Honor and Duty

To Corey Baker, 14, Boy Scouts is about making friends, camping out in the wilderness and learning survival skills.

Zach Miller, 15, thinks Scouting is lame and never joined because he didn’t want somebody telling him what to do.

Anival Herrera, 13, thought that the group was mostly for white kids.

These teenagers’ attitudes toward Scouting represent those of many Ventura County youths.

Some kids love the Boy Scouts, some think they are too square and others feel they don’t belong.

Last week, the Supreme Court’s decision allowing the Boy Scouts to exclude gay men as troop leaders cast a new light on the organization’s values.

But in Ventura County, those values have rarely come into question.

Thousands of local families see the group as a “moral compass,” a way to keep their sons out of drugs, gangs and crime, said Dave Graska, the county’s top Scouting official.

Only a few families have pulled their children out of local troops because of the organization’s restrictive membership policies, he added.

Graska, Scout executive for the Ventura County Council, said the controversy over gay membership has had little effect locally.

“We are a stable, conservative county.”

Despite criticisms and controversies, the Boy Scouts of America hasn’t strayed much from its original promise 90 years ago--to lead boys into manhood through adventure, challenge and responsibility.

The Boy Scouts say places like suburban Ventura County are the heart of Scouting.

And the county has a long history with Scouting.

Its first Boy Scout troop was chartered in Port Hueneme in 1916, with fewer than a dozen boys. Now,

about 8,200 Scouts are involved in more than 325 troops.

In fact, 15.7% of boys ages 6 to 18 were Scouts in Ventura County in 1998, compared with 6.9% in Los Angeles County.

Skills Displayed at Camp-Out

The virtues of Scouting were on display at a recent Camp-O-Ree in the hills near Moorpark, when hundreds of Ventura County Scouts showed off their survival skills of tying knots, reading maps and using compasses.

During the three-day camp-out, the boys--ages 11 to 14--also cooked their meals and roasted marshmallows on the fire.

The boys turned the barren ground into a sea of colorful tents and homemade flags bearing the names of their patrols--vipers, eagles, cobras, geckos.

Thirty-one Scouts from Simi Valley’s Troop 633 rode their bicycles through the Moorpark hills to the campsite, while their parents drove in with tents, coolers, stoves, food and sleeping bags.

Week after week at meetings, members of Troop 633 had reviewed their Scout handbooks and practiced their skills.

By 8 a.m. one Saturday, they were ready and eager. So after a short parade of flags and a welcome ceremony, the boys equipped themselves with compasses and canteens and set out to compete in various events.

Each patrol--made up of five or six boys--was judged on teamwork, strategy and spirit.

In one corner of the field, the boys demonstrated first aid basics, treating pretend victims for severe burns and serious bleeding. They rattled off answers to questions in a relay: What do you do for every accident victim? Treat for shock.

Across the field, they tested their strength and agility in the timber pull, using two small logs to pull a larger log 10 feet without letting it fall off wood rollers. The Gecko Patrol from Troop 633 was up.

When the timer started, the boys created a cross with the two small logs, tied three types of knots, placed the log on the rollers and pulled hard. “Go, go, go Geckos!” yelled a parent nearby. At exactly one minute, 40 seconds, the log crossed the line.

After the competition, the Scouts rushed to their stoves to make dinner. What was on the menu for Troop 633? For the Dragon Patrol, hot dogs and corn on the cob. But they had a few problems--nobody knew how to cook, the water wouldn’t boil and time was running out. So the boys ate half-cooked corn and soggy hot dogs.

The Cobra Patrol went shopping before the trip and planned to cook hamburgers, served with taco chips.

Their problem: They forgot to bring the hamburger meat. So they made a sign that read, “Will Work for Food,” and begged their parents to pick up their dinner.

After dinner and the campfire, the boys and their parents climbed into their tents under a bright nighttime sky and fell asleep to a chorus of snores, coyotes and chatter.

Janel Suliga said she has seen her two sons become more self-sufficient and resourceful since they joined the Scouts. “At home, they just wait for me to cook,” she said. “But here, mom’s not around, so they make what they can.”

This was 11-year-old Austin Thompson’s first camp-out as a Boy Scout.

As a Cub Scout, he had slept in his parents’ tent and didn’t do his own cooking and cleaning. He joined Troop 633 just two weeks prior to the Camp-O-Ree.

