Kennett Square’s only Hispanic Boy Scout troop sat in on Tuesday night’s Kennett Square Borough Council meeting
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
Boy Scouts from Troop 619 attended this week's Kennett Square Borough Council meeting as part their work on citizenship. Pictured: (back row) Scout Master Joseph Leightner. Jesus Melendez, Jose Luna, Asst. Scout Master Ed Reese (front) Jose Zavala, Victor Luna
KENNETT SQUARE — It appears that children are starting everything earlier these days—including participating in local government.
Four scouts and two scout masters of Boy Scout Troop 619 attended Kennett Square’s Borough Council meeting, part of a requirement for the scouts to earn their community service merit badges.
“We’re working on citizenship in the community; they’re learning how the community functions, the activities citizens can get involved with, and how they can effect decisions,” Scout Master Joseph Leightner said.
“They will come to a meeting like this and speak up at the podium and talk about something they agree or disagree with. They’re learning to become part of the community. It’s not just their schooling and their neighborhood, now they’re seeing how and where the decisions are being made.”
Kennett’s only Hispanic troop takes a different approach to scouting, designed to help boys who come from demographics where scouting is not a traditional opportunity, as it is in the United States.
“This is a special program for boys, it’s called a Scout-reach program, and we bring non-traditional scouts into boy-scouting; we provide a place for them to meet, and we organize them for the community. If we weren’t down here doing this, they probably wouldn’t be involved in scouting,” Leightner said.
Kennett Middle School student Jose Zavala has been involved in scouting from a very young age. The time he has spent in the program has gone a long way in teaching him good citizenship and a sense of responsibility for his community.
“I like being a scout because I get to help people,” he said, “I also like going on camping trips and learning new things.”
Troop 619 has roughly 20 members, including three cub scouts, and participates in activities such as wilderness survival, camping, ski trips, and an annual jamboree held in Virginia where over 40,000 scouts meet.
But no matter what the activity may be, service remains top priority.
“When we go out to camps we’ll do service projects. In boy scouts we build leaders, and the other part of our organization is service. We provide services to the community and assistance to others,” Leightner said.
Around town, the troop has also participated with several organizations in many noteworthy events.
“We partnered with the Four Seasons Garden Club,” Assistant Scout Master Ed Reese said. “The boys helped with the planting and the watering of the flowers that you see up and down on State Street. They’ve been in the Memorial Day Parade, the 4th of July Parade, the Mushroom Festival—we have a booth there with popcorn—we also had a function with Senator Pileggi.”
Overall, the focus of Troop 619 is to provide not only responsible citizens for today, but community leaders for tomorrow.
“They’re getting pointed in the right direction,” Leightner said. “They can’t figure everything out right now, but 10 or 15 years down the road they’ll say ‘those were some pretty good guys we were with.’ Our hope is that when they become fathers they’ll look toward boy scouting for their sons to teach them good morals. We’re planting seeds right now: we want to let that tree grow and see what blossoms out of it.
