Eagle Scout Adam Winchell, 17, left, Halee Isbell, 10, and Eagle Scout Nathan Henkenius, 17, participate in a team building activity at the Scout Expo held at Berg Park on Saturday morning. (Rebecca Craig/The Daily Times)
FARMINGTON — Hoping to attract new recruits, area scouting groups gathered at the Scout Expo at Berg Park on Saturday to show curious passers-by a sampling of activities scouting has to offer. More than 75 scouters participated in the event, which featured handmade derby-car races, campfire cooking techniques and stories of the common camping, rafting and rock climbing trips were put on display, intended to demonstrate the youth activity goes beyond earning patches at week-night meetings, organizers said. The recruitment event is designed to work in conjunction with information distributed in the schools, informing parents about the scouting program and how children can participate, said Trenton Keeling, the Boy Scouts of America Anasazi District executive. "There's a lot of room to grow, and a lot of people don't realize what we offer," he said. An estimated 1,000 youth in San Juan County participate in the region's 80 different scout units, Keeling said. And the local district, through programs like the Scouting Expo, is working to not only retain the scouts they have, but attempt to grow the program by about 2 percent each year. And adult volunteers are needed just as much as new scouts, the district executive said. Young scouts at the event, who participated in the Expo to play games with friends not knowing they were working as recruiters, said they enjoyed the organization for the opportunity to do new things. "You figure out things that you normally wouldn't learn," 10-year-old Cub Scout Dreigan Wilson said, detailing his new skills that include leave-no-trace camping, knife safety and how to start a fire. "You get to go places where you normally wouldn't go," he said. Cub Scout packs, the youngest scouting group, include children between first and fifth grade. Emphasis is placed on Cub Scout recruitment, Keeling said, because the majority of youth who choose to join Boy Scouts in their teens typically participate only after experiencing scouting at a young age. The Expo, however, provided an opportunity for scout units who normally operate independently to build relationships with other groups and develop new friendships, said Darryl Dunlap, the district commissioner. "Even if we don't have a whole lot of new scouts come out of this, you can see the fellowship of the boys," Dunlap said.
Local scout units work to increase youth, volunteer participationBy James Monteleone The Daily TimesPosted: 08/30/2009