He said this time he felt more grown up. He told jokes with the boys and played poker for junk food. His dad, Jerry Thompson, said the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts was harder for him. “I have to tell myself: ‘Let him go,’ ” Thompson said as he rolled up his son’s sleeping mat.

Uniforms, Cost Deter Many Boys

Thousands of county youths, however, have shunned or quit the Boy Scouts, because of the uniforms, rules, cost and time commitment.

Ventura middle school students David Pike and Marcos Garcia, both 13, never joined the Scouts.

“It wouldn’t give me enough time to play sports or play with my friends,” said David, who plays baseball, basketball and football.

“I just don’t like it,” Marcos said. “I’d rather watch TV, skate and play video games.”

Dusty Weber, 16, said he didn’t want to wear the “goofy shorts” and “weird shirts.” He added that he likes to camp, but just with a few friends.

“I know I can build a fire. Why would I need a badge for it?”

In areas such as El Rio and Oxnard, which have large Latino populations, Scout officials have an especially hard time recruiting boys. Though the county had 124 more Latino Scouts in 1998 than the previous year, Latinos still make up only 17% of its Scouts. Latinos make up 40% of the county’s schoolchildren.

Now, Scouting officials are trying to expand Latino membership through an aggressive outreach effort at local schools and churches. The Ventura County Council now prints much of its literature in Spanish and recently formed a committee of Latino leaders, including Oxnard schools chief Richard Duarte and Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez.

“Particularly for the Latino community, [Scouting] is not on the tip of everyone’s tongue,” Lopez said. “Because of that, we don’t have a lot of interest. That’s where I come in.”

Other obstacles to recruiting Scouts in low-income areas include a lack of parent participation and money to purchase camping equipment and pay for trips.

Mike Magallanes, leader of El Rio’s Troop 227, opened a recent meeting by asking the boys if they wanted to go to summer camp. Standing in line, several boys raised their hands. Then, from the back of one of the lines, 11-year-old Juan Lopez asked, “How much does it cost?”

When Magallanes said $175, the boys all dropped their hands.

Jose Hernandez, 15, the troop’s senior patrol leader, said he knows that other troops go on more trips and have nicer camping gear. “Our equipment isn’t real high quality,” he said. “But it’s good enough.”

Besides, Jose said, Scouting is about more than just camping.

“Scouting keeps me involved and active in the community,” Jose said. “I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do anything bad.”

Community Service Is Emphasized

Since its first days, the Boy Scouts have been dedicated to more than just fun in the outdoors. During World War I, the Scouts collected paper and metal for recycling and sold bonds to raise money for the war effort. In the second half of the century, they cleaned up highways and waterways and helped get out the vote.

Today, boys must complete a service project--such as collecting used toys for poor children or building a bridge in a national forest--to receive their Eagle Scout award, the highest honor in Scouting.

And each year, boys take part in a community service day called “Scouting for Food,” when they go door-to-door collecting canned food for the homeless.

On a cool February morning, Ventura Troop 103 set out to do its part, ready with red wagons, neighborhood maps and trash bags.

Reluctantly, at first, the boys approached the doors.

At one house, a gray-haired man cheerfully dropped a handful of cans into a black trash bag. At another, a woman in a nightgown and curlers dug through her cabinets for cans of peaches and corn. By midmorning, the troop had collected hundreds of cans--sardines and Spam, chow mein and chili.

Educators and psychologists say Scouting raises boys’ self-esteem and teaches them independence and responsibility.

For Corey Baker and his twin brother Sean, that seems to be the case.

At the Moorpark Camp-O-Ree, the most exciting event for the boys came when several Scouts were invited into the Order of the Arrow honor society. As Corey and Sean sat under the stars, they felt their hearts beating faster than the ceremonial drums.

The 14-year-old brothers’ appearances were impeccable: khaki shirts tucked in, badges neatly sewn, scarves tied in perfect knots.

And their spirits were high. They were months away from earning their Eagle Scout awards. They led their Simi Valley troop to win several awards in the day’s competition. And their father and grandfather, both former Scouts, were sitting on the hillside with them.

One by one, Scouts were called to the fire. Near the end of the ceremony, Corey and Sean heard their names. So with torchlight as a guide, they marched down toward the blazing bonfire.

As troop leaders, the boys have served as mediators and disciplinarians. At one camp-out, Corey had to take a video game away from one Scout and two toy guns away from another.

Ed Baker said his sons have become more mature and more outgoing since they joined the Scouts. “I sent away two little boys,” he said, “and they came back two young men.”