Paul Szmal: And it's time for another Scouts BSA story. We're Zooming with Stephen Hoyt, the Scout Executive with Seneca Waterways Council and also a brand new Eagle Scout Andrew Joslin from Troop 122 and family members listening in. Good morning to all of you.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: Good morning. Thank you for having us. It's great to have you here.
Paul Szmal: Let's start with you, Steve, and just bring us up to date on scouting news. As we talked last time, it's fall recruitment time. You can join anytime. That's one of our mantras. You can join anytime. But of course, the big time is in the fall. So there have been some changes. We've got the co-ed program now. We've got a new level of scouting. So run us through the programs and age groups for Scouts BSA programs.
Stephen Hoyt: Yeah, absolutely. So under the umbrella of Boy Scouts America, soon to be Scouting America, we really run four different programs locally. So first is Cub Scouting, which is open to boys and girls. It's kindergarten all the way up through fifth grade. It's pretty much a co-ed program, though dens for the most part, for most groups are going to be gender specific, though not always. Then we move up to what used to be the Boy Scouting program, or now Scouts BSA as it's referred to. That is also for boys and girls, very gender specific. So we have boy troops and girl troops. We have a pretty, about 20% of our membership is now girls, which is kind of exciting. Then we move into Venturing and Exploring, where the older two programs for teenagers 14 to 21, those two programs. Venturing is really outdoor high adventure kind of stuff, camping, backpacking, hiking, scuba, canoeing, whereas exploring is career related. So if you think of police cadets or fire cadets, though it's engineering, STEM, a whole bunch of different fields in the exploring realm. With that for families, you have a kid kindergarten all the way up through high school, there's pretty much a program in scouting that's probably for you. And you can get more information at Scouts Rock, scoutsrock.org.
Paul Szmal: So when do the local units meet?
Stephen Hoyt: Yeah, so every group's a different schedule. There's about 300 different groups that make up the Seneca Waterways Council. If you go to the website, it'll refer you to sign up nights and dates, you'll get more information. But we are this week actually starting to see most of the Cub Scouting groups starting to have their first sign up nights for new members. And those will continue right through the month of October. So for really for the next six weeks, you'll see a lot of onboarding nights where families can get more information, find out about the program for their son or daughter. And then usually for the groups, they'll meet either every week or every other week kind of schedule. And of course, as the kids get older, they take more control over their own meetings. But parents are important. Study after study have shown that units with good adult leadership are the most successful units.
Paul Szmal: So talk about volunteering and taking leadership positions and scouting.
Stephen Hoyt: Yeah, scouting is absolutely a family-based program. And it's something that you're going to do with your son or daughter. It's not really a drop-off experience, though some families always make it that. But it is really an opportunity to really get to know your child as a person they are or they are to become. With that, I always tell parents that there's a role for everybody in the organization and everybody kind of engages. It makes it real easy for everybody. And it's kind of the group on the cub scouting level. I'll share, you know, you'll have parents that love the glue and glitter side of the house that want to be den leaders or assistant den leaders and help out the weekly, bi-weekly programs. Or you'll have people that want to help behind the scenes and help with a popcorn sale or do other things, help support different individual events like the Pinewood Derby. And they just kind of run those events for the family. So you can either you can be a support person or right in the mix either or. But if every family helps out a little bit, it makes it fun for everybody.
Paul Szmal: Coming up this Saturday, you have a fun event and a fundraising event, Fall Sporting Clays at Canada Day Sportsman Club. A great chance for all levels of shooters. So for those who aren't familiar, what's a sporting clay?
Stephen Hoyt: Yeah, so it's like if you think of like skeet or trap. Except in this case, sporting clay is the clay target which, you know, people are shooting 12 gauge or 20 gauge shotguns. They're moving at all different speeds, directions, not a predictable pattern. Shooters will go through, I think, what 12 different stations. Each station will have somewhere between two and six different clay pigeons or birds that go out. So it's a very unique, challenging course, kind of challenging way to do what normally would be referred to as skeet. And then kind of more replicative of what would happen to like a wild bird, as example. With that, we'll have a lot of adults but also a lot of kids that participate in this event that comes up on Saturday. So I know we have already over 100 shooters aligned for that and there's still room for more.
Paul Szmal: We talked last time about summer camp. Do you have an approximate number about how many scouts in Seneca Waterways had a camping experience this summer?
Stephen Hoyt: Yeah, so we had about 1,800 kids at Massaweepy, which is absolutely incredible. We've seen growth at that summer camp every year coming to COVID, which is really unique for the Boy Scouts of America. And we had another 500 kids at Camp Cutler down in Naples, which is really our cub scouting theme immersion camp. So, you know, all in you're looking at 2,300 kids through summer programs.
