On March 24th Sam Thompson spoke on the topic "A Year in the Life of a Covid Scout." Although the Boy Scouts of America predates the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919-1920 this year's pandemic presented new challenges to Scouting which have not been confronted before. Sam has served as the director of the Cub Scout program at BSA 's national headquarters in Irving and has served as the CEO of the Circle Ten Council since 2017.
With the "stay at home" protocol in effect for a year in person meetings have been out of the question but with the creation of the "Stay Calm and Scout On" program meetings have continued on line and there has even been virtual camping- I'd like to see that but there is the advantage of not having to put up with bad weather. In spite of Covid-19 all four Circle Ten camps were open last summer serving 16,000 youth and adults.
Scouting as we knew it in our youth has changed in other ways. Girls are participants at all levels of Scouting and 13 girls were among the 777 Scouts who achieved the rank of Eagle last year in Circle Ten.
We were happy to learn that the assets of Circle Ten are not in jeopardy as a result of the national organization's bankruptcy. Mr. Thompson described the measures taken to insure youngsters safety. He pointed out that the legal claims now pending have mostly come from incidents in the 1960's and '70's and that with implementation of the protective protocols reported claims have dropped by 96% nationally.
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