Planting of National Council 100th
Anniversary Tree.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The ceremonial shovels and the 100th Anniversary Plaque.
At the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters in Irving,
Texas the ceremonial planting of the BSA National Council 100th
Anniversary Chitalpa Tree was under way.
Speakers and dignitaries included
Robert L. Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive of BSA; Randall Stephenson,
Chairman and CEO of AT&T and Chair man of the 100th Anniversary
Celebration; and John Rosenow, CEO of the Arbor Day Foundation. The
Arbor Day Foundation donated the tree and planting expertise for the
the celebration.
The BSA Centennial Tree ready for planting. The Chitalpa is designated as the tree of choice by the Arbor Day Foundation and BSA.
"The theme for the event was to honor
the Generations Connections program of BSA where multiple
generations within families are active in scouting. To exemplify
this program, the McNabb family of Irving, TX and Circle Ten Council
Troop 175 were present having four family generations currently active in
scouting.
The essence of the ceremony was
captured and embodied in Mr. Pete McNabb's emotional speech. Pete
detailed the basis for scouting, for family, for the love of nature and
the love of God all from the heart that touched everyone present.
The warmth of that early November Texas day took second stage to
that of his speech.
Pete McNabb.
After all words were spoken the crowd moved over to the planting
site where each of the three speakers threw the ceremonial mound of
dirt into the planting to symbolize their commitment to the
program and to scouting.
Afterward scouts from the Circle Ten Council and a few cub scouts
(who had the day off from school for 
the celebration)
had their chance to throw dirt. As you can see it took a couple of
them to just get the shovel in to our illustrious blackland soil.
Color Guard was from the Circle Ten Council, Troop 508.
The Arbor Day Foundation chose the appropriate multi-trunk
Chitalpa as the tree for the multi-generational program. As the tree
branches out to provide new growth, so does the Generations
Connection Program in Scouting.
For additional information about this celebration and scouting,
visit this
BSA Link.
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