This is for personal, noncommercial use only.
Today's Front Page
Gas Buddy
Changing the face of Scouting
The push is on to recruit Hispanics, other minorities
Print this Article- Font Size:
- Default font size
- Larger font size
In a tan fatigue shirt adorned with colorful patches, 13-year-old Juan Carvajal looks like your typical Boy Scout.
But to the folks who run Scouting, the Atlantic City boy is the face of the future.
With the number of boys involved in Scouting dropping drastically over the past four decades, Boy Scout leaders are seeking to get more minority youths wearing Cub Scout blue and Boy Scout tan. Scouting leaders are particularly eager to recruit Hispanic boys into the organization.
A multicultural outreach program has been instituted by the Boy Scouts to recruit more black and Asian Scouts, but there is also a separate Hispanic Initiative.
"We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids, or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee.
That makes sense to Manny Aponte, a former president of the Hispanic Alliance of Atlantic County.
Not only are Hispanics the fastest growing minority population in the U.S., but there are common threads between a traditional Hispanic family and the Boy Scouts, which should make Scouting attractive to Latinos. These include the values of respect, duty, community involvement and a focus on the family, Aponte said.
When his 5-year-old son saw Scouts marching in a Memorial Day parade and started asking questions about the group, Aponte was happy to provide the answers.
"It can bring structure to a child at a young age," he said.
Declining interest
Founded in 1910, Scouting has been a rite of passage for many American males.
But Scouting is no longer the rite - or the large part of American life - that it once was. Scouting is now competing for attention against soccer and an explosion of other afterschool activities. Also, the outdoors skills taught by Scouts are no longer as appealing to a generation accustomed to being entertained by the Internet and handheld gaming systems.
At the end of 1972, 4.9 million young people called themselves Scouts. By the end of last year, the number had dropped to about 2.8 million. Of those, only about 100,000 scouts were Hispanic. The Boy Scouts do not have statistics on other minorities.
"The Boy Scouts of America, along with most youth service organizations, have been vying for boys' attention against a variety of modern attractions and time constraints placed on today's family," said Deron Smith, the Boys Scouts of America national spokesman.
In addition to trying to counter changing attitudes, the Boy Scouts is finding itself a victim of changing times. It also dealt with problems of its own making:
Since its founding, the Boy Scouts' oath or promise has required its members to do their duty to God. There have been lawsuits against the Boy Scouts suing it for religious discrimination.
Media attention also has been given to allegations of sexual abuse committed by some scouting leaders.
The Boy Scouts were also locked in a long struggle with groups that wanted it to allow gays to join. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts' freedom of expression allowed it to oppose homosexual conduct. The scouts won the battle. But for some, the fight further tarnished scouting's reputation.
Addressing concerns, fighting preconceptions
These are the concerns scouting recruiters have to address when trying to convince parents of all races to let their children join scouting. But when trying to recruit Hispanics, the scouts also have to win over parents who might not be familiar with scouting traditions, and who are concerned about letting their children go off with strangers who might speak a language they're not fully familiar with.
Many immigrant Hispanic families also believe scouting is only for the wealthy, which may have been the case in their native country, said Jim Hans, the executive director of the Boys Scouts Southern New Jersey Council, which covers Cumberland, Cape May, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties. When the parents come to America, they know they are not in the upper class of this society. They may exclude their children for this reason. More education is needed to correct this misunderstanding, Hans said.
In many Hispanic households, life revolves around activities that involve immediate and extended family members and not outsiders.
"My concerns were, who were the other people, what kind of culture is there on the other side, who were the other kids?'" said Isaias Garza Jr., of Vineland. Garza's son joined scouting in 2001. One of the reasons the Vineland man allowed his son to join the Cub Scouts was to give his child every opportunity to become more American, Garza said.
But Garza Jr. didn't just send his child off to join the scouts. He got involved too, eventually becoming an assistant troop leader with the Cub Scouts.
When Isaias Garza III joined the Cub Scouts at age 6, he and his best friend were the only Latino members of his pack.
But the boy never said anything to his parents about feeling uncomfortable or excluded, according to the elder Garza. As an immigrant from Mexico, Garza Jr. said he knew it would be perfectly normal that his son would be one of the few Latinos in the Cub Scouts.
"I was perhaps a little nervous ... but it was not a big concern. It's natural. You come to the United States, and people are from everywhere," Garza Jr. said.
The younger Garza began to thrive as a scout. Now, at age 14, the boy is on the verge of attaining scouting's highest rank, the Eagle.
"It's fun," Garza said. "People think it's a little nerdy. ... It takes a lot of time. You do a lot of things you wouldn't do."
Carvajal, the scout from Atlantic City, is also thriving in the organization. He joined scouting four years ago with the support of his mother.
"I wanted to learn things," said Carvajal, a member of Troop 711. "I like earning new merit badges and camping."
Recently achieving the Star rank, the 13-year-old native of Columbia now assists the leaders of Troop 711 with the handling of younger scouts.
The troop is unusual in scouting, most of its members are Hispanic.
John Glumac Jr., of Atlantic City, is the assistant scout master for Atlantic City's Troop 711. He's also merit badge counselor for Atlantic City's Troop 705 and Pleasantville's Troop 311.
Troop 705 is all black, and Troop 311 is a mixture of blacks and Hispanics, according to Glumac.
The scouting leader, who is white, still remembers when he joined the scouts. He became interested after seeing a presentation during the school day. He believes the best way to attract any boy to scouting - be they Hispanic, another minority or white - is to return to the tried and true ways of recruiting.
"This September, we should get a videotape or DVD and go to the school boards," said Glumac, 40, about receiving permission to do a presentation in elementary schools during the school day. "Have the boys dressed. If there are any questions, they can ask the scout leaders and the boys. ... There are not enough kids involved in scouting, especially in Atlantic City."
Scouting leaders are apparently listening. Part of their outreach program includes production of a video targeted toward Hispanics that introduces scouting.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
E-mail Vincent Jackson:
Recruiting Hispanic Scouts
The Boy Scouts of America is facing some unique problems as it tries to increase the number of Hispanic Scouts in the organization.
Hispanic outreach is unique because of the different languages, countries of origin and cultures within the Latino community, said Marcos Nava, director of Hispanic Initiatives for the Boy Scouts. Six pilot programs are under way in heavily Latino communities to introduce Scouting to immigrant parents.
Pilot programs being tested in heavily Latino cities from Fresno, Calif., to Orlando, Fla., include TV public service announcements, radio advertisements and the production of a three-minute overview video that can be used as an introduction to Scouting, and Hispanic-centric program offerings, such as soccer and Scouting.
"Many Hispanic immigrant parents come to this country with no familiarity with the Boy Scouts of America," Nava said. "That is why a comprehensive program has been developed that includes, among other components, a marketing communications effort to introduce Scouting to this fast-growing segment."
Posted in Life on Sunday, June 21, 2009 6:15 am Updated: 7:10 am.
No comments have been posted. Be the first poster!
Click here to report a comment as abusive.