Scouting, marking its 100th anniversary this month, is alive and well in Hawaii Catholic churches and schools

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

August 1 marked the 100th anniversary of Scouting. The worldwide youth movement began in England in 1907. Three years later it came to America, and soon after to Hawaii.

Cub and Boy Scout Emblems: From left: Light of Christ, ages 7-8; Parvuli Dei, ages 9-10; Ad Altare Dei, sixth grade and above; Light is Life, for Easter Catholic Church, sixth grade and above; Pope Pius XII, Catholic Boy Scouts and Venturing, ninth grade to 21 Girl Scout Emblems: From left: Family of God, ages 7-9; I Live My Faith, ages 9-11; The Marian Medal, ages 12-14; The Spirit Alive, ages 15-17; St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal and St. Anne Medal, for adult Girl Scouts The religious emblems Both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have Roman Catholic religious emblems programs that are optional for scouts to earn. Each has awards for four different age levels. Mary Plumb, co-chair of the Catholic Committee on Scouting, says that by helping scouts earn their awards “you can have so much impact.” As a leader of Girl Scout Troop 223 in Kapolei, Plumb has helped girls earn their Catholic religious awards. “I like the process of getting the girls together to learn about the various aspects of the faith,” she said. “A lot of my girls who have done [the awards] have been Catholic school girls. And yet there were still a lot of things that they were learning and that they could share with non-Catholic troopmates and other girls.” For more information about the Boy Scout religious awards contact Michael Young at 947-1116. For Girl Scout religious awards contact Mary Plumb at 542-6775.

According to the former co-chairman of Hawaii’s Catholic Committee on Scouting, Francis Mau, the first Catholic sponsored troop in Hawaii was at Sacred Heart Church in Honolulu in 1927, with half the troop members coming from the newly opened Maryknoll School.

The tradition of Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops connected with Catholic parishes and schools continues in Hawaii today. About 25 parishes, schools and Catholic organizations sponsor Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops and about six sponsor the Girl Scouts.

Boy Scouts

On Tuesday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m., Boy Scout Troop 113 gathered in a meeting room at St. Ann Parish in Kaneohe. After saying the Boy Scout oath and going over the previous week’s outing to Ice Palace for a skating merit badge, the 16 boys in attendance settled into an hour of hanafuda card game playing.

Several of the Catholic troop members talked about how their faith and scouting overlap.

Fifteen-year-old Sean Alloy-Craig went to St. Ann’s Model School until the fourth grade and joined Troop 113 partly through that connection. Now a sophomore at Damien Memorial School, he says he finds scouting fun. “I like the whole outdoors experience when we go camping,” he said.

St. Ann parishioners and brothers Brandon and Justin Iwamasa have been troop members for five years. Justin, 18, is currently working on his Eagle service project and says that many Boy Scouting values coincide with his Catholic faith including “service to the community” and “good citizenship.”

Brandon, 15, is the troop’s chaplain and leads prayer at meetings. He says scouting has taught him family values. “It also teaches you morals. Both scouting and religion teaches us that,” Justin said. “Teamwork would be another thing.”

Eighteen-year-old Kaione Mau said that scouting and Catholicism teach you “kind of the same things — how to be a good person, what to do. Boy Scouts takes it a little bit further with teaching you certain [practical] skills.”

Randall Shimoda’s 14-year-old son Michael has been in the troop for three years and his older son James became an Eagle Scout in 2005. He said that as a former Scout he wanted his sons to have the same fun experience he did, learning practical and moral skills.

“The way the program is set up, it’s very difficult to have a scout troop and not have some values instilled in the scouts,” said Shimoda, who also has two daughters involved in Girl Scouts. “The service projects, for example, teach them the value of helping others. So it’s more than reciting the words at the meeting. They actually practice what they preach.”

Scoutmaster Kurt Pohlman has led Troop 113 for seven years and says that St. Ann Parish has been very helpful to the scouts. For him, it is important that his diverse troop of about 20 boys learn about various religions and backgrounds.

“I really feel strongly about religious tolerance,” Pohlman said. “The more exposure to different religions as possible the better.”

