Another Scouting Moment
George Costigan (GCostigan@AOL.COM)
Mon, 6 Nov 1995 13:12:01 -0500
It's stories like these that remind me of why I got into Scouting, and went
back to Scouting when the time was right. Thanks to everyone who posted
these; keep them up!
As such, I'm longer overdue in introducing myself after posting here several
times.
I was a Cub Scout and got my Arrow of Light at a time when it was more
important for us to earn as many activity badges as possible. I became a Boy
Scout when they made Camping an Optional merit badge, and we worked on skill
awards. I was briefly an Explorer when adults didn't know what to do with a
boy who was past 14 and no longer in a Patrol.
Without the guidance of several Scouters in my life, I never would have
gotten the chance to do many of the things I now look back on as my finest
moments in Scouting. I was involved in Troop Leader Development on the
Council and Regional level, staffed several summers of Cub Scout Day Camp and
Webelos Weekends, worked with my OA Lodge to revitalize it, and helped to
start a Troop for Cerebal Palsy Scouts so that they too could participate in
Scouting.
All those moments when someone said "We could use your help, how about trying
this?" is what brought me back to Scouts as an adult. My son joined a Cub
Pack, which would have had no adult leader willing or able to serve as
Cubmaster. I was finished with other community work and my job hours changed;
it was if everything was conspiring together.
Now it's time to give back to Scouting what I got out of it. My current
moment occured this past weekend when I attended our Council's Pow Wow. I
attended several classes where people would go 'I know you.' Not having ever
seen these people before, it wasn't until I got clse enough to read people's
name plates to discover that they were people I already talk to here in
SCOUTS-L, (most notably Mike Bowmand and Tim Zich)!
Thanks again for your words of encouragement here. It's good to be back.
YIS,
George Costigan
CM, Pack 157.
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
