You have heard the Scouting legend of William Boyce getting lost in a London fog and being “rescued” by an unknown Scout. You may even know that there was no fog that day in London and Boyce was actually standing right across the street from his hotel. No matter how it happened, it led to the founding of Scouting America.
Well, this article is not about those famous events. These are lesser known facts that some, or many, will find interesting and perhaps get a chuckle out of.
- Scouts have served a role in every election year presidential inauguration since its founding, starting with Woodrow Wilson in 1912. They have participated in the parade, been the honor guard, presidential aides, crowd control, and more. This little tale falls into the “and more” category.
For Franklin Roosevelt’s first innauguration, one Scout was stationed just outside the kitchen of the White House. His duty was simply to stand his station until relieved. After the innauguration, A women approached him and asked if he wanted some ice cream in the kitchen. The Scout politely refused, saying that he could not leave until relieved. The woman then offered to stand in for him. The Scout thought about it and decided that would be okay, so he went into the kitchen for ice cream while First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt stood his station until he returned. - Today’s familiar Scout Life magazine, formerly Boy’s Life, was not started by BSA. It began in 1911, founded by a Scout named Joseph Lane. His circulation quickly grew to 6100 subscribers in just 1 year. That is when BSA purchased “Boy’s Life” from the Scout for $1 per subscriber, roughly $175,000 in today’s currency.
- Did you know that Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded Scouting? Of course you did, but did he?…
B-P published the book “Scouting for Boys” in November, 1907. It was hugely popular among English boys and soon they were forming their own clubs to practice the skills described by B-P in the book. The boys realized they needed adult help managing their clubs so they recruited their dads. This spontaneous response to the book can be credited with spurring the Brownsea Island experiment that lead to the founding of Scouting as an official organization. So, did the English boys really start the Scouting movement? 
The success of the GI Joe action figure spurred Kenner (think Play Doh) to seek and recieve an exclusive license to produce the Scout action figures Steve Scout and Bob Scout in the 1970s. These figures, and the Craig Cub action figure, had playsets like “Escape Glide from Eagle Mountain”, “Avalanche on Blizzard Ridge”, and “Lost in the High Country” available to supplement the play experience.- In the aftermath of 9/11, Scouts hailing from New Jersey and New York united to gather an impressive quantity of more than 150,000 water bottles destined for the rescue workers at Ground Zero!
There are, of course, many more interesting facts about Scouts and Scouting. I would love to hear about your interesting facts.
