Passion

There are lot of one-liners about Scouting, but two of my favorites are:  1) it's only an hour a week, and 2) Scouters are people who pay to do Scouting.  I've witnessed this throughout my years involved with the Boy Scouts of America.  Scout leaders put in hours each week to provide a good program to the youth they serve, not to mention some sort of event each month.  Then they'll take vacation for a week-long summer camp or perhaps more for a trip to a high adventure base.  Volunteers are the life-blood of the organization and millions of youth benefit from their efforts.

New leaders start out to get their son involved in a quality program and get sucked in ot the program themselves. It's quite common to find adults staying in the program long after their son has turned 18.  They do so because they have a passion for the program and its ideals.  With such passion they give tirelessly.

Recently I've become more familiar with another organization that garners such tireless passion -- FIRST Robotics.  In fact I spent this past Sunday serving as a judge at a local FIRST Lego League event.  This was my second time to serve as a judge at this same event and remembered many of the volunteer faces from last year.  These folks have a real passion for the ideals of FIRST and getting kids excited about STEM.  Many of them had judged the weekend prior and had other events on their calendars.

Other organizations exist all over our region that have great volunteers.  I would encourage anyone to find an organization that shares their values and ideas and give them some of your time.  There is an organization somewhere that could benefit from your talents.