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Boy Scouts IN 1987, Alice Watanabe promised a friend that she would continue to serve as a volunteer in Hawaii's Boy Scouting program "as long as I can."
mark 91 years
in Hawaii
Parents and other volunteers
help keep Scouting popular here,
despite stiff competition from
other youth activitiesNew headquarters
By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThat was after Watanabe had already worked as a volunteer for 13 years.
Watanabe's colleague died in 1989, but Watanabe still reports each day to Aloha Council's headquarters.
"As long as I can walk and I can do things," said Watanabe, "I will stay in Scouting."
Today, Watanabe and the program's more than 5,800 volunteers will celebrate the Boy Scouts' 91st birthday -- which coincides with the start of the youth program in Hawaii.
They will observe the day in Hawaii in a new $3 million Nuuanu headquarters, which was funded in part by a $900,000 grant from the Weinberg Foundation and $300,000 from the Atherton Foundation.
Al Sakai, director of support service for the Aloha Council, said the exact date Scouting started in Hawaii in 1910 has been lost.
"We do, however, know that the first Eagle Scout in Hawaii was Alatau Wilder in 1916," Sakai said. "He was the nephew of Kinau Wilder and belonged to Troop 1."
Troop 1, chartered by Punahou School, holds the distinction of being the first organization established by the Aloha Council in 1910.
"However, because of a short break in service," Sakai said, "the longest-serving organization is probably Troop 10 in Kaimuki."
Watanabe, who has worked as a volunteer with Troop 10, said it was formed 84 years ago and is currently sponsored by the Kaimuki Lions Club. She also was in charge of an Aloha Council advancement program tracking the progression of Scouts in the Kapiolani area for seven years.
More than 28,000 boys now participate in Scouting here, belonging to more than 600 troops.
Sakai said that unlike mainland units, boys in Hawaii tend to stay in Scouting until they are 18 and are no longer eligible to participate.
"On the mainland, by the time they are 15 or 16," Sakai said, "they are gone."
He also noted that boys here tend to either reach Eagle Scout by 13 or 14 or wait until the last minute, making it just before they are 18 and ineligible.
"I was one of the fast-trackers when I started, making Eagle when I was 13 on Maui," said Sakai.
That was during what Sakai described as the "golden era" of scouting in the 1950s and 1960s.
"Probably enrollment was the highest then because there was less competition from programs like organized youth soccer leagues or Pop Warner football. There were few opportunities for kids then to experience different things."
But the Scouting program also has been a source of controversy.
Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the Scouts' ban on gay leaders. That national policy was denounced as discriminatory by many mainland groups.
Sakai said, however, he's "thankful that for the time being it has not affected recruiting or fund raising here."
There is no accurate record of the number of boys who achieve Scouting's highest rank -- Eagle Scout -- in Hawaii, although Sakai estimated that Hawaii seems to keep up with mainland units.
"About only three of every 100 boys who join ever become an Eagle Scout," he added. "In Hawaii, that averages to about 180 a year."
But it's the volunteers and parents who are responsible for Hawaii's successful program.
Francis Mau, volunteer scoutmaster for Troop 42, said without the help of parents and assistant leaders "the work couldn't be done."
After his son achieved the Eagle rank and left for college in 1989, Mau stayed on as Scoutmaster "because of the joy of working with scouts who are committed and who want to improve their skills and become Eagle Scouts."
One of his most memorable moments is taking nearly four dozen Scouts on a weeklong backpacking trip to Alaska in 1998. This year the troop plans to sail on the three-masted schooner "American Pride" out of Long Beach.
"It takes two years of planning, car washes, bake sales, Makahiki ticket sales and parking cars at Maryknoll during the Punahou carnival to fund these trips," said Mau, a 14-year Scouting volunteer.
But the fund-raising efforts have paid off since all his troop's summer trips to neighbor island places like Waimea Canyon, Kilauea Crater and the Big Island's Waipio-Waimano Valley are covered.
Three stately 75-year-old monkeypod trees provide a canopy over the island's newest Scouting headquarters in Nuuanu. New headquarters
for Scout activitiesPatterned after an "outdoor lodge" to represent Scouting's emphasis on nature, the two-building complex cost more than $3 million and replaced an aging plantation-style home built in 1917.
"We worked very hard to blend into the community," said Scouting executive Al Sakai, noting that officials always were cognizant of the fact that they are a business in a residential area.
The 700-square foot Presidents Hall, which is the first building visitors see when driving down Puiwa Road, was funded by Aloha Council's 12 living presidents, who came up with $650,000.
Sakai said the facility will hold meetings, training courses and workshops, and even features a wood-burning fireplace that could be used during ceremonies and presentations.
A porte-cochere connects the Presidents Hall to the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Center -- named after the couple whose foundation donated $900,000 to the rebuilding effort.
The two-story, 10,000-square foot Weinberg Center features a Scout shop and offices for Aloha Council staff on the first floor. The second level houses administrative offices.
The Aloha Council -- which manages the Scouting program for 27,000 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturers on Oahu, Hawaii, Kauai, Hawaii, Guam, Marshall Islands, the Marianas, American Samoa, Saipan and Kwajalein -- has owned the one-acre Nuuanu parcel since 1963.
The other Boy Scout Council in the state is located on Maui, whose jurisdiction includes Lanai and Molokai. There are about 1,500 in Maui's separate program.
Gregg K. Kakesako, Star-Bulletin