WILMINGTON — Rob Lavoi, Executive Director of Boy Scout’s Tecumseh Council, spoke to the Wilmington Rotary Club which meets at noon on Mondays at Damon’s Restaurant. Lavoie stated that the Tecumseh Council covers five counties — Logan, Champaign, Clark, Greene and Clinton.
Lavoie has been working with Scouting across the country for 27 years. However, his Scouting contacts go back to his youth, as his father was a leader.
Lavoie is an Eagle Scout, having earned that honor in 1983. In college he studied Youth and Human Services, hoping to work with those venues in his professional life.
He recognized club member Willard Lane, who earned his Eagle Scout honor in 1938, and noted the recognition today is the same as it was then, with a focus on Leadership, Fitness and Citizenship. Lavoie then shared some Scouting facts and history:
• Most boys enter Scouts as Cub Scouts around the age of 6.
• The Venturing program is available to both boys and girls.
• Girls are now admitted to the Cub Scouts program.
• Scouting has seen a 3.9 percent increase in membership in the last year.
• There are 3,400 youth members in Boy Scouts today, nationwide.
• More than 2,000 Scouts attended the local Camp Hugh Taylor Birch last year.
• 30,000 nights of camping were recorded at Camp Birch last year – and that does not consider all the camping by Scouts not done at that camp.
• 71 percent of the adults attending Camp Birch were from out of the area. (This prompted them to create a merit badge centered around a visit to the Museum at WPAFB, as that was the reason most out-of-town groups were camping locally.)
• 80 Scouts earned the rank of Eagle from the local council last year. Only four to six percent of Scouts earn that honor.
• Much of the work is done by volunteers – we have great local volunteers (including Mac Fife and Bob Berge)
• There are 139 merit badges, with the top 10 of Personal Management (Finance); Personal Fitness; Communication; Camping; Cooking; National Citizenship; Environmental Science; World Citizenship; Swimming, and the #1, First Aid.
