A 'wonderful partnership' heads into the future

American Legion posts have sponsored 50,000 Boy Scouts and provided 22,000 Scouting leaders this year. That, Boys Scouts of American National Commissioner Charles Dahlquist said, shows the strength of the longtime relationship between the two organizations.

“In 1919 when The American Legion was organized, at its first convention one of the very first items of business was to recognize the Boy Scouts of America and begin this wonderful partnership,” Dahlquist said while addressing the Legion’s national convention in Reno on Aug. 23. “You are making a great difference.”

Dahlquist said that “our lives are a series of windows. And because of what (The American Legion does) with the Boy Scouts of America, you are making windows for these young people that will impact their lives forever.”

Together, Dahlquist said, the Legion and the Boy Scouts are helping shape the future. “We are together, the Boy Scouts of America and The American Legion,” he said. “With your Four Pillars … and with our Scout Law, we’re building a rising generation who will be able to follow in your footsteps … and the footsteps of all of those who’ve gone before to keep this country free.”

Dahlquist also presented American Legion National Commander Charles Schmidt, who attended this year’s National Scouting Jamboree, with a walking stick. “Every leader, at least in Scouting, needs to have a walking stick,” Dahlquist told Schmidt.