National Boy Scouts Day: History, Lesser Known Facts And More

National Boy Scouts Day is observed on Feb. 8 every year in the U.S. The motto of Boy Scouts Of America (BSA), an organization inaugurated in 1910, is “prepared for life.”

The organization inducts thousands of new members every year for its youth program for “character development and values-based leadership training,” BSA’s website says. More than 2.2 million individuals, between the age of 5 and 21, are part of the project. Nearly 800,000 volunteers are also associated with the BSA.

Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, a lieutenant general, is credited for the 1908 Boy Scouts movement in England. The movement helped form similar programs across the globe, including in the U.S.

Baden-Powell was known to train his troop members using games and contests, which he later documented in his book “Scouting For Boys.” More than 150 million copies of the book have been sold since 1908.

The BSA uses its central project to promote “good citizenship, chivalry, and the skills of outdoorsmen,” according to the National Day Archives. All participants are required to take an oath before they are declared a Boy Scout.

The oath is: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”

Here are some fun facts about the Boy Scouts program in the U.S.:

• Former presidents John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were part of Boy Scouts in their youth. Ford also became an Eagle Scout, the highest possible position a Boy Scout can hold.
• More than 50% of the astronauts chosen to go to space are associated with the Boy Scouts program.
• Many senior officials of the U.S. government over years, including senators and cCongress members, were Eagle Scouts in their youth.
• Other known personalities who were part of the Boy Scouts program include Steven Spielberg (director), Niel Armstrong (first human to set foot on the Moon) and former Washington state governor Daniel J. Evans.