By Mike Pound
mpound@joplinglobe.com
Mike Seibert fondly recalls his days as a Boy Scout in Joplin’s Troop 10.
“Back in the early ’70s, when we were going through the troop, it was all your neighborhood buddies. Your best buddy was usually in the troop with you,” he said.
Seibert, now a member of the Joplin City Council, spent his entire scouting career with Troop 10 and became an Eagle Scout in 1974.
John Alford was another former member of Troop 10 with deep ties. He earned his Eagle Scout rank in 1966.
Alford said his father, Lynn Alford, earned his Eagle Scout designation while living in Kansas City. The elder Alford went on to become an active adult volunteer with Troop 10. John later served as a Scout volunteer and was able to see his son, David, become an Eagle Scout, too, also at Troop 10.
“The things you can learn about the outdoors really helps, and there is also a lot of other practical knowledge taught,” Alford said.
It’s memories like those that many scouts are recalling as the Boy Scouts of America marks its centennial this year. The organization was founded in the United States in 1910.
Long history
Joplin’s Troop 10, long affiliated with First Presbyterian Church, has one of the longest Scouting histories in Missouri. Organized in 1917, Troop 10 is the oldest troop in the Ozark Trails Council, which includes much of Southwest Missouri and part of Southeast Kansas, and is the second oldest troop in the state.
Richard Sapp, district chairman, said the troop was formed in 1917, but the outbreak of World War I forced the troop to shut down the next year.
“Because of the war, all of the adult Scout leaders were called away, so the troop did not renew its charter in 1918,” Sapp said.
With the end of the war and the return of the soldiers, Troop 10 reapplied for and was granted its charter in 1919 and has been rechartered every year since.
Alford said much of the success associated with Troop 10 in the past 90 years can be traced back to the adults who volunteered their time to serve as Scout leaders.
Tom Bowin, 27, is the current Scoutmaster.
“I have learned a lot about leadership skills, confidence, and of course, the outdoor skills,” said Bowin, also an Eagle Scout, from Columbus, Kan.
Henry Ashens has been a member of Troop 10 for five years. The 16-year-old is on track to become in Eagle Scout within the next six months. His 18-year-old brother Stewart has already earned his Eagle Scout badge.
“I’ve picked up a lot of leadership skills and training,” Ashens said. “And I’ve also been able to take part in adventures that I wouldn’t have been able to without Scouting,” he said.
Ashens said in January he took part in a winter camping program in the mountains of New Mexico.
“We were in 3 feet of snow at 9,000 feet,” he said.
Adam Roy, earned his Eagle Scout badge on Nov. 1, 2009. The 18-year-old from Carl Junction said he has been involved in Scouting for 11 years.
“Really, just being outside and enjoying the outdoors and being stress free and having fun,” Roy said, when asked about his favorite part of scouting.
Scouting today still offers the traditional — canoeing, knot tying and woodlore — as well as 21st-century skills. Troop 10 recently went to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kan., which is known for having one of the most complete and largest collections of historic spacecraft and space memorabilia in the country.
Charter partner
Also crucial to Troop 10’s history, Sapp said, has been its relationship with First Presbyterian Church. Since its beginning, the church has served as the Troop’s charter partner.
Today, the Troop meets in the church’s community center across the street from the church itself, which is at 509 E. Pearl Ave.
Alford, who now has two sons in the Cub Scout pack associated with Troop 10, said the lessons he has learned as a Scout in Troop 10 nearly 40 years ago are the same lessons he’s hoping his young sons learn. Currently, there are approximately 15 Scouts in Troop 10, according to Bowin.
Seibert said when he was a Scout, the number of boys in the troop was much larger. Overall, Seibert said Scouting was more popular in the 1960s and ’70s then it appears to be now. That, he said, is understandable.
“Scouting faces so many more challenges today that we didn’t have back then. There is so much more competition for free time now. There are so many different sport activities and other demands on kids’ times that we didn’t have,” Seibert said.
But Seibert said he is confident that the Boy Scouts will continue to be an important part of many young men’s lives. He said those involved in Scouting have already begun to adapt to the intense competition for young people’s free time.
“When I was a Scout, we would go on campouts and do the camporees, but we never traveled more than 60 miles in my whole scouting career,” he said. “Now they go down to Pensacola (Fla.) for spring break or the kids go to the Boundary Waters near Canada,” he said.
Looking back on his time with Troop 10, Seibert said the lessons he learned in scouting are lessons that have stayed with him to this day. Becoming an Eagle Scout, he said, taught him the value of perseverance, and the satisfaction of completing something that he set out to accomplish.
“That’s what scouting teaches. If you look at the Scout handbook, you’ll see all of the different merit badges, you’ll see that it’s one of the most well-rounded programs, and that it allows Scouts to turn into wonderful, well-rounded young men,” he said.
