NOW FIRST CLASS SCOUT COUNCIL
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CHARTER PRESENTED HEMET-SAN JACINTO ORGANIZATION AT HEMET LAST NIGHT
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Outstanding Program Features Meeting to Receive Document Which Places Valley Council in National Ranks –Music, Speeches
This charter is our license to take the finest material in the world and mould and guide it into upstanding American citizens, declared B.F. Himes, president of the Hemet-San Jacinto Boy Scouts council, last evening in receiving the authority for his council to function under direction of the national organization at Washington, D.C. We fully appreciate the great responsibility which this document places upon us, but are determined to meet this responsibility to the end that scouting may mean something worth while to our valley.
Presentation of the charter was made by County Scout Executive Howard K. Merritt, who congratulated the Hemet-San Jacinto Boy Scout boosters on their success in putting over such a merited boys’ program. Mr. Merritt presented greeting from Riverside members of the county council, who had been unable to attend the meeting and offered his services at any time to assist in the good work.
Presentation of the charter being the outstanding feature of the evening’s program, it is mete that it be set down as a preface to this story. However not the least in importance was the splendid banquet prepared by the women of the Hemet-San Jacinto club and deftly service in Brudin’s hall at Hemet, by a jazzy group of “K” members, suitably garbed and musically inclined, who interlarded the menu courses with “Yes, we have no–” well, almost anything one could mention, and other far reaching accompaniments.
An additional feature was a number of selections by the high school orchestra and glee club, together with a song by the Girl Scouts, and a number of community efforts by the entire company. The affair was under the auspices of the Hemet-San Jacinto Kiwanis club, which has sponsored the Boy Scout program as its major effort, and a good representation of the club’s membership was present. Rev. Fred Miller, president of the club, took occasion to cite his fellow members as abundant reasons why the scout program would be carried on in an outstanding way. Kiwanian Miller reviewed the history of the initial steps in the local scout movement, declaring he was proud of what had been accomplished. He predicted the valley would some day have one of the best organizations of Boy Scouts in America, and the enthusiastic manner in which he made the declaration removed in a large measure the seeming extravagance of the statement.
The man who will be, more than any other, responsible for the success of Hemet-San Jacinto scouting, Charley Van Fleet, a young man loved and respected by everyone, appealed to his fellow citizens for assistance in putting over the program. According to Mr. Van Fleet there are four active troops in the valley at the present time, and two troops in the making. The scouts have a barracks at San Jacinto and expect soon to have one under way at Hemet. Mr. Van Fleet introduced Scoutmasters Donald Pease, troop No. 1, Winchester: Paul Kemp, North Mountain troop No. 1, San Jacinto, and George Moffitt, of Cleveland troop No. 1, Hemet, fine, outstanding lads who are destined to make themselves felt, and they received a very generous applause.
Scout Commissioner Paul G. Ward, introduced as the “best commissioner in the entire world,” prophesied that a great day is dawning in the country, because of the fact that the dads are turning their attention to the boys. He foresaw a wonderful American citizenry in coming generations because of this. Editor John King declared he saw in the Boy Scout movement a clean exemplification of the gang spirit, than which there is nothing better to teach freedom and independence along right lines.
Girl Scout activities in the Hemet-San Jacinto valley will endeavor to keep pace with those of the boys, judging from the message spoken by Mrs. J. Durrenberger, Girl Scout executive. She told the company that 100 girls had been organized with very little outside help, and stressed the fact that the program contemplated the erection of barracks at both San Jacinto and Hemet. The executive made an urgent appeal for as sincere a backing for the girls as had been promised the boys.
Scout Executive C.J. Carlson of Long Beach congratulated the Kiwanians on putting over such a worth-while program. There is nothing new in the spirit of scouting, said Mr. Carlson. It is just the same old spirit of brotherly love and co-operation only exemplified in a different direction. Scouting “builds” in the hearts of boys a spirit of brotherly love. It is a program which grips down into the lives of the boys more than any other and already it has shown this valley there is something in living. Mr. Carlson’s address was of outstanding interest, appreciated to the fullest extent because of the fact that the initial scouting movement in the valley was made while he was scout executive of Riverside county a few years ago.
You men of Hemet and San Jacinto have solved the boy program, declared Regional Executive Chas. N. Miller of Los Angeles, who is executive of the territory comprising the states of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
You have solved it by working shoulder to shoulder with the boys. Scouting is not a problem of boys, it is a problem of men. We have the boys, thousands of them. What we need is the men who will give these boys a portion of their time. You men have just taken the initial steps in a most serious problem. If there is no right man to enter the life of the average boy there will be a wrong man; there is sure to be some man and it devolves upon you to see to it that this “right” man is ready to take his share in the boy’s life.
Mr. Miller gave a meed of credit to the church and school for what they are doing for the boy. They are doing their best, he admitted, but their best is not enough. It is up to the men of the country to solve the problem of the boy, and the regional executive appealed to the men in Kiwanis to take an abiding interest in the boys about them.
Opening the meeting the salute of the flag was given under the leadership of Scout Executive Van Fleet, following the singing of “America.” Singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” preceded dismissal.
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Author
The Riverside Press began publishing in 1878. In 1931, the Riverside Daily Press became the morning paper for Riverside, before becoming the combined Press-Enterprise in 1983.