BILLINGS — Feb. 8 is National Boy Scout Day, and it's also the 113th birthday of the organization. In the group's honor, a few members of the Billings community who have scouting running through their veins spoke about its history.
Scouting started in 1910 when W.D. Boyce encountered a scout who helped him find his way when he was lost in London, and he was then inspired by the work they did and wanted to bring it back to America.
More than a century later, it’s still going strong.
"Last year we had a 7% membership growth across the entire state. Here in Billings, we had a growth in scouting. So, really the future of scouting looks really bright," said Pat Dannenberg, the director of field service for the Billings Boy Scouts, said Wednesday.
Here in Billings, that growth was closer to 1%, but Dannenberg is optimistic. He’s a fourth-generation scouter and has worked professionally with the group since 2005.
"We’re investing in our community to help ensure future growth here. Not just at a 1% rate or 2% rate. We want to really help make sure that kids have every opportunity to join scouting," added Dannenberg.
Kids like Avery Knight, part of the newest new generation of scouts here in Billings. She’s a Cub Scout.
"I like it a lot because you do lots of fun things like pinewood derby, polar days, camping, that sort of thing. And for most of those activities, you help raise the money for it by selling popcorn and things," said Knight on Wednesday.
Activities her father, who's now a professional scout, says are designed with a bigger purpose in mind.
"It's instilling these values in this next generation so that they’ll stop and help someone who’s car is broken down on the side of the road. They’ll do a good turn daily and pick up trash that they’re seeing. Just go out of their way to help another person, that’s what we’re looking to do in our programs," said Levi Knight, the district director for the Boy Scouts in Billings, Wednesday.
Knight said he and his "family live, sleep and eat scouting." And he says he’s still learning from Scouts himself, an organization still going strong 113 years after it began.
"We have great leadership in place and really just honest directory for enormous growth. And Boy Scouts of America as a whole nationally had growth so we’re really looking towards the future and hopefully having another 113 years of serving youth in this country," added Levi Knight.
