Building tomorrow’s leaders through Scouting

If you’re looking for a Popcorn Colonel or a Cookie Mom, a registrar or a varsity coach, a scoutmaster or a committee chair, Kimberly-Clark has them – lots of them – and many more volunteers in still more positions with Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops across the U.S.

Kimberly-Clark employee Scott Valitchka and his wife Jan Smith conduct a patient assessment on their “victim” as part of a wilderness first aid course for leaders who support the Bay-Lakes Council’s Venturing high adventure program in Northeastern Wisconsin.

And it is no small task. All of the employees who contributed to this story logged at least 30 hours of service to Scouting last year. The average amount of volunteer time was 148 hours. Two K-C employees, Mike Venturino, a research and engineering technical leader in Neenah, Wisconsin, and Steve Poplin in technical services at the Kimberly-Clark mill in Lexington, North Carolina, each spent more than 800 hours last year volunteering their time with Boy Scouts.

Mike and Steve are two of more than 70 K-C employees across the U.S. who spend a lot of their personal time serving as volunteer Scout leaders in their communities. They serve as Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmasters in Boy Scout troops. Several more serve Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops as merit badge counselors, den leaders, summer camp leaders, service unit managers, troop leaders, scoutmasters, venture crew leaders, service unit registrars, trip chaperones, committee members and more.

Dewey Brown, a co-worker of Charlie Huff’s in LaGrange, Georgia, and Cubmaster with Cub Scout Pack 324, teaches two Scouts BB gun safety.

The K-C employees who contributed to this story volunteered more than 10,000 hours with their Scout troops in 2008. Combined, they have almost 500 years of service to these organizations. Bill Bacon, a mechanical engineer in Neenah, has been working with Boy Scout troops in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin for more than 20 years. He is currently Scoutmaster for Troop 180 in Neenah. When asked how many hours he volunteered last year, Bill replied, “I lost count at 150. Can I count hours that I slept in the woods or only when I was awake?”

For Venturino, the most rewarding aspect of volunteering is seeing boys mature into responsible young men. “Last year I was so proud as in two separate instances two of my scouts were directly responsible for saving someone’s life,” he says.

As would be expected, many of these leaders were drawn to be Scout volunteers by their children who were involved in Girl and Boy Scout troops. But not all. Bill Bacon was recruited by his church to help out with troops they sponsored. Karyn Schroeder, a research scientist in Neenah who spent more than 500 hours last year in her role as leader of Girl Scout Troop 2128, joined the Girl Scout movement to fill a void.

“I moved to this area and did not know anyone,” Schroeder says. “I thought I could help out with the Girl Scouts since I was a Girl Scout and now I am an engineer, so I thought that maybe a troop would need help with a badge on computers. Instead, the office called me back and asked me to be a leader for a fourth and fifth grade troop that had no leader. I felt badly that some girls would have no leader, so at the age of 22 with no kids of my own, I took on this troop. I have been with them since then. They are now juniors and seniors in high school.”

For some, Scouting has become a family legacy.

“My son joined Troop 3 in 1982,” says Charlie Huff, a maintenance associate at the Kimberly-Clark mill in LaGrange, Georgia. “I took him to the meetings every Tuesday night, and within a month or so I was involved also. My grandson joined Troop 3 in 2005. My son made Eagle Scout rank in 1987, and his son should make Eagle this year. I will say spending time in Scouts has been some of the best times of my life.”

Regardless of how they came to be Scouting volunteers or how many hours they put in, these Kimberly-Clark volunteers all have one thing in common: they agree that their work in Scouting has been a positive experience.

“My involvement with Girl Scouts has been terrific,” says Jennifer Plamann, a Consumer Services Team Leader in Neenah and leader of Brownie Girl Scout Troop 2434. “Not only do I get to see the positive impact scouting has on the girls, but I get to feel the pride and achievement of being part of that impact. While my troop has learned how to make pizza, take care of animals, and make healthy food choices, we have also participated in various service projects: collecting cans and newspapers for Saving Paws (a local no-kill animal shelter), ringing bells to benefit the Salvation Army, and frosting cookies and Christmas caroling with the residents at Century Oaks (a local assisted living facility). The young girls in my troop (all second-graders) are already learning the importance of giving back to the community.”

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