100 years of Boys Scouts of America

100 Years of Boys Scouts of America Celebrated in Brno

July 9, 2010

The US scouts movement has overcome a lot of barriers during the past one hundred years of their existence  – cultural, national and social, and this year the Boy Scouts of America commemorates its 100 years of activity. Dating back more than 100 years, scouting has spread around the world and the American scouts are celebrating their centenial just this year.

For this occasion the Info USA at the Moravian Library in Brno organized a meeting of  people from the Czech Republic who remain in correspondence with American  scouts.  The documentary 759: Boy Scouts of Harlem, screened first in Prague and then in Brno, tells the story of overseas scouting at the beginning  of the 21st century throught the eyes  of  an 11 years old Boy Scout.  Many participants agreed that the present American scouting is quite different from that in Central Europe.

After the filn, the Czech Boy Scouts introduced their project, the Center for Ecological Education Kapraluv mlyn. The real estate for the Center was given to the scouts by relatives of Ales and Zdena Kapral, who are living in the US. In two years Kapraluv Mlyn will be the international scouting center for the next scouting century.

The movie night was also attended by scouts from the city of Olomouc – the 19th Unit in Velky Tynec. The city of Olomouc is a partner city to Owensboro, Kentucky.  To date, there have been three exchange scouting programs between these two cities.

The Czechs Scouts were pleased that Marie Matoulkova from the Moravian Library, who runs the Info USA in Brno, hosted the event. Mrs. Matoulkova noted that the writer, illustrator, and father of the woodcraft movement, Ernest Thompson Setona,  is celebrated in the Czech Republic as one of the men who hepled to found scouting in here. His work is probably not known in the United States.