By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter
Pushing 100 years old, the Boys Scouts are showing their age, and yet they’re still as youthful as ever.
Saturday was Pinewood Derby day for area Scouts, with seven packs from Nikiski, Kenai, Soldotna, Sterling and Homer — about 50 kids in all — attending the annual Scout-O-Rama event at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna.
Aspiring engineers swarmed around the track waiting their turn to test their attempts at aerodynamics, construction, mechanics and judicious use of graphite. The derby itself is 89 years old, and probably looked much the same Saturday as it has in all those years — hordes of 7- to 10-year-olds dressed in blue or tan (if they’re older) shirts and plaid neckerchiefs that seem to defy all attempts at straightening, holding homemade cars ranging from bare-bones economy models to souped-up roadsters looking like they got detailed at Outlaw Body and Paint.
Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Vincent Brown, left, and Jacob McConnell watch their cars hurdle down the track at the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby races during the Scout-o-Rama on Saturday at the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna.
But there were changes, too. A digital timer clocked races down to fractions of a second, and all the times went into a computer to determine the winners. Some of the boys wore merit badges that didn’t exist nearly a century ago, ones based on mastering computers and other technology, or demonstrating updated science skills like rocketry.
“The requirements have evolved. The same type of idea is still there, but we build upon it,” said Jodi Stuart, executive for the Tustumena District, which covers the Kenai Peninsula, including communities across Kachemak Bay, and Kodiak.
Then there are the changes that aren’t immediately visible, but have had an impact on Scouting nonetheless. For one, there’s the increase in other activities vying for boys’ time and attention, like video games and TV. The Tustumena District finished last year with 546 Scouts, Stuart said. That’s down from years ago, although the number is climbing again. It’s not just indoor, sedentary pursuits that Scouting loses members to, it’s everything that keeps kids so busy these days, Stuart said.
“There is a drop-off in numbers, but it isn’t for the reasons you think. There are so many things on the peninsula for kids to do that there’s so much competition for them. Sports, extracurricular activities, a lot of our kids go to Boys and Girls Club,” she said.
The Scouts’ answer is to evolve, for instance incorporating a soccer program, Stuart said. That way, kids can participate in a sport that’s exploded in popularity locally over the last five years, yet still go on campouts, do the Pinewood Derby and other more classic Scouting activities.
“We like the idea of taking something that’s already been done and building on it,” Stuart said.
Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Terry Elliott of the Homer Pack and Troop 555 watches a contestant set his car on the track Saturday.
Other things haven’t changed. The cost is still low, for example. Ten dollars covers registration and insurance for the year, and $20 pays for everything a Scout absolutely has to have, Stuart said.
“It’s by far the cheapest program year-round that you’ll find,” Stuart said.
The core activities are similar — boys still learn how to build a fire, tie knots, safely use a knife and build a car that will hurdle down a track. Individual packs are encouraged to go on regular camping trips, and the Tustumena District has three large campouts a year — one in spring, fall and the winter “Freezerie.”
“The mission is to produce leaders that have three basic tenants — doing duty to self, God and country. Those three things are consistent with everything we do,” Stuart said.
The classic Scouting activities are still what draw kids to the program, like Braydon Goodman, 9, with the Bears pack in Kenai.
“All the things you learn in Cub Scouts, like being a safe Scout,” he said.
The Pinewood Derby was fun, especially since his car ended up being the grand champion of his division and his larger pack, No. 152. He figured his car was good, but didn’t know it was that good.
“I sorta knew and it was sorta a surprise,” he said.
Courtland Thompson, 8 — er, “going on 9” — is a first-year Scout with a Wolf pack in Kenai.
He said that camping is his main interest in Scouts, although the Pinewood Derby was fun.
“I put some weights on the bottom and some weights on the back of it, and graphite to make the wheels go fast. It took a day — well, three days,” he said.
Courtland said his mom helped him with his car, and for Braydon, his even being in Scouts was a result of family and friends.
“The people I go to church with said, ‘Why don’t you join Cub Scouts? ‘My family, they did Cub Scouts when they were little, so they wanted me to do it,” Braydon said.
That’s another thing that hasn’t changed in Scouts, Stuart said — the focus on parental involvement, which can be a boon and an obstacle to drawing members.
“If parents believe in Scouting and get kids involved, they’ll enjoy it. We have no problem getting kids into it. The hardest thing is getting parents involved,” Stuart said. “This is a program where it’s meant to be family oriented. We really, in all of our programs, want parents to say, ‘We believe in what you’re doing.’ Without that, we don’t exist,” she said.
Braydon’s mom, Amber Goggia, of Kenai, said she likes Scouts for its emphasis on family involvement. It is extra time, but it’s time well spent.
“I’m a single parent, so any kind of positive encouragement to build family values is good,” Goggia said. “It’s a good thing. I try to be involved in all this stuff, it just builds family memories the more things you all go through. It brings you together.”
Coming together was another example of Boys Scouts showing its old and new age characteristics Saturday. A recording snafu put a brief halt to the derby while organizers asked for volunteers to discuss and decide the best and most fair way to iron it out. The solution involved the computer, but coming up with it involved brainstorming by a clump of parents and volunteers who stepped up to do what needed to be done.
“And this is how Scouting works,” Stuart said. “The people who want to make it happen bind together and, by golly, it happens.”
Scouting through the years
- The Boy Scouts were founded in 1907 in England by a British Army officer.
- Scouting was founded in the United States, the second country in the world to adopt the program, in 1910, after a U.S. businessman, William D. Boyce, got lost in the fog in London and asked a uniformed boy on the street for directions. The boy led him to his destination and refused payment, saying he was a Scout and had just done his good turn for the day. Boyce was so impressed he advocated for the incorporation of the Scouts in the U.S.
- Scouting was founded in Alaska in the 1950s by Elmer Rasmusen, president and chairman of the board of National Bank of Alaska, who had been involved in scouting as a boy.
- Scouting came to the Kenai Peninsula in the early 1960s. Seward has the oldest Boy Scout troop on the peninsula.
- Kenai’s first Boy and Cub Scout troops were founded in 1965, sponsored by the Kenai Elks Club.
- The Tustumena (peninsula) District was founded about 20 years ago.
— Information from www.scouting.org and Dr. Pete Hansen, Kenai.
Dr. Pete Hansen, of Kenai, grew up in Scouting, is an Eagle Scout, and currently is the international representative for the Great Alaska Council of Boy Scouts.
“I would not be here in Kenai practicing medicine for 40 years if it had not been for the influence of the Scouts,” he said.
He said his background in Scouting served him well when he and his wife moved to Kenai in 1967. The Scouting emphasis on leadership and lifelong learning gave him the confidence needed to face the challenges of life in Kenai at the time, being a family practitioner when there was no hospital, no mental health workers, no chiropractors, no drug and alcohol counselors, and the volunteer fire department didn’t have emergency medical training, Hansen said.
“It was a pretty rough life for four or five years. Between counseling people for marital problems and children problems and taking care of emergencies and delivering babies, it was a very challenging life. I could not have begun to do that if it had not been for what I learned in Scouting as a boy.”
