As the Boy Scouts of America gears up for its 100th anniversary, the organization is looking to inject new meaning into the "Be Prepared" motto.
Pocket knife?
First aid kit?
iPhone?
On Saturday, 6,500 current and former Boy Scouts from all over California gathered in Sacramento to celebrate the organization's centennial.
Boys and men of all ages, most wearing the iconic browns and khakis, marched from Raley Field to the state Capitol and back again.
The focus was not on celebrating the rich history of the country's largest youth organization, but on looking to the future.
"I just took your photo with my iPhone, so your photo is already up on YouTube and Facebook," Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca told the crowd at Raley Field. "We're going to seize the day and capture the next 100 years."
Scout membership has declined in recent years to about half of its 1972 high of 6.5 million.
In an increasingly diverse and wired country, Mazzuca, the national leader for two years, is trying to keep the organization relevant.
"Our competition is huge with all this electronic connection," said Mazzuca, a onetime Sacramento resident. "We have to recognize how kids live today and incorporate that."
He took out his iPhone and scrolled to the Boy Scouts app, an electronic version of the 12th edition Scout Handbook, which itself is decidedly more high-tech. His Boy Scout khaki shirt has a iPod holder on its sleeve.
To draw Latinos, the Boy Scouts launched a Spanish advertising campaign this month. A Spanish version of the handbook will debut in December.
Despite its new bells and whistles, Mazzuka said, the organization remains fundamentally the same: Teaching survival skills and building character.
It's the same skills that 97-year-old Sacramento resident Kenneth Skoonberg learned as a Scout in the 1920s.
"The training I received in Boy Scouts helped me immensely," said Skoonberg, the 27th Eagle Scout in the United States. "It helped me when I was a spy in Europe in World War II."
Mazzuka thinks these activities are even more important now that video games are replacing neighborhood games of "steal the bacon."
"It's so easy for a young person to be disconnected from physical activity," he said.
Ten-year-old Gary Gomes from Tehachapi, east of Bakersfield, was sitting in the stands with two troop friends. They played with his iPhone, which Gomes got as a reward for straight A's. He joined the Scouts for fun, he said.
"I've learned how to start a fire with a nine-volt battery," he said. "And I can't do that with my iPhone."
Call The Bee's Anna Tong, (916) 321-1045.
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