Boys' Life

 

Troop 4 has had members since 1949, and the Boy Scouts of America celebrate their centenary this year. The troop’s history goes back even further, but there was a lapse in the 1940s during World War II. And while times certainly have changed, the Boy Scout values have not. 

 

“We teach them to be leaders, to take responsibility for your actions,” says Scoutmaster Jack Boles. “They have to master certain things before they become ranked. Before they become Eagle Scouts, they have to be the senior patrol leader (over the whole troop), hold different positions ... make the kids get up in front of kids.” 

 

The Eagle Scouts teach Life Scouts (the next level down), who in turn teach Star Scouts, and the Stars teach the younger boys. This democratic approach to leadership isn’t just a game, but an exercise in achieving goals step by step. “The scouting motto ‘Be Prepared’ is, in a way, not so much what we teach them, but what we want to do,” says Boles.

 

Of course, any Scout organization is synonymous with the outdoors, and Troop 4 plays as hard as it works. “We try to have a camp out once a month,” says Boles, who has two sons – one in college, and the other, Mitchell, a Life Scout on the way to becoming Eagle. “We go innertubing, snow ski, and ride horses once a year. We go canoeing on the Green River and camp out on my farm in Glasgow.” Boles, an NRA-certified shotgun instructor, also teaches the Scouts to shoot skeet and trap. Their trips take them far beyond the Kentuckiana area, too. Last year, most of the troop went to Hawaii, and plan a return camping trip to Alaska in 2014 (they were last there in 2005). “It’s a kid-run troop; they pick where we go every year,” says Boles.

 

The Scouts raise funds through three campaigns during the year, most notably a flower sale that takes place the last weekend of April. “Every kid has a camp fund, and some kids don’t have to spend any money out of their pocket. It makes them work hard.”

 

Boles credits the Scouts’ parents as a driving force for the success of Troop 4. “Without parents, you can’t make this thing work. Every parent has to play a part. They’ll pitch in. They’ll take their jobs and they’ll do it,” he says. 

 

The exclusive nature of the Eagle Scout honor, combined with the relatively small troop size, is fine with Boles; it keeps the spirit of teamwork strong and activities manageable. He says becoming a leader wasn’t his ambition, remarking, “I just wanted to be a dad, but I’m a Scoutmaster and I love it,” he says. “What keeps kids in scouts longer than anything is that it’s fun,” Boles adds. “You can’t teach them like a schoolteacher. You have to keep them in line at times, but let them be kids – let them be Scouts, let them have fun, as long as they don’t do anything dangerous. That keeps them coming back.”