Scouting around for a different kind of summertime fun and challenge? Volunteer to serve on the staff of the 2001 National Scout Jamboree, July 3 – August 1, 2001, at Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia.

You will be one of more than 5,000 volunteers helping to operate the jamboree city of more than 30,000 Scouting residents. But running a city properly requires city planning, and that’s where you come in.

All services normally provided in a city must also be available at the jamboree. Electricians, plumbers, communications specialists, sanitation personnel, food service specialists, and engineers are all needed to keep this city humming.

But don’t think the jamboree is all work and no play. Recreational opportunities abound for participants. Volunteers can help in action centers which offer nine programs for Scouts including bicycle motocross, rappelling, a challenge  course, trap shooting, biathlon, buckskin games, pioneering, air rifle shooting, and archery. Remote centers need volunteers with skills in boating, canoeing, scuba diving, snorkeling, kayaking, and fishing.

Help is also needed in jamboree exhibit and display areas including the Merit Badge Midway, Arts and Sciences Fair, Brownsea Island Camp, K2BSA Amateur Radio Station, disability awareness trail, and daily stage shows.

There’s still time to submit an application, and there are many positions to choose from.

Staff applications are available at the council service center.  Register today!

Our congratulations to these Eagle Scouts for accomplishing what only two percent of all Scouts are able to do. These Eagles today are the leaders of America and the world tomorrow.

Richard Robles II	T346
Justin Leigh Malkowski	T305

Two years ago, Public Agenda, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, released the results of a study exploring Americans’ attitudes about our young people. The staggering results of the study, Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation, indicated that Americans believe our young people are facing a “moral crisis, one that has emerged because adults have failed to teach them about character and values.

Public Agenda recently released the results of a 1999 follow-up study to Kids These Days. The report summarizes that “Americans’ concerns that too many children and teens are not absorbing the moral lessons that will allow them to grow into respectable, respectful, compassionate, and honorable human beings” remains virtually unchanged since 1997.

Based on the results of the latest study, Public Agenda reports on seven basic findings in the follow-up report Kids These Days ’99. This report indicates a need for “communications programs that ‘help parents help kids.’” Recent outcomes studies conducted by Louis Harris and Associates prove that Scouting programs foster communication between youth and their parents and provide a healthy, safe environment that cultivates positive self-worth and character. Scouting programs, in fact, address each of the seven issues facing today’s youth (as outlined by Public Agenda).

To view the Kids These Days ’99 report, visit the Public Agenda Web site at www.publicagenda.org. To learn more about how Scouting programs address such issues as those outlined in the Public Agenda report or for more information about the Harris studies, in particular, contact the council service center.

This year's District Awards Banquet will take place Saturday, January 22nd, at Trinity Lutheran Church.  The doors open at 6:30 PM and supper will be served at 7:00.  The theme this year is "Scouting Around the World";international food will be served.  In addition to the District Award of Merit, Leader training awards and Veteran Scouter recognition will be conferred on deserving Scouters.  All boys who achieved their Eagle Scout rank in 1999 will also be recognized.

You are invited to attend for food, fun and fellowship.  Cost is $9 per person.  Call the council office and make your reservations today.

As the new year starts, let us all look forward to another exciting year of Scouting in the Amangi Trail.

I wish to personally thank all leaders and parents for their efforts during 1999 in bringing the Scouting promise to more than 1900 young boys and young ladies; they would not be in Scouts without YOUR time and hard work.  Thank you, each and every one.

Consider this; if a boy stays in Scouting for four years, there is a 96% probability that he will graduate from high school and a 41% probability that he will earn a college degree.  For boys who do not join Scouts, the figures are 69% and 16%, respectively.  Only 15% of boys will join Scouts and stay with it for more than a year, but 75% of the men listed in "Who's Who in America Today" indicated that they were Scouts.  Every man who set foot on the moon was a Scout, and the first man on the moon was an Eagle Scout.  Every boy deserves the opportunity to be a scout.  Help the future by seeing that every boy gets a chance.