'A game with a purpose'

Before every meeting, all attending Boy Scouts recite the Scout Oath:

“On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”

And at some point throughout a Scout’s journey, their Scoutmasters hope they aren’t just saying the words, but living them.

“We hope it becomes a way of life,” said George Elliott, scoutmaster of Troop 53. He will later be succeeded by Franklin Bradford, one of the assistant scoutmasters of Troop 53. 

There are four additional troops that work with Scouts throughout Mountain Brook: Troop 320, led by Frank Tynes; Troop 28, led by Allen Sydnor; Troop 86, led by David Dowd; and Troop 63, led by Thomas DeWine.

Together, they lead more than 300 Boy Scouts with similar, if not the same, methods to the program created by Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell in Britain in 1908, the scoutmasters said.

According to the Boy Scouts of America, scouting was brought into America by a young scout in England who helped an American publisher, William Boyce, escape the confines of a thick fog. After explaining his title as a Scout, Boyce became intrigued, and brought scouting back to America.

“It grew and grew and grew, and I think in the ’70s, it declined some,” Dowd said. “And then, it picked back up.”

All of the Scouts in Mountain Brook are part of the Vulcan District for the state of Alabama, which is the Over the Mountain area, and Dowd said this district has “a very high density [of Scouts within the population].”

“I think one of the reasons for that is the adult support,” Sydnor said. “The difference between you leaving this area and going elsewhere … there’s not as many adults who are that supportive of the program.”

The adults can be anyone who is involved — the scoutmasters themselves, the local churches who sponsor the troops, the teachers who coordinate with their student’s out-of-school commitments or the parents.

“I think there’s a better understanding in the Over the Mountain community about the benefits we’re talking about,” Sydnor said.

Initially, most people who are unfamiliar with the Boy Scouts only think of the merit badges they earn as the benefits of the program. 

While the requirements for merit badges, which are part of the requisites to ascend to the upper three ranks, are more intensive than an entry level course and designed by experts (Steven Spielberg helped create the cinematography badge), the Scouts are learning much more.

“We’re trying to develop young men,and we use the outdoors as our medium,” Bradford said.

Scouts can spend a large amount of time earning their selection of merit badges, of which there are around 140.

“My mom told me this, but I became goal-oriented through Scouting,” Dowd said. “You really have to demonstrate perseverance and commitment.”

“They teach us Scouting is a game with a purpose,” said Tynes. He said the boys will stay because it’s an enjoyable experience and learn and grow while having fun.

Some of the benefits the Scouts learn are more subtle, such as learning to be a leader and learning to be led, discovering the scope of their own abilities and building confidence. 

“They’re going to get a level of confidence from what they’re doing in this program … that’s just hard to duplicate,” Tynes said.

“[What they do] sends them this message that they can do a lot more than they thought they could do,” Sydnor said. “That is the most powerful message you could send your children.”

Still, there is a top achievement in Scouting that requires a great amount of work both in the troop and in the community: Eagle Scout. 

To reach this rank, Scouts must finish all requirements before they turn 18, and as long as the boy is at least 11 years old, has completed 5th grade or earned the Arrow of Light as a Webelo Scout, there are no restrictions to when Scouts can start. Dowd said Scouts can be 13, 15 or even 17 when they first join the program.

Scouts must earn a total of 21 merit badges — 13 of which are chosen from a specific list — and complete a signature community service leadership project to earn the highest ranking. 

Dowd and the other scoutmasters agreed that a project with around 100 hours for all workers involved is not likely to be questioned, but it does not necessarily have to be a “hammer-and-nail project.”  

“These requirements are something that you may not be getting in school,” Sydnor said. “They should be able to take care of themselves, run a business and be an asset to the community.”

Since the creation of the Scout troops in Mountain Brook, which dates back nearly 94 years with Troop 28, the scoutmasters estimate they have seen between 800 to 1,000 Eagle Scouts come from their troops.

But, Dowd said, the point of Scouting is not to make Eagle Scouts.

“It’s wonderful if a boy does that, but the intangible things are far more important,” he said.

“From the top down, our goal as an organization is to enhance our community,” Bradford said. And they do, by contributing countless service hours to local community organizations in need of extra help and by working together to complete Eagle Scout projects throughout the Mountain Brook and Birmingham area.

“You have pride in your troop, but it’s not about the number on the sleeve; it’s really the purpose we believe in,” Sydnor said. “It [Scouting] is a real asset to the community in that it is a community in and of itself that’s connected.”

The scoutmasters said although they’re based in different areas and may work on different projects, they are not competing with each other by any means — they want all boys to be in Scouts at some point in their lives.

“Because, if they’re not in Scouts, they don’t get the benefits of Scouts,” Elliott said. “At the end of the day, we want a boy to join one of our troops.”

And despite the huge time commitment Scouting is for both the Scouts and the scoutmasters, they agreed it was something they enjoyed.

“We see it as something that is worthy of spending our free time to do it, even though we don’t have a son in it anymore,” Sydnor said.

“It’s really a labor of love,” Dowd said.