What Scouting Means to Me + Why I’m Visiting Jambo

Hey, Halbrook, what're you doing going to DC for a weekend, leaving your wife & kids behind at home?

Part of me thinks I'm crazy for leaving home for a few days - thanks to my beautiful, wonderful wife agreeing to keep track of our 3 young boys and let me take a pilgrimage to northern Virginia to visit the National Scout Jamboree.

You might think I'm crazy too.

But most of me knows exactly why I'm doing this.

This isn't a little deal to me - this is a big deal. This is the National Scout Jamboree. And it's not any National Scout Jamboree - this year is the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

WHAT THE BOY SCOUTS MEANS TO ME

Scouting has played a huge part in my life - disproportional, really, if you think about it. I joined scouting back in 1986, started camping in 1988, and worked on our council's summer camp staff for 10 summers starting in 1991 - in all spending over a year of my life working at our council's camps.

I was one of the first two Eagle scouts in my troop (Mark Hewlett and I both had our boards of review the same night) back in November of 1991.

I was honored to be elected to my peers to Scouting's National Honor Society, the Order of the Arrow. I attended the National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC) in 1990, then worked on staff in '92, '94, '96, '98, '00, '02, '04, and '06. I was honored again to be able to write the theme show (the featured theatrical production that reinforces the conference theme the last night of the conference) in 2002. It was the culmination of many years of involvement with the NOAC Theme Show for me - I was in the cast in '94 and co-directed it in '96 before moving to other roles within OA Shows, like Technical Director and Support Director. But seeing a theatrical production that I wrote performed for over 7,000 of your brother scouts, and to know the impact the message, delivered by your brothers in OA Shows, would have on their lives, was a highlight of my scouting journey.

Scouting had the biggest impact on my life, my knowledge, and my skills aside from my own parents. I have countless friends that are part of my scouting "network." And I do all that I can with the time, talent, and treasure I now have available to me in order to help scouting.

MY EXPERIENCE

I remember back in second grade, when all of the boys in our class were invited to - and most showed up at - this thing called "School Night for Scouting." A few of the dads talked about scouting and signed us up for this thing called cub scouts. We got a handbook with things to learn, and we formed a "den" of guys in our class. We did the activities and learned the prescribed things together.

As we went through the ranks - through the cub scout years of Bobcat and Wolf and Bear and Webelos - we learned together and forged friendships and reliance on one another. We developed strong relationships with our dads, as they led us into the outdoors to explore and learn.

When we crossed over into boy scouting in 5th grade, we entered a whole new world of outdoor activities and working toward ranks.

And we learned the bedrock of Scouting - its Oath and Law:

Scout Oath (or Promise):
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law:
A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty,
brave, clean, and reverent.

I still remind myself of these commitments daily.

TMI (Too Much Information) Alert:
When I put on deodorant in the morning, I still apply 12 swipes: reciting the 12 points of the Scout Law as I do so.

Me & Dad at Camp Sunnen in '88

We started camping together more. We learned to work as a team. We learned to lead our peers and to accept responsibility for our actions. We learned to organize and prepare.

In those years, my dad was always there as a volunteer leader - as committee chairman of our cub scout pack and ultimately as Scoutmaster of our troop for most of my years in the troop. Scouting gave us some of the best memories and father-son time I could have hoped or prayed for. And I was happy to - and proud to - share my dad with my friends and peers in scouting.

I often say that much of what has made me successful in my career was learned, practiced, and perfected in various leadership roles in Scouting:
- project scoping
- project management
- communication
- working as a team
- leading the team when appropriate
- taking responsibility for my own work and role
- navigating the world (physically and politically)
- self-reliance
- a spirit of servant leadership
- living & working in a community
- organizing the effort to accomplish a goal

Seriously, if nothing else, 10 years on camp staff will ingrain all of the above. Living & working with 30-40 other guys for the entire summer, going to do your laundry in the wash house to discover someone else has left their clothes in the machines, teaching groups from 4 people to 40 people, keeping spirits high and making sure your "customers" have fun while getting the most out of their experience. Yep, that'll sharpen the above skills.

GIVING BACK - AND GETTING IN RETURN

So it should come as no surprise that with everything scouting gave me - in the way of knowledge, relationships, life skills, and experiences - that I was more than happy to give back, with my work on NOAC staffs and on Jamboree staffs in '97, '01, and '05, and whenever I could with my local council or my home troop & pack.

But the great thing is: in giving back, I also kept receiving. The time spent working with other scouters led to and forged friendships and partnerships that last to this very day.

LIFETIME RELATIONSHIPS

As a direct result of scouting, I'm blessed with a wonderful network of friends across America. In almost any city I would travel to, there's a like-minded friend who shares the scouting experience and values, who I've had the opportunity to work with in scouting. These are friends that I actively collaboarate with on ideas and projects, hang out with when I travel, talk to when I need some support.

A lot of young men develop and enter into this kind of "network" in college, when they join a fraternity. For some of us, this network has deeper roots, because it's the result of a lifetime of involvement in Scouting. It shares similar attributes: a common code of ethics and honor, shared rituals and experiences. But I think it differs in longevity, in history, and how it crosses and transcends generations, social classes, and geography. It's truly a rich blessing in my life, one that I treasure and nurture, and one that has given me strong support when I needed it.

SCOUTING IS 100!

This year, Scouting in America celebrates 100 years since its incorporation in 1910.

At tomorrow's "BIG" Jamboree day (because tomorrow night is the big Arena Show), it's expected that Fort A.P. Hill will reach its capacity of 100,000 people - 50,000 Jamboree participants and staff plus 50,000 visitors. And in cities a cross America, scouts will gather to be part of the candlelight "A Shining Light Across America" celebration of 100 years.

Being there at Fort A.P. Hill in person means a lot to me - in a sense, it's my way to pay tribute to the scouting program and the impact that it's had on my life - for roughly 2/3 of my own life, that's intertwined with roughly 1/5 of the Boy Scouts of America's life.

So that explains it, I guess. I'm thankful beyond belief for Suzanne and the boys letting me make this pilgrimage. I'm thankful for the impact Scouting has had on my life and on my country's life (summed up beautifully by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates the other day). And I'm looking forward to the next 100 years of Scouting in America, a chapter that I look forward to helping write with my own sons.

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