Adviser’s Corner – Volume 5 – Issue 12 – June 8, 2009

The Boy Scouts of America announces Joe Harrington as recipient of the 2009 Woods Services Award. We recognize him for exceptional service and leadership in the field of Scouting for youth with disabilities.
The Woods Services Award is provided by the Woods Services and Residential Treatment Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, in memory of Luther Wellington Lord. Mr. Lord served as a residential supervisor for more than 23 years at Woods Services. He established this award as a part of his service to youth through his involvement with Scouting at the local and national levels.
As an Eagle Scout, Joe Harrington’s hard work and unwavering commitment exemplified the principles of the Scouting program. He began his volunteer efforts more than 30 years ago, when he attended a weekend campout as a Scout helping to run adaptive activities for those with both mental and physical disabilities. In 1981, he was one of the first Scouts in the United States to earn what was then called the Handicapped Awareness (now Disabilities Awareness) merit badge. As a youth, Joe also led a church group that raised funds to help buy food for Mother Theresa’s soup kitchen in Chicago, where he spent many hours volunteering.
Joe currently serves as a Cubmaster and Scoutmaster of a special needs pack and troop. He also serves as lead teacher of a Learning for Life group. For service to older youths, Joe is an associate Advisor for a Venturing crew and a Skipper for Ship 2501. This ship specializes in scuba and teaching youths to act as dive buddies for divers with disabilities. Chair of both the Three Fires Council’s Special Needs Camporee and its Special Needs Committee, Joe gives volunteer leadership to more than 1,200 special needs Scouts in 11 districts. Outside of Scouting, Joe volunteers regularly at the Ray Graham Association community learning center for persons with disabilities.
Joe has earned numerous unit-level awards. His district and council recognitions include the District Committee Key and the District Award of Merit. He has been recognized by his council with the Silver Beaver Award and James E. West Fellowship Award. The International Order of the Alhambra recognized him with its St. Francis Award for his work with people with disabilities, and the Ray Graham Association has recognized Joe with a Volunteer Appreciation Award.
Woods Services and the Boy Scouts of America join in recognizing this great Scouter-Joe Harrington-with the Woods Services Award for 2009!
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Eddie Rickenbacker and Scouting

State Sen. Jim Jacumin

I had read about the old man who religiously fed the seagulls each day, but I never dreamed I would meet and get to know such a great man.
Eddie Rickenbacker was a war hero who shot down 22 enemy planes in World War I.
He and seven other men were on a secret mission for our country in World War II when their plane went down hundreds of miles at sea. They all survived and crawled out of the plane and into life rafts. They floated for days, fighting sharks and the hot sun until their food and water ran out on the eighth day. Then his Boy Scouts training took over as he worked out ingenious ways to get life from the sea.
Later, as they grew weaker Eddie read to the men from a small Gideon Testament and they prayed for a miracle.
Shielding his eyes with a cap, he leaned back on the round of the life raft, trying to nap and conserve energy, but the slap of the waves was all he heard. Then he felt something land on his head! He quickly grabbed it and found a seagull in his hand. God answered their prayer with a miracle. They used the seagull for nourishment and the intestines for bait, which kept them alive until they were rescued on the 24th day. His weight had gone from 180 pounds to roughly 125 pounds during this time.
Eddie credits their survival to their prayer for a miracle and his Boy Scouts training.
When I was a boy I always wanted to be a Boy Scout, but I could only go to meetings in winter, because we worked in the fields until dark in the summer and the Scout meetings were over by that time.
When I went to work out of college as a nuclear engineer for Douglas Aircraft Co. in Charlotte, one of the first things I did was to help start an Explorer Scouts post. When I learned Eddie Rickenbacker was coming to visit, I arranged for him to speak to our Explorer Scouts. I will always be thankful for the time I got to spend with such a great American hero.
The main thing I took from our meeting was his encouragement for me to stay in Scouting because, he said, “Scouting will keep America strong by keeping her morals strong – God, family and country.”
I find myself still involved with Scouting 45 years later. Time proved him right. Of the men who were Boy Scouts, 83 percent said the values they learned in Scouting continue to be very important to them today. With the Scout motto of “Be prepared” and the slogan, “Do a good turn daily,” Scouts are more likely to be graduated from high school and attend college, more likely to make higher salaries, and more likely to volunteer in their communities.
For every 100 boys who join Scouting, 12 will have their first contact with a church, one will enter the clergy, two will become Eagle Scouts, one will save a life with his Scouting skills and 20 will enter a profession he first learned through the merit badge program.
Parents, if you want a model son and to add to your son’s opportunity to succeed, get him involved in Scouting. For you and your son to see what Scouting really is, visit the Valdese-Waldensian Trail of Faith Founders Festival on Friday and Saturday on Church Street in Valdese where the Scouts will have seven or eight interactive exhibits.

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