Scouting for Lady Liberty

At the opening campfire for Envision Woodbadge/Family Camp, the usual annoying skits and songs were proceeding along when we were astounded to see a woman come out in the most amazing, patriotic dress. She told the story of the Statue of Liberty with audience participation. Then she sang the hymn from the poem written by Emma Lazarus for the statue:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

 I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I know the lady in the dress as she was one of our Woodbadge participants last year. Her husband was in the buffalo patrol that I guided. She is on Woodbadge staff this year as a Troop Guide along with her husband who is a Quartermaster. Her kids are in the Family Camp program along with their grandmother.

This woman represents the best that is in Scouting. She is high-charged and positive. She enjoys her service, mostly in Cub Scouting. She gets regular training and learns new things.  She is not at all like some who are stuck in their Scouting experience for the past twenty, thirty, or even forty years or more. While she uses the patriotic dress on occasion, she is far from stuck in the same old gags or annoying pirate themes.

She may tend to be a little over-exuberant or exaggerate a bit because she tells the story of how I was instrumental in changing her husband’s life. She told me at their beading ceremony when they were recognized for completing their Woodbadge tickets or goals, that I had helped her husband become the man he was meant to be. That’s a bit more of an accomplishment than I can take credit for, but it was meant sincerely and does come out of the Woodbadge training that seems to have worked for them.

She told us yesterday after her amazing performance that she got the outfit as a wedding dress as they were married on the Fourth of July. That’s Scouting at its best.

And Happy Anniversary!!

My friend singing at the campfire in the Fourth of July Wedding dress