Francis Mau, who is a St. Ann parishioner and who stopped by the Tuesday night meeting, said Catholic-sponsored Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs composed of boys from various religious backgrounds are common now. He said Catholic troops often encourage boys of other religions to earn their own affiliated religious emblems along with encouraging Catholics to earn their faith awards.

At the end of their July 31 meeting, Troop 113 members gathered in a circle, as they do at every meeting, and recited together, “And now may the great Scoutmaster of all scouts be with us until we meet again.”

Girl Scouts

Three days later, on the afternoon of Aug. 3, another scout troop, Girl Scout Troop 905, gathered at one member’s home in Wailuku, Maui. Three of the four Senior scouts are Catholic and, in a conference call, they talked about scouting and their faith.

Heidi Corson, 14, said helping others is a big part of Catholicism and Girl Scouts. “You’re like a neighbor to all your fellow Girl Scouts,” said the St. Anthony Jr./Sr. High School student. “And the same with the Catholic religion, because you’re always helping each other like a community.”

Malia Hamilton thinks learning to “be a better person” is a big part of scouting and her faith. “In Catholicism they always teach you to help people and try to encourage you to do community service,” said the 15-year-old.

Hamilton, who also goes to St. Anthony, mentioned the service projects Troop 905 does, including helping serve meals to the needy through St. Theresa Parish’s Hale Kau Kau program in Kihei. The next day the troop would also be volunteering at the Maui Sugar Plantation Festival.

Fifteen-year-old Serena Perry said the Girl Scouts teaches girls to “treat each other like sisters” just like “God wants us to treat everyone like a brother or sister.”

“In the Catholic Church we believe that we love all of God’s children, and we all love each other,” she said. “In Girl Scouts we learn to work with each other … and help people who are different from us.”

Perry has earned all the Catholic religious awards offered (see sidebar) so far and Hamilton has earned the “I Live My Faith” award for Junior Girl Scouts. All three girls have been in scouting since they were five and Daisy Girl Scouts.

Knights of Columbus leads effort to sponsor Catholic troops here In 2006, the Knights of Columbus began a national effort to sponsor scouting troops in response to an increasing number of lawsuits brought against the Boy Scouts. The Knights’ Hawaii State Scouting Coordinator Clyde Sauget, himself a former Scout, has helped oversee the five group sponsored troops in Hawaii, as well as, push for more sponsorship. “Scouting starts from the very beginning with boys in the first grade, teaching them duty to God, duty to country, duty to self, all the things we expect young boys to learn as they grow into men,” Sauget said. “When they get into Boy Scouts they develop the abilities to survive and take care of themselves.” He thinks promoting the religious emblems program could encourage vocations. Sauget also thinks that the Boy Scout-sponsored organization called Venturing, which is a co-ed program for youth ages 14-20, could be used as youth ministry programs in parishes. “I would like to see our churches flooded with boys in scouting because it promotes the right kind of growth and provides a basis for vocations,” Sauget said.

Serena Perry’s mother, Claudine Perry, is an active troop mother, and has led Daisy and Brownie troops. She remembers that as a Brownie troop leader, she led an optional Saturday meeting for several months so that girls could earn their “Family of God” Catholic award, including a Jewish girl, who wanted to participate.

“While I understand that [Girl Scouts] is a secular organization, I know as a leader and from what we do in Girl Scouts, that it very much practices what the Catholic Church teaches,” said Perry, whose other daughter, Maya, also used to be a Girl Scout. “I really value and support Girl Scouts.”

Perry’s sister, Bernadette San Nicolas, the principal at Christ the King School in Kahului, Maui, has led Brownie Troop 475 at the school for five years. This year she is also starting a Junior troop, and a kindergarten teacher will lead a Daisy troop.

San Nicolas said it was her sister Claudine who inspired her to get involved in Girl Scouting to begin with.

“I really believe that the mission and the philosophy of Girl Scouts is so in line with what we do here at Christ the King that it just provides another opportunity for our girls to develop the skills that we want in our students,” she said. “One of the most important things, to me, that it helps reinforce to our girls is the service to God and others.”

Perry says she’s not satisfied with the scouting involvement at Christ the King School just yet. That’s because she has been looking for someone to start a Cub Scout troop at the school ever since boys began asking her if they could join in the Girl Scout activities.