Boy Scouts in the area participated in an eight decade tradition of visiting local businesses in the area as part of the Honest Abe Citizenship Day yesterday. Troop 115 Scout Gage Homan of Waverly says the day allows scouts to see how their community works and to possibly get involved with future careers and jobs that they have interest in. He says it’s also a great way to experience local and area jobs hands on and see the people in the community who do the work each day.
Homan appreciated and was surprised to see all the work that goes on behind the scenes every day at WLDS/WEAI studios.
The Citizenship Day allows for area scouts to be excused from school for the day. Scouts gathered at Hamilton’s yesterday morning at 11AM for ceremonies, a meal, and heard from several guest speakers. The keynote speaker was Illinois Department of AMVETS Executive Director Keith Wetherell. After the meal, scouts dispersed to several local businesses to see operations. Over a dozen would reunite at the Jacksonville City Council meeting at 6:30PM to run the meeting with help from city council members.
Homan said that its opportunities like these through the Boy Scouts that he looks forward to having. He says that the Boy Scouts provide opportunities that many would otherwise miss out on. “Last year, Troop 115 went to Yellowstone National Park. We got to stay at several places on the way, including the Grand Tetons and a few other areas. We were able to raise the money to go ourselves. We were able to get really close to wildlife on the trip. We got to see geysers and I got video of Old Faithful going off. Suprisingly, while we were there, Vice President Mike Pence was visiting.” Homan said that the scouts provide a lot more opportunities than just camping trips, too.
The Citizenship Day is designed to help the scouts discover local job opportunities and careers, and to better understand as well as serve their local community.