The Garden City Telegram
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Investing in the future
Published 9/20/2008 in News : Area coverage
By TERRANCE VESTAL
terrancev@gctelegram.com
Jacob Wheeler, 18, Garden City, was awarded his Eagle Scout Saturday after being in the Boy Scouts for six years and two years in Cub Scouts.
As far as Eagle Scout Jacob Wheeler is concerned, if it wasn't for Boy Scouts, he would not be the person he is today.
And as for Robert J. Bock Jr., scout executive for the Santa Fe Trail Council, if it wasn't for United Way contributions, the program wouldn't be the quality organization that teaches young men the values and skills that shape them into future community leaders.
"They have been consistent supporters of the Boy Scouts," Bock said. "When they got involved initially, they made sure the council remained fiscally sound."
The United Way's contribution to the council this year is expected to be about $13,500, which will fund a soccer program designed to introduce youth to Cub Scouting. While the amount this year might appear minimal stacked up against the council's $500,000 budget, the United Way's contribution to the organization over the years has amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bock said.
"It's huge," Bock said.
And while United Way funds are making a soccer program possible this year, what the Boy Scouts teaches youth is priceless, Wheeler said.
"It taught me skills that I would not have learned anywhere else," Wheeler said.
Those skills led to Wheeler earning 33 merit badges, including those that might not seem so obvious as first aid or fire safety.
Wheeler said the most difficult merit badge he earned was personal management, which demanded, among other requirements, that a scout maintain a financial log for three months, keeping track of every penny.
To earn the badge, a scout must learn how to fill out a check, reconcile a check book, learn about credit cards and learn about keeping a family budget.
Scouting for Wheeler always has been about family -- his father, Craig Wheeler, was a Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch commissioner and Jacob Wheeler remembers going up with his father, loaded with Tonka trucks.
Jacob Wheeler said he always had a great time scouting and it became a juggling act as he progressed to higher levels of school.
And while scouting includes plenty of camping, it also means giving back to the community. Wheeler's Eagle Scout project was re-striping the Corner Stone Church parking lot.
But even before that project, he said he dedicated hundreds of service hours to the community through cleaning up trash, participating in community-oriented activities and helping the elderly with home and lawn maintenance.
"Boy Scouts teaches a generation life skills," Bock said. "An investment to United Way is an investment in the future leaders of our community."
Wheeler said he is eternally grateful for his experience with the scouts.
"I want to thank the Boy Scouts for letting me be a kid," he said. "We got to go out and be wild and crazy and still have order and learn stuff."
There are 20 other agencies receiving money from the United Way include: Russell Child Development Center, The Emmaus House, Community Day Care, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney County, Girl Scouts of Tumbleweed Council, The Salvation Army, CASA Spirit of the Plains, Smart Start, Kansas Children's Service League Head Start, Miles of Smiles, United Cerebral Palsy of Kansas, American Red Cross, Catholic Social Service, Family Crisis Services Inc., Meals on Wheels, United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries Clinic, Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association, Garden City Family YMCA, Finney County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program and the Garden City Recreation Commission.
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