February is Scout anniversary month and this year Scouting celebrates its 98th year in America. Like the Energizer Bunny Scouting keeps going and going and going. And it does so because the principles upon which it was founded have never changed. Scouting's fundamental purpose of building character, citizenship and mental and moral fitness in youth continue to be traits that are valued and sought after by parents and families.

Family values are in this year, ethics the next. An important part of Scouting's 98-year success story is that it has consistently presented these qualities as an integral part of its program for youth.

Scouting's energy comes from - parents, volunteer leaders and the community, all of whom see Scouting's important role in shaping the lives of our young people.

This month we remember five visionaries who brought Scouting to the world.

• As a youth, Scoutings founder, Robert Baden-Powell greatly enjoyed the outdoors. After returning as a military hero from service in Africa, Baden-Powell discovered that English boys were reading the manual on stalking and survival in the wilderness he had written for his military regiment. Gathering ideas from Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and others, he rewrote the manual as a nonmilitary nature skill book and called it Scouting for Boys. To test his ideas, Baden-Powell brought together 22 boys to camp at Brownsea Island, off the coast of England. This historic campout resulted in the advent of Scouting.

• Born in Scotland, Earnest Thompson Seton immigrated to America as a youth in the 1880s. His fascination with the wilderness led him to become a naturalist, an artist, and an author. Seton established a youth organization called the Woodcraft Indians, and his background of outdoor skills and interest in youth made him a logical choice for the position of first Chief Scout of the BSA in 1910. His many volumes of Scoutcraft became an integral part of Scouting.

• Woodsman, illustrator and naturalist, Daniel Carter Beard was a pioneering spirit of the Boy Scouts of America. Already 60 years old when the Boy Scouts of America was formed, he became a founder and merged it with his own boys' organization, the Sons of Daniel Boone. “Uncle Dan,” as he was know to boys and leaders, will be remembered as a colorful figure dressed in buckskin who helped form Scouting in the United States.

• In 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce lost his way in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a Good Turn. This gesture by an unknown Scout inspired a meeting with Robert Baden-Powell, the British founder of the Boy Scouts. As a result, William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910.

• James E. West was appointed the first chief Scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America in 1911. Although orphaned and physically handicapped, he had the perseverance to graduate from law school and become a successful attorney. This same determination provided the impetus to help build Scouting into the largest, most effective youth organization in the world.

Don Grillo is the Scout Executive for the Cayuga County Council, Boy Scouts of America located at 7235 Mutton Hill Road in Auburn.