{"id":2370,"date":"2012-01-19T11:14:32","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T16:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2012-01-19T11:14:32","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T16:14:32","slug":"troop-619-explores-good-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=2370","title":{"rendered":"Troop 619 explores good citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kennett Square\u2019s only Hispanic Boy Scout troop sat in on Tuesday night\u2019s Kennett Square Borough Council meeting<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By P.J. D’Annunzio<\/strong>, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

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<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 It appears that children are starting everything earlier these days\u2014including participating in local government.<\/p>\n

Four scouts and two scout masters of Boy Scout Troop 619 attended Kennett Square\u2019s Borough Council meeting, part of a requirement for the scouts to earn their community service merit badges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on citizenship in the community; they\u2019re learning how the community functions, the activities citizens can get involved with, and how they can effect decisions,\u201d Scout Master Joseph Leightner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will come to a meeting like this and speak up at the podium and talk about something they agree or disagree with. They\u2019re learning to become part of the community. It\u2019s not just their schooling and their neighborhood, now they\u2019re seeing how and where the decisions are being made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennett\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a special program for boys, it\u2019s 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\u2019t down here doing this, they probably wouldn\u2019t be involved in scouting,\u201d Leightner said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like being a scout because I get to help people,\u201d he said, \u201cI also like going on camping trips and learning new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But no matter what the activity may be, service remains top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go out to camps we\u2019ll 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,\u201d Leightner said.<\/p>\n

Around town, the troop has also participated with several organizations in many noteworthy events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe partnered with the Four Seasons Garden Club,\u201d Assistant Scout Master Ed Reese said. \u201cThe boys helped with the planting and the watering of the flowers that you see up and down on State Street. They\u2019ve been in the Memorial Day Parade, the 4th<\/sup> of July Parade, the Mushroom Festival\u2014we have a booth there with popcorn\u2014we also had a function with Senator Pileggi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, the focus of Troop 619 is to provide not only responsible citizens for today, but community leaders for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting pointed in the right direction,\u201d Leightner said. \u201cThey can\u2019t figure everything out right now, but 10 or 15 years down the road they\u2019ll say \u2018those were some pretty good guys we were with.\u2019 Our hope is that when they become fathers they\u2019ll look toward boy scouting for their sons to teach them good morals. We\u2019re planting seeds right now: we want to let that tree grow and see what blossoms out of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kennett Square\u2019s only Hispanic Boy Scout troop sat in on Tuesday night\u2019s Kennett Square Borough Council meeting By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 It appears that children are starting everything earlier these days\u2014including participating in local government. Four scouts and two scout masters of Boy Scout Troop 619 attended Kennett Square\u2019s Borough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[73,393,55,394],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-borough-council","tag-boy-scouts","tag-kennett","tag-troop-619"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}