Jersey
Shore Council, Boy Scouts of America
1518 Ridgeway Road
, Toms River, NJ08755 ________________________________________________
Contact: Craig Shelley, Scout Executive
Phone: 732-349-1037
Fax: 732-349-8093
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scouting’s Appeal Remains Strong
www.BEASCOUT.org Unveiled to Aid Families in Learning More About Scouting
(TomsRiver, NJ, September 12, 2008) –
The Jersey Shore Council, Boy Scouts of America is now conducting its Fall recruitment drive and hopes to sign up over 1,000 new Scouts in the coming weeks. Scouting remains a popular after-school activity for nearly 3 million boys in 121,000 Packs, Troops, Crews and Posts nationwide; here in the JerseyShore area, some 15,000 youth and adult volunteers participate in Scouting. In some communities, as many as 30 percent of Scout-age boys are members.
“Scouting is extremely popular in some JerseyShore communities, yet we are prepared to serve many more young people,” said Jersey Shore Council Scout Executive Craig Shelley. “Scouting is an ideal addition to any young person’s busy schedule and encourages youth to pursue other interests, such as sports or the arts, while at the same time taking advantage of Scouting’s outdoor-based character-building program.”
The principles of Scouting, set forth in the Scout Oath and Law, provide wise words to live by. Scouts live by the Scout Law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent, and they affirm their dedication to the program each time they 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. The importance of instilling these values in our youth is as important today as it ever was. Scouting aims to help youth develop into productive adults who care actively about themselves and the world and people around them.
Community service is a cornerstone of Scouting. Scouts across the nation logged approximately 7.3 million hours of volunteer service in projects ranging from food drives and work with senior citizens and veterans to disaster relief and rebuilding and conservation initiatives. The annual Scouting for Food drive, held each November in our area, is one of the largest food collection efforts in Ocean and AtlanticCounties, netting some 265,000 pounds of non-perishable food donations in 2007 alone. Through efforts like these, Scouts learn how great the need is for help and how easy and rewarding it is to volunteer.
A new Web site makes locating a Cub Scout Pack, Boy Scout Troop, Venture Crew or Explorer Post easier. Visit www.BEASCOUT.org and enter your zip code to see a list of Scouting units in your area. Cub Scouting is a program for elementary school boys in first through fifth grades; boys ages 10 – 18 are eligible to participate in Boy Scouts. Scouting’s co-ed high adventure and career exploration programs -- Venture Crews and Explorer Posts -- welcome young men and women 14 years of age and older.
In the coming weeks, Scouting representatives will visit Jersey Shore area schools to explain a bit about Scouting and encourage interested youth to join.
The Jersey Shore Council, Boy Scouts of America serves 15,000 youth and adult volunteers in Ocean and AtlanticCounties, parts of BurlingtonCounty and Cape MayCounty and operates Scouting service centers in TomsRiver and EggHarborTownship. To learn more about Scouting at the JerseyShore, visit www.jerseyshore-bsa.org
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