Being prepared: Scouts training helped save lives during tornado

There are lots of reasons to enroll your child in Boy Scouts — or Girl Scouts for that matter.

They learn responsibility, self-confidence and how to camp.

But this week, a group of Iowa Scouts used their training for something even more important. They saved lives.

When a tornado hit their camp, the boys used their survival and first aid skills to protect the younger children and to assist those who were injured.

Four people died in the tragedy, but many more could have if these young men had not had the training they did.

The lesson is not to enroll your children in Scouts — although that is not such a bad idea if the program really does create such mature and level-headed youngsters.

The message is that it never hurts to go over with your children — and yourself — how to handle yourself in an emergency. From basic first aid skills to how to deal with a weather emergency, learning these basic safety rules is critical for a child who is old enough to learn them — especially if he or she will be responsible for babysitting.

Being prepared saved the Iowa Scouts. It’s an example we should follow in our own homes without delay.

Published in Editorials on June 12, 2008 10:34 AM