Annual dinner with the bishop celebrates scouting

Intermountain Catholic

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Members of Boy Scout Troop 1966 and Cub Scout Troop 4500 present the colors during the 2011 Bishop's Dinner for Scouting at Saint John the Baptist Elementary School on April 3.

DRAPER — Scouting provides wonderful memories, not only for the youth but also for the leaders, according to those who spoke at the annual Bishop’s Dinner for Scouting, which was held April 3 in the multipurpose room of Saint John the Baptist Elementary School.

The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City, recalled going camping with his father on scouting trips, and spelling out the scout oath with alphabet macaroni. "It goes on and on, the wonderful memories of scouting," he said.

To the scouts at the event, he said, "I think one of the really neat things about scouting is that it’s a wonderful opportunity for you to deepen in your faith in God. Faith is very important, and scouting allows you an opportunity to think about your faith, to grow in your faith and to realize the place of God in your life."

Scouting allows scouts to put their faith into action, Bishop Wester added, and he requested that scouts be courteous in all their actions, to treat others with dignity and respect. "If we can do that, I believe we’ll go a long way to creating a more peaceful world, we’ll take an important step to honoring one another and helping to create a world that is going to be a lot more fun to live in."

Bishop Wester also acknowledged the scout leaders. "What you do for our youth is incalculable; it’s a precious gift that you give to our young people by making all this possible," he said.

All of the speakers, who represented various aspects of scouting, spoke of their own memories of scouting, either as a youth or as a leader. Brent Uberty, who started as a Cub Scout and now at 18 is the area Venturing president, said that as a child he looked up to his youth leaders and "now I feel it’s my duty to come back and serve all that Scouts have given me," he said.

Service projects play a large part in scouting, the leaders said.

In Girl Scouts, the highest awards are for service projects, said Ruth Prenderghast, a Girl Scout leader, and scouting also teaches being kind to each other, and to respect those in authority. "The values we all talk about on Sunday morning in our pews are the same values that Girl Scouting encourages in our girls, and this is why I love being a Girl Scout leader," she said. "We’re taught that our faith requires action, and we help our girls live our faith by encouraging great acts of service."

Although faith is an integral part of scouting, many of the troops and packs have youth from a variety of religious beliefs. Boy Scout Troop 1966 in the Sandy/Draper area has boys who are Catholic, Latter-day Saints, Methodist and agnostic, said Craig Dinehart, but "they share similar beliefs and goals of developing the whole person" and they all enjoy the service activities that teach the importance of giving without getting anything in return.

When Dinehart started as a scout master, "I never thought about scouting as being a ministry, and it really, truly is," he said.