National Boy Scout Organization Tells Overweight Volunteers To Lose It Or Lose Right To Go On Some Outings

Thursday, May 7, 2009
Linda Young - AHN Editor Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Overweight Boy Scout volunteers are being dinged with a new mandatory weight rule that will exclude them from participating in Scout activities beginning next January.
The new rule is part of a push by the national organization to make sure that scouts and volunteers are healthy.
But by rights, if scouts and volunteers had been following the Scout Oath all along weight wouldn't be an issue now.
The Boy Scout Oath states: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."
It's that "keep myself physically strong part" that would have helped to avert the problem some scout volunteers are now facing.
Because unless they make weight listed in the Boy Scout's new medical form, they can't participate in some scout outings. However, some local agencies around the country reportedly say they want fathers of any size to participate in their son's scouting activities.
Although it sounds mean, the national organization has valid reasons for the new requirements, especially for activities where an emergency evacuation would be more than 30-minutes by ground transportation.
The good news is, overweight the scout volunteers have until January to lose the weight.
Maybe they can get TV series The Biggest Loser to use a group of overweight Boy Scout volunteers for the next show. At the very least, overweight volunteers might consider joining a gym and buying a weight loss book. That would also set a good example for the sons of the overweight volunteers.