Award last week the highest honor that can be bestowed by the local council. It was the very same medal awarded to his father and grandfather before him. All three were also Southeast Council presidents. Now here's a Scouting heritage of which to be proud.

Scouts are taught to "do their duty" to God and country. They learn to help other people, keep themselves physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight. It's an oath that has remained fundamental for more than 50 years of Scouting.

Although the Southeast council incorporated in 1941, Scouting actually came to the region much earlier. In 1908, Coach Schultz of the state college faculty led the first "troop." That was two years before the Boy Scouts of America incorporated nationally.

The "Miss-Cape-Scott Area Council, Boy Scouts of America" organized in July of 1924 with six troops and 95 Scouts. But this council disbanded in 1927, and organized Scouting did not return until the Southeast Missouri Area Council organized in December of 1930. In the interim, at least three troops continued to meet, answering directly to the national Scout office.

The Southeast Missouri Council was incorporated in January of 1941 with a youth membership of 4,419. Today's council, which is headquartered in Cape Girardeau, services 7,411 Cubs, Scouts and Explorers led by 1,200 volunteer leaders in 14 Southeast Missouri counties. There are 147 separate units, directed at the council level by a five-man professional staff.

Over the years, Boy Scouts have demonstrated time and again that the organization represents so much more than mere entertainment. Scouting teaches a fundamental way of life in which boys acquire valuable skills, learn self-reliance, and the necessity of preparation for the successful completion of any task. Boy Scouts learn the importance of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. What a different place this world would be if all people adopted these basic laws of living.