Boy Scouts to Blaze Trail Among Latinos : Recruiting: The organization will reach out through L.A. schools to the ‘fastest-growing population in the country’ to boost membership.

The Boy Scouts will distribute Spanish-language recruiting posters and brochures at schools throughout most of Los Angeles next week as part of a nationwide drive to boost Latino scout membership.

“The Hispanic community is important to the future of Scouting because it is the fastest-growing population in the country,” said Caytie Daniell, spokeswoman for Boy Scouts of America Inc., the 81-year-old organization that sponsors the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Explorer Scouts.

Boy Scout membership nationwide peaked in 1972 at 4.8 million, fell to 3.1 million in 1979 and rebounded to the current 4.3 million, Daniell said. A $1.5-million grant received this year from the Kellogg Foundation will fund the Latino recruitment drive nationwide, she said.

Beginning in January, Spanish-language brochures and videotapes will be distributed as part of regular recruitment visits to schools, said Eugene R. Richey, executive director of the Western Los Angeles County Council of the Boy Scouts, which serves about 65% of Los Angeles County.

“We want to reach minority youth and their parents in areas where there has not been a high concentration of Boy Scouts,” Richey said.

That includes areas such as the East San Fernando Valley, which has many neighborhoods with high percentages of Latino families but lower-than-average numbers of Cub Scout and Boy Scout groups.

Richey said the Boy Scouts have in the past been inaccurately labeled as an organization only for middle-class families. For the past several years, the local council has sponsored a number of outreach programs to poor and minority children, offering after-school sports and employment and drug abuse counseling.

“We’re often depicted as just helping little old ladies across the street, but we’re out there trying to meet community needs,” Richey said.

The printed materials are intended to persuade immigrant Latino parents that Scouting is not only for the affluent, officials said. In many Latin American countries such as Mexico, membership in the Boy Scouts historically has been limited to wealthy and middle-class families because of the costs.

“Many families who come here may think they cannot afford Scouting,” Richey said. “But now they will be finding out different.”

Joining the Scouts costs only $7, and some free uniforms are available, Richey said.

Richey estimated that 32% to 35% of the 65,000 Scouts in the area served by the western council are minority children. The western council encompasses neighborhoods from Los Angeles International Airport and the Westside to the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, he said.

By comparison, about 60% of the children in Los Angeles County belong to minority groups, according to statistics compiled by the county Office of Education.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest, more than 60% of the 625,000 students are Latino. Anglo students account for about 14% of the enrollment.

Those numbers, as well as a study completed earlier this year, convinced local Scouting officials to step up recruiting efforts among minorities so membership would more closely reflect the county’s changing demographics, Richey said.

“Our hope is to make the Boy Scouts an opportunity for every youth,” Richey said. “That is why we are moving on this program.”

Scouting officials said the brochures and posters in Spanish are intended to sell Latino parents on scouting as a road to education, self-esteem and family values. They hope the materials will also encourage more Latino parents to become volunteer Scout leaders.