My journey in Scouting started in Tokyo, Japan, and that is where it continues now—only this time with a wife who is fully involved and six kids who are all enthusiastic participants. Scouting is a huge part of our family recipe. It just works for us, and it is something that we all find joy […]

About 70 years ago, in the final days of the second world war, the U.S. marines and Japanese Imperial army soldiers were fighting in an area of the southern Pacific Ocean. On One of the small islands of the Pacific, the marines, among them one from Salt Lake City, were in combat against a Japanese […]

If you had to pick just one point of the Scout Law to describe Isaiah V., it would be “brave.” That same word applies to his mom and dad, too. Isaiah was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age 3. “At first I thought, ‘what are we going to do?’” says Isaiah’s dad, Rolando. “Our world was turned […]

Several years ago, I joined with others from the BSA’s North Atlantic Council for a Camporee on Omaha Beach in Normandy.  While I had never been to Normandy prior to this occasion, I had just learned two weeks before arriving in France that my father was there almost 75 years earlier – arriving from Britain […]

Scouts and Scouters, As we mark the close of 2020, we look back and reminisce on a unique year! For many of us, the past months have been full of changes and disappointments. For example, most traditional Scouting events–from day camps to Philmont to the 2021 National Jamboree–were cancelled due to Coronavirus. Many BSA units […]

It was very cold (32 degree) afternoon on December 13, 2020, as many families and Scouts assembled in the driveway of Committee Chairman Etthi Marines of Troop 1221. Several cars were parked along a quiet neighborhood street in Orem, Utah. Scouts and their families huddled in their cars to stay warm and physically distanced because […]

The year 2020 brought seismic changes to Scouting in Utah. Three large Boy Scout councils were combined into one new council, covering the entire state plus portions of Wyoming and Idaho. Many hundreds of Church ward troops and packs were disbanded and replaced by far fewer non-Church affiliated units. Ward sponsored units, re-chartered and funded […]

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the wizard Gandalf is getting ready to take his leave from Bilbo Baggins and the other dwarves on the edge of Mirkwood. As he does so he starts to leave, then turns to Bilbo and says, “Be good, take care of yourselves and don’t leave the path.” I will take […]

My name is Sam Gray. I want to share a little about my scouting experience as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and how my life has been blessed by Scouting even after the Church ceased chartering Scouting for its Young Men’s program. Like most Latter Day Saint boys, I […]