Dallas, Texas, December 13, 2002—In February 2003, the Boy Scouts of America will join with religious and community organizations in a national effort to serve more youth with Scouting's character-building programs.

The campaign, entitled "Character Connections—Reaching Youth With Scouting," will run from January 1 through June 30, 2003. It will be supported by a national videoconference on February 5 co-hosted by the BSA's national president, Roy S. Roberts; national commissioner, Rick Cronk; and Chief Scout Executive, Roy L. Williams. The videoconference, which will be broadcast to local BSA venues across the country, will include commentaries, testimonials, and a special message from President George W. Bush.

The campaign is directed at religious and community organizations that share an interest with the BSA in serving youth. It will emphasize the positive impact these organizations can have on their communities and neighborhoods through cooperative efforts with Scouting.

"The Boy Scouts of America has been supporting youth and families for more than 92 years," Roberts says. "By instilling character in youth, we're strengthening families as well as neighborhoods and communities."

According to Chief Scout Executive Williams, community organizations are the place to cultivate Scouting because those organizations know the importance of character based programs.

"In order to recruit youth into the program, you have to have Scout units for them to join," Williams says. "Our goal with Character Connections is to show religious and community organizations how Scouting can benefit them and encourage those organizations to adopt the Scouting program for their families.

"If they already have Scouting units, we want to encourage them to build on what they're doing and take full advantage of all the programs Scouting offers," Williams says.

Organizations interested in Scouting should contact the nearest Boy Scouts of America office listed in the white pages of their local telephone directory, or visit Scouting on the Web at old.scouting.org.

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