Lake Scouts Are On Top Of The Hill
Written by Michael Harris, Photos by Anthony Rao
As the Boys Scouts are in the midst of their 100th year of scouting, the Lake District is not doing anything special in celebration of the milestone.
There’s no need to says Jason Setser, district executive for Lake District.
“What Lake County is doing for scouting is what Lake County has always done for scouting,” he says. “Scouting is extremely important to the community here, from the civic leaders and organizations like Rotarians, Kiwanis all the way to the schools, Teachers and administrators realize the importance of scouting from teaching discipline and development in leadership skills.”
Lake is part of the Central Florida Council, which as a collective group is among the top 10 scouting councils in the nation.
“We earn the honor in terms of our ability to recruit youth in the program, retain youth in the program, raise money,” Jason says. “In terms of numbers were in the top 10 and that includes all of the metropolitan areas.”
In Lake county, there are 1,400 scouts from cub scouts to boy scouts, 300 troop leaders and only one paid guy to keep that scouting program vital – and that’s Jason. In fact, one of the first chartered scouting groups was founded in Tavares – 98 years ago.
But the Lake District did do something a little extra in celebration of 100 years of scouting and that was pay respect to the roots of scouting. Scouting started in Great Britain in 1907 by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who was laid to rest in Kenya.
“What we wanted to do was a project called “Scouting for Change” where our cub scouts and boy scouts collected quarters from themselves, parents and family members in an effort to build out two schools in Kenya,” Jason says.
And how is that working so far?
“We raised more than $10,000 in just two months,” he said.
A clear example of just how well the boy scouts in Lake County are doing.
Raising money and being involved in the community doesn’t seem like what boys scouts do normally to the untrained reader. Scouting is more than going camping and building fires by rubbing two sticks together.
In history, there have been annual food drives presented by the scouts for many years and during World War II scouts volunteered their services on the East Coast and West Coast aiding the military in spotting ships.
“There are so many activities that happen with scouting, you may not be able to do all of them, but there is enough to really keep the kids engaged,” Jason says. “Scouting has the ability to really engage the kids and keep them in different activities.”
In Lake County, the Sheriff’s Department has an explorer program for more than 20 years. It’s a program essentially like an internship where a scout is taught and can help in law enforcement. For a scout, it could lead to a future career.
“They see these kids and recognize the kids who are engaged in that profession and identify those that may want to work for them and offer them an opportunity to go the police academy,” Jason says.
There are explorer programs all over the county, including Central Florida Health Alliance and the Sea Scouts of Leesburg, a program in which scouts are taught the art of sailing.
For scouts the possibilities are endless and for volunteers, the services offered are rewarding.
“It’s not just about camping, it’s about service to others,” Jason says.
For more information on scouting go to the Lake District Web site at http://lake.cfcbsa.org/
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