February 8^th marks the anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.

Fifty years ago I was a Boy Scout. I was in two different troops, actually, because my father was in the Air Force. Just after I earned First Class rank my family got transferred and I became a member of Troop 11, Wiesbaden Germany – part of BSA’s Transatlantic Council.

Now a Boy Scout Troop affiliated with the military experiences frequent leadership turnover. Not long after I joined Troop 11, we got a new Scoutmaster named Andy Ryan. Andy was one of those awesome combinations of Baden-Powell, Green Bar Bill and Norman Rockwell that is every Scout’s ideal Scoutmaster. It wasn’t long before we idolized him.

Andy saw enormous potential in the many opportunities and activities presented by the Fiftieth Anniversary of the BSA in 1960. So with the full support of an incredible Troop Committee, he saw to it that we did everything!

• We earned the Fiftieth Anniversary Achievement Award.
• We went to a District Camporee where we camped Jamboree style with other troops from all over Germany.
• We participated in a special Council Encampment at Camp Mohawk in England with troops from all over Europe.
• And to cap it all off, early in 1961 we planted a fifty-year time capsule.

This was no “coffee can buried in the woods” … but rather a sealed copper cube that was securely placed beneath a concrete monument dedicated to world Scouting. The inscription on the monument specifies that the time capsule was to be opened in 2010 in conjunction with the 100^th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

Over the past few years I’ve managed to locate several other alumni from Troop 11 and six of us were able to be in Wiesbaden on May 8, 2010 when the time capsule was opened as part of a special ceremony.

Now, what would motivate six guys to fly across the ocean to open a time capsule they planted as Boy Scouts fifty years ago? It’s not really about what’s inside the box. A press photo from the 1961 dedication shows the sorts of things that are in the time capsule: canteen, cook set, flags, handbooks, insignia, uniform parts. There were some surprises, certainly, but the trip was not about the stuff.

I think we all wanted to be there as a tribute to our late Scoutmaster, Andy Ryan and to the quality of the Scouting program he saw to it we experienced that year and every year he led our troop.

I was thinking about Andy a lot during the BSA 100^th Anniversary in 2010 and had this insight: The real time capsule is us! Andy was planting “time release capsules” that have opened up throughout the last fifty years as we each have served as volunteer leaders in our communities and in the Scouting movement.

So my challenge to you is this: as you work with the youth of your community, what kind of time capsules are you planting?