Neither rain, cold nor wind deters Boy Scouts

Preparation is part of the Boy Scout creed.

It resounds in two simple words.

And as a stiff spring wind whipped the many flags on display Saturday at the Inland Empire’s annual Scout-O-Rama at the Cabela’s parking lot at Stateline, Taylor Izzard knew, inherently, what it meant to be prepared.

The Lake City high schooler wore a German Army field jacket that stopped the wind and covered the Troop 201 shoulder patch on his tan-colored Boy Scout field shirt as he recited to interested visitors the history of the United States’ 33-star flag.

“This flag became the official United States flag on July 4th, 1859,” Izzard said as fellow Coeur d’Alene troop member Xander Clark held one end of the flag that hung from a lashed pine pole, to keep it from shaking in the wind.

A star was later added to the flag when Oregon became a state, Izzard said. By law, stars are added on the Fourth of July.

Two U.S. presidents, Buchanan and Lincoln, served under the flag, Izzard explained.

“It was the flag flying at Fort Sumter at the start of the Civil War,” he said as gusts of wind dispersed his words across a parking lot busy with visitors and Scouts from troops in Idaho and Washington.

Izzard and Clark were in charge of a U.S. flag display that included many of the country’s 26 versions of the Red, White and Blue.

The exhibit was one of dozens showcased at the annual Scout gathering where flags including the Stars and Stripes, the Boy Scouts of America flag and a plethora of unit guidons speckled the broad parking lot, fluttering and flapping under a gray sky that threatened rain.

Karen Meier, a Spokane native and the CEO of the Inland Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America, said the weather is pretty much the same every spring during the council.

It’s often windy, sometimes rainy, and sometimes the sun shines, but who knows what the next 10 minutes will bring.

The show goes on rain or shine, and no one complains.

“You won’t hear a Scout ask, ‘will it be canceled if it rains,’” Meier said.”Whether it’s raining or shining, they can showcase their skills.”

Meier, who is the wife of an Army Ranger and a helicopter pilot, and whose son — a former Eagle Scout — is an Army captain attached to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, is just as versed in the Boy Scouts creed as the many youngsters — girls and boys — attending the jubilee.

She wore long johns Saturday.

“I came prepared,” she said.

The Scouts are undergoing a transformation. For the first time in the program’s 100-year history girls were allowed into the BSA last year. In addition, one of the biggest national supporters of the BSA, the LDS church, will transition away from the organization as it looks to steer its young people into more church-focused activities.

A new activity program for children and youth will “replace all existing activity programs for girls and boys, young women and young men beginning in January 2020,” according to a statement on the LDS website.

The move could cut Scout membership almost in half, Meier said, but it won’t be detrimental. Many LDS families will keep their kids in Scouts, and along with the addition of girls who want to belong to the more outdoor-oriented BSA, the organization will continue to grow and thrive.

“Our mission is to prepare young people,” Meier said. “There isn’t a gender attached.”

The popularity of Scouting was on display Saturday as the Inland Council expected as many as 1,000 people, visitors and participants, to attend the one-day gathering that included a zip line, outdoor cooking displays, a catapult, jousting events, knot tying and lashing, a Civil War re-enactment and dozens of other exhibits and activities.

Along the far edge of the parking lot a group of Scouts watched over a split pine fire as old flags, neatly folded, were stacked nearby.

One of the organization’s jobs, Meier said, has been to retire flags, and the Scouts do it with the dignity and the respect required of the task. As the wind huffed and flames danced, Daniel Dolan, a Lakes Middle School student, lifted a bugle to his lips and played “Taps,” in a pointed and somber soliloquy.

As Troop 201’s official bugler, Dolan, who plays trumpet in his school band, has embraced his role as troop musician.

“I like it,” the 13-year-old said. “I am the troop’s first bugler who actually plays the bugle.”

In the past, others have signed up for the job, but didn’t follow through, he said. And besides, he has a knack for it.

As Dolan concluded the call, he tucked the shiny horn smartly under his arm, while fellow Scouts recited a poem before lowering a worn Old Glory into the fire.

“She has flown proudly over the years and has done her job well,” one of the boys recited as the wind heaved and sighed around him. “But now she must be replaced with a new flag to properly represent this great nation of ours …”