Bishop Wester and Mark Jasumback honored with highest Scout recognition

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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From right, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City; Matthew Boerke, Diocese of Salt Lake City Director of Youth & Young Adult Ministry; and Scout leader Mark D. Jasumback chat after the Silver Beaver Award ceremony March 1 at the Bountiful Regional Center.

BOUNTIFUL – The Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, and Mark D. Jasumback, who for 20 years has been involved with Scout Troop 231 at Saint Francis Xavier Parish, were among the 66 people presented with the Silver Beaver Award by the Great Salt Lake Council, Boy Scouts of America, during a ceremony on March 1 at the Bountiful Regional Center.

The Silver Beaver Award is given for distinguished service to boyhood and is the highest recognition that can be made by a local Boy Scout council.

Bishop Wester has vivid memories of being a Cub Scout, especially making cars for the pinewood derby, camping and hiking, he said. He left scouting after he entered the seminary.

Like Bishop Wester, Jasumback enjoyed outdoor adventures as a young scout in Missoula, Mont. His grandfather and uncle were scout masters, and "The thing I remember about being a scout is that the scout master made all the difference in the world," Jasumback said. "If you had a good scout master, you had a good troop. I was fortunate enough to have leaders who cared about youth and shared their enjoyment of the outdoors."

As a scout leader, those examples influenced him, he said; he would work with his scouts on advancement "but there was always … a way to get out and enjoy nature. You never know what you’re going to come across when you get out there. It might not look like there’s anything out there but you get to walking around out there and it’s always amazing what you can find, what you come across."

Jasumback became an assistant scoutmaster when his stepson joined the Saint Francis Xavier troop and "I’ve stayed with it ever since," he said. He has served as a Tiger Cub coach, Webelos leader and scoutmaster. He also has been district chairperson for Scouting for Food, an activity with which he is still involved; as a unit commissioner, Scout-O-Rama vice chairman, District 16 Jamboral chairperson, district vice-chairman and a Wood Badge coach counselor. He has received the Scoutmaster Award of Merit, Commissioner Arrowhead and is a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow.

"I enjoy the fellowship, working with men and women interested in our youth to give our youth another pathway of showing leadership and their skills, which may or may not correspond to their activities in school," Jasumback said, adding that scouting gives youth an opportunity for leadership and is another way for them to be successful.

Scouting is a good way to get youth to go beyond themselves, Bishop Wester said. "Scouts offer a framework within which boys and young men work in serving people. It’s geared toward God and service of country and an emphasis on a moral life."

He encourages parish leaders to investigate scouting as an activity, if they don’t already have it. "It’s a ready-made youth program for a parish to plug into," he said.