Boys and girls throughout the community can learn about the “magical” world of Scouting at 6:30 p.m. this coming Monday, Sept. 9 at Central Christian Church in Ironton.
David M. Lucas, Ph.D., scoutmaster for Troop 106, said every year the organization holds an event for youth and their families to learn more about what Scouting entails.
“We don’t ever stop signing Scouts up,” Lucas said.
The lifeblood of any troop, according to Lucas, is the Cub Scout program.
“If you have Cub Scouts and they get excited about Scouting, they’ll follow through all the way into the older Scout program,” he said.

Lucas said this is a “great” opportunity for families to become aware of the activities of Cub Scouts Pack 106 and Scouts Troop 106. The ages for boys and girls are 5 years old through 11 for Cub Scouts. Then the Scouts cross over into the older Scouting program up to age 18.
“It’s a completely co-ed program,” Lucas said.
Scouting America presents an outdoor adventure program. Participants learn skills in camping, leadership, community action and cooperation. The young people who go through the entire program and attain the rank of Eagle Scout become leaders “because they know how to serve their communities,” Lucas said.
“I don’t just mean their local neighborhoods, but also their church community and the political arena where they know changes need to be made and they know how to be active in that,” he said.
The whole idea of Scouting, Lucas said, is to make participants good citizens in the neighborhood, in school and in the social arena of society.
“It’s a win-win program,” he said. “I really believe in it and always have.”
There have been young men, according to Lucas, who didn’t have fathers who became good fathers themselves. He said they may not have done well in school, but they excelled in Scouting.
“They went out of the program, met a nice woman, had children—they’re good dads,” he said. “They didn’t have a role model except for all those people in the Scouting program who taught them how to be good to their family and to be kind and neighborly.”
“Adventures” are goals in Cub Scouts, taking participants through the ranks of Lions, Tigers, Wolves and Bears. For example, one adventure is cooking and family. Another is faith and family.
“They have fun doing it,” Lucas said. “They don’t even realize they’re being taught cooperation, leadership, collaborative efforts, teamwork and just fun outdoors activities.”
Another project is preparing for the Raingutter Regatta for Cub Scouts. Participants make a boat with their fathers, mothers, grandfathers—or whomever is with them in the home. Those children who may not have someone to work with them are assisted by Scouting leaders.
“Then they come and sail that boat,” Lucas said. “You know how that boat goes down that Raingutter Regatta? They must blow that sail themselves. You become the wind for your own sail. Everything depends on them.”
Lucas said they close that event with “this is life. If you want to buy a car or want a good job or want to change something in the community—you can’t look around for someone else to hand it to you. It’s not going to happen.”
Only a Cub Scout for two years himself, Lucas said those were “magical years.” The reason he didn’t get to be a Boy Scout is because no one took the time to sign up to be a leader.
“They ended our Cub Scout program,” he said. “I vowed when I finished my Ph.D., I would go back into Scouting and complete the job that others had left undone. I’ve been doing this for 30 years now!”
Older men have come up to Lucas and recited the Scout Law and Scout Oath to him.
“They remember it,” he said. “They smile. The reminiscence and pride that moves over their faces and enters their eyes is just magical.”
Central Christian Church is located at 1541 S. Seventh St. in Ironton. For more information, call 740-307-5919.