Boy Scouts Receive National Award

        This week the National Office of the Boy Scouts of America announced national achievement recognitions to a handful of local Boy Scouting Councils all across the Country. For the fourth consecutive year The Baden-Powell Council serving the greater Binghamton/Ithaca area was one of the few programs recognized nationally. The national achievement award, known as Quality Council Award, recognizes Councils who have had an overall outstanding program in all areas of performance.
        In 2009, despite a declining youth population in the Southern Tier and Central New York, the Boy Scouting program here in Binghamton posted a gain in membership that was the second best in the Northeastern United States, balanced its budget and had a major increase in the number of boy and girls attending summer camp. In 2009, a total of 77 young men in the Baden-Powell Council were awarded the Eagle Scout Award, the highest youth award presented by the Boy Scouts of America.
        The Baden-Powell Council runs five programs in the greater Binghamton area. Cub Scouting is for boys in grades 1st through 5th; Boy Scouting is for boys age 11 to 18; Venturing is a coed high adventure program for teenagers 14-21; Exploring is a career program for teenagers 14-21; and for several area schools the Boy Scouts run an in-school Learning for Life program which is a character / career education program for boys and girls grades K-12.
        The Baden-Powell Council formed eleven years ago when the Binghamton office merged with the Ithaca office to form its current six county area in New York and Pennsylvania. The Baden-Powell Council is named after Sir Robert Baden-Powell who founded the Scouting movement in England 102 years ago. The Boy Scouts of America was started exactly 100 years ago next week. The Baden-Powell Council served 8,331 youth members in 2009 and ran a budget of just over $1,330,000 of which almost 12% came from the generous support of the United Way. The remainder of the Council’s funding comes from activity fees and charitable contributions from businesses, foundations and individuals.