Paul Szmal: We love to tell Eagle Scout stories. Andrew Joslin is our newest Eagle Scout, a member of Troop 122. Good morning.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: Good morning. It's great to have you here.
Paul Szmal: Also, you're part of a venturing crew, 1998, and also a ship, Unit 303. Tell us about that program.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: So the Ship 303 is part of the Sea Scouts program. It's not as big as the other ones, and it's not as local. I go to Ship 303. It's based in Arundakoit. It's a lot like venturing, just specifically more sailing, small boat activities, some small watercraft, stuff like that.
Paul Szmal: Now, you earned every single merit badge that is offered. That doesn't happen very often. Was that a goal right from the start, or did you see a point where you started cranking out these badges and said, hey, I can do this?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: So it started back when I was in Cub Scouts. I was earning belt loops and Weeblow pins, and I ended up getting all the belt loops and then all the Weeblow pins, and I asked my mom how many merit badges there were, and she told me a lot, and I wanted them all.
Paul Szmal: Because that's one of the hard parts about that, is just because you have to have a merit badge advisor. Finding advisors for all those badges must have been some work.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: That was the hardest part for some of them.
Paul Szmal: So tell us about your project. A big part of what an Eagle does is putting a project together, supervising others, fundraising, planning. What was your Eagle project?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: My Eagle project was to clean and prevent garbage along the Erie Canal in Newark. I had a cleanup day where I removed a couple dozen bags of trash, and then I installed a couple of garbage bins and benches to help rehabilitate the area.
Paul Szmal: Have you always been kind of a leader sort of guy, or was that new for you? And how difficult was it to be the head of a big crew like that?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: It's grown on me a lot as I've been through Boy Scouts. As I've gotten older, there's been less and less people in my troop, and so it's been more of a requirement for me to step up and take leadership within my unit to help keep its future alive. And so it wasn't a surprise that I was going to have to take a leadership position to earn my Eagle Scout. However, it was definitely new being more hands-on with the leadership itself.
Paul Szmal: The other big part of an Eagle project is that moment of panic where something goes wrong. Did you have that?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: I did. I turned 18 on June 15th. This is the cutoff date for getting your Eagle Scout, and I finished my project on June 12th.
Paul Szmal: Oh boy, we know that. My son is an Eagle too, so we know all about sneaking in under the wire and getting those things done.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: As you look back at your whole journey from Cub to Eagle, what has scouting meant for you that you'll take into your adult life?
Paul Szmal: Helping others. Being as selfless as you can has always given me the most fulfillment as a person. Seeing other people succeed is an amazing feeling, and being there for others is amazing.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: Did you ever camp at Massaweepy?
Paul Szmal: I have. I mean, tell us. I've never had that experience, but I think my son did, and everybody just raves about this facility in the Adirondacks. Tell us a little bit about Camp Massaweepy.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: It's absolutely beautiful. It's right on a lake, and so you have a beautiful view of all the water, and it's truly breathtaking. You've got to see it for yourself. There's only one downside, and that's the mosquitoes.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. Now, are you a Scout family? Have you had other Scouts in your family before?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: Yes. My brother was also in Scouting, and my parents might be more involved than I am.
Paul Szmal: Wow. So what would you say to a young six, seven-year-old who's kind of on the fence about Scouting?
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: I'd tell them all the opportunities they'd have and just how much they can earn as a person going into it.
Paul Szmal: Well, congratulations on the achievement. Steve, do you know about what percentage of Scouts earn all the badges? It's got to be very low.
Stephen Hoyt: It is really low. I think, in my 15 years here as CEO, we've had maybe four or five Scouts do it, so we get one every four or five years. There's a group of kids on Facebook that are alumni of this, and I'd say it's only a couple hundred members. So it is, I think, 112 years, 114 years of Boy Scouts of America, that we've only had a couple hundred kids do them all. The number keeps changing, too, because there's more badges come and go. Andrew, I think, was 139, and there's some kids who were able to do it below one, what, one-teens, 146. Depending on your year, maybe a little more, a little less.
Paul Szmal: Amazing. Andrew Jocelyn, Eagle Scout with Troop 122, also a member of Ship 303 and Sea Scouts and Venturing Crew 1998. Congratulations, and thanks for sharing a story with us.
Andrew Joslyn, Stephen Hoyt: Thank you so much.
Paul Szmal: And Stephen Hoyt, Scout Executive, always great to tell Scouting stories, so keep bringing them to us.
Stephen Hoyt: Oh, I'd love to. Thank you.
