Scoutmaster Minute—A Scout is Helpful

A Scout is helpful. A Scout cares about other people. He helps others without expecting payment or reward. He fulfills his duties to his family by helping at home.

Before Chicago publisher William D. Boyce made his fortune in the Windy City, he knew what it was like to live in our part of the country. In Winnepeg, Canada, he co-founded a newspaper.. He worked as a reporter in Fargo, and in December 1882, in Lisbon, North Dakota, he started the Dakota Clipper, a weekly newspaper specializing in political and business intrigues.

In 1909, Boyce was on his way home from an African safari, and lost his way in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the British founder of the Boy Scouts. As a result, William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. He also created the Lone Scouts, which merged with the Boy Scouts of America in 1924.

No one knows what happened to the boy who guided Mr. Boyce through the London fog, but he was one Helpful Scout who will never be forgotten.

You can read more about the Unknown Scout on page 27 of your Centennial Boy Scout Handbook.

(Adapted from BSA Speakers Bureau and the Points of Light Institute)

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