Volunteer Recognition Banquet
Heartsong Methodist Church, Cordova, Tennessee
January 22, 2004
Thank you very much for allowing me to be a part of tonight’s celebration of Scouting and the success of our Volunteers.
I wanted to be here to say “thanks” to all the volunteers who have made the Eastern District so successful and to all the Scouts whose success as young citizens makes it all worthwhile.
It is particularly fitting that we recognize our volunteers this evening because President Bush has declared the month of January “National Mentoring Month.” In his proclamation, the President said:
“Mentoring reflects the great strength of America—the heart and soul of the American people. During National Mentoring Month, we recognize the dedicated individuals who volunteer their time to mentor young people, and we encourage more citizens to give back to their communities as mentors.
“Mentors are friends, teachers, and role models. They open doors of opportunity, convey values, and help provide the stability and encouragement that young people need to succeed. By spending time with a child and showing compassion and guidance, a mentor can profoundly affect a young life. Research shows that adolescents who have an adult mentor are far less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors. Mentoring relationships create continuing cycles of hope and promise, as they not only provide positive influences for individual children, but also strengthen families and communities.”
At a time when too many young people nationwide are under performing, we take pause tonight to celebrate the accomplishments of our youth—the Eagles and aspiring Eagles and Troop Leaders; the pursuit of merit badges and Homeland Preparedness and good citizenship.
Scouts, I hope you recognize and appreciate that these volunteers, your leaders, have dedicated themselves to a cause more important than themselves. President Bush praises their service through recognition that “volunteering is central to the American character and is a fundamental expression of responsible citizenship. From our Nation’s earliest days, people came together to do whatever was needed for the public good—from raising barns and providing mutual security to organizing educational activities and caring for their neighbors. Though our country has changed dramatically since its founding, the need for service has not.”
Nor has the basic need for scouting changed since the Boy Scouts of America was founded 94 years ago. At the dawn of the 20th Century, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech entitled “The Strenuous Life,” in which he said:
“In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk.”
In an essay one year later called “The American Boy,” Roosevelt wrote:
“Of course what we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong that he won’t be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind of American man of whom America can be really proud.”
If I am here tonight to express my pride in what you are doing it is because the Boy Scouts’ Purpose, true to the convictions of our greatest Presidents, has never been more relevant than it is today:
“BSA endeavors to develop American citizens who are physically, mentally, and emotionally fit; have a high degree of self-reliance as evidenced in such qualities as initiative, courage, and resourcefulness; have personal values based on religious concepts; have the desire and skills to help others; understand the principles of the American social, economic, and governmental systems; are knowledgeable about and take pride in their American heritage and understand our nation’s role in the world; have a keen respect for the basic rights of all people; and are prepared to participate in and give leadership to American society.”
Finally, I want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to reflect upon my own experience as a Boy Scout. Preparing to address you gave me pause to put my own experience some forty years ago into context. I became a scout shortly after my father died. I probably thought it was my own idea. But now I suspect that, like many parents in this room, particularly single parents, my mother knew the importance of this program to my development as a boy into an adult worthy of citizenship in the Greatest Nation on Earth.
I have been a public servant for ten years now. From the time I was first elected to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in 1994 to this very day, people ask me why I do it; why do I serve? I have never had a succinct answer until now. Perhaps it is because I was a Boy Scout, and scouting fulfilled its purpose in me. I will devote the remainder of my life grateful for what scouting instilled in me and trying fulfill the promise of its expectations.
For this I am grateful, and I take comfort in knowing that among those of you gathered here tonight are many more who, thanks to scouting, are prepared to fulfill the same promise. On behalf of a grateful State of Tennessee, thank you for all that you are and for all that you are doing to keep this State and Nation strong.
