Barack Obama, Cub Scout

Apparently, something is happening in the USA today……!

Just after the American Presidential election was over, I noticed that the Scout Association had put out a story about the new President having been a Cub in his youth and so I put up a post about it.

Today ‘Matt’ has added a comment to say that the SA have done a press release to coincide with Mr. Obama’s inauguration. I thought I’d double check to see if it was a genuine story (no reason it shouldn’t be, but you never can tell), so I gave the Info Centre a ring and they put me through to the press people. It is a genuine press release and the chap I spoke to said they put it out to have a different twist to the inauguration and to show to potential Scouts the range of people that have been in the movement.

So at the risk of repeating what’s already been written as a comment, here’s the press release –

You don’t have to be a Scout to lead a country but it helps…

Today, Barak Obama becomes the latest in a long list of world leaders who gained their first taste of leadership at an early age as Scouts. The first US President to have been a Scout was JFK and since then eight Presidents have been either Scouts or Scout leaders.

President Obama’s Scouting began when his family moved from his birthplace of Hawaii to Indonesia, where he joined Gerakan Pramuka; The Indonesian Scout Association. Rully Dasaad, a childhood friend of Obama’s, picks up the story, ‘He was a good hearted kid. We played together every day during that time. We joined the Scouts together, [there] we learned how to use rope for building a camp tent, went climbing and did many other things…’

The story is the same across the political world with Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, John Major, Harold Wilson, Vaclav Havel (Czech Republic), Horst Kohler (German President) all cutting their leadership skills in the Scouts.

President Gerald Ford said: ‘I can say without hesitation, because of Scouting principles, I know I was a better athlete, I was a better Congressman, and I was a better prepared President.’

It’s not just Presidents that seem to have benefited from Scouting, 11 out of the 12 people to walk on the moon were Scouts including the first two people on the moon, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

The Scout Association spokesperson, Simon Carter, said: ‘It is no coincidence so many talented people have been Scouts or Scout leaders. With over 200 exciting and challenging activities available in the UK, Scouting provides almost unlimited opportunity for young people, and the adult volunteers who support them, to push themselves and develop the skills they need for life.”
About Scouting

• A more comprehensive list of Scouts who have gone on to be household names or leaders in their field is included at: http://www.scouts.org.uk/cms.php?pageid=1668

• Adventure is at the core of Scouting, and the Association passionately believes in helping their members fulfil their full physical, intellectual social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves.

• In January 2008, The Scout Association introduced 40 new badges, including Snow Sports and Health and Fitness badges, bringing the total number of badges available to over 200. No other youth organisation offers such a range of challenging or exciting activities, available in a safe, supervised environment.

• Over 200 activities are offered by Scouting around the UK, made possible by the efforts of 100,000 voluntary adult leaders. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country.

• The last time the Movement showed a growth of this size was in 1987, when a whole new age range, 5-8 years (Beaver Scouts) was added to the Scouting family.

• One of the challenges that the Scout Movement faces is finding more volunteers to plug the current gap. At present there are nearly 32,000 young people on waiting lists.

• Adults working in Scouting contribute in excess of 295 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.

• Worldwide Scouting has 28 million members both male and female and operates in nearly every country in the world.

One final thought, still nothing on the BSA’s web site – how odd.