Love Small Town America

It probably wasn't planned that the pull-down screen was centered above Fort Hays State University's slogan, "Forward thinking. World ready."

Nonetheless, it fit in perfectly with Thursday's breakfast celebrating 100 years of Boy Scouting in America.

More than 100 people attended the free breakfast, compliments of sponsors VSR Financial and Lifetime Dental, in commemoration of the scouts' centennial year.

The pull-down screen in the Ballroom of the Memorial Union was used for a couple of presentations, including one that took the audience through the past 10 decades of Boy Scouts, from its start in 1910 to the technology age -- "forward thinking, world ready," if you will -- of today.

To keep up with the times, the Boy Scouts of America National Council has shown its forward thinking with the addition of programs that involve all-terrain vehicles and scuba diving, which the Wheatland District of the Coronado Area Council has started on the FHSU campus.

The breakfast event, hosted by the Wheatland District, was one of many activities planned this year to celebrate the centennial year of scouting, which began in 1910.

The centennial celebration's motto is "Celebrating the Adventure, Continuing the Journey."

Those in attendance were treated to a presentation by northwest Kansas native and outdoor enthusiast Skip Yowell.

Yowell, co-founder of JanSport backpacks and outdoor gear, showed a documentary of his adventurous life that includes climbing Mount Everest in 1984.

Yowell, a 1964 graduate of Great Bend High School and an Eagle Scout, now lives in Seattle but owns a home in St. Peter in Graham County and returns there occasionally throughout the year.

The audience included numerous Eagles scouts and others who are working on completing their Eagle requirements.

One of those was Matt Stuchlik, Wheatland District executive who organized the event and was pleased with the turnout.

"You paint a picture in your head of what you're looking for, and this was a great event," Stuchlik said. "We had a great number of scouts in uniform and business people who support scouting, and we all got to see a great program."

Hays Mayor Ron Mellick, a Boy Scout himself while growing up, read a proclamation from the city of Hays in celebration of the scouts' 100th anniversary

Stacy Huff, scout executive from the Coronado Area Council, talked about what he deemed as the "highlight of the year."

A centennial celebration of more than 5,000 people is being planned in Salina's Oakdale-Kenwood Park Complex on the second weekend of October.

"We only get one chance to celebrate 100 years," Huff said. "We want to do it right."

Huff also congratulated Stuchlik and the Wheatland District, which increased its enrollment 14 percent during the past year. The Wheatland District serves six counties in northwest Kansas -- Ellis, Rooks, Russell, Osborne, Trego and Gove.

Three of the Eagle Scouts or those working on their Eagle badge who attended the breakfast were from Grainfield in Gove County, where Yowell lived in his early years.

Cas Schultz, a student at Colby Community College, and his younger brother, Dal Schultz, and Cody Williams, both seniors at Wheatland-Grinnell High School at Grainfield, all accompanied their mother, Ronna Schultz, assistant scoutmaster of their troop.

Troop 159 had the biggest representation of scouts, with 11 of its 14 total members present. The only scouts from Troop 159 who didn't leave Grainfield at about 5:30 a.m. to make the trip to Hays were the three Tiger Scouts, the youngest members in the Cub Scout ranks.

"Since Skip is from here, I thought it would be nice to go support him," said Alberta Williams, scoutmaster for Troop 159. "And I thought it would be great for the kids to hear him and see him in person."

Yowell, now vice president of Global Public Relations, said he is one of the biggest ambassadors for Kansas, and northwest Kansas, as well.

"(Kansas) laid a great foundation for me in my life," said Yowell, who admitted his passion for the outdoors is what got him started in his business.

Through JanSport, which featured the first tents with zippers and the first backpacks for children, Yowell has helped others, including Boy Scouts, enjoy the outdoors as well.

He travels the world giving motivational speeches and a few years ago published a book, "The Hippie Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder and Other Mountains."

"Skip has taken more people outside than anybody I know," Frank Huglemeyer, president and CEO of Outdoor Industry Association out of Boulder, Colo., said in the documentary. "He's the guy we ought to be listening to when everybody else is talking."

ANGLERS AIM FOR WEBSTER BASIN
By MIKE CORN
Feb. 26, 2010 - Hays Daily News

For want of an ever-so-soft-nibble, the temptation can be strong enough to make a man head out on what he had feared might be less-than-ideal ice conditions.

Indeed, the temptation of biting trout was simply too much for John Cooper, Grainfield, after watching the unmoving tip of his fishing pole.

So he ventured up the stilling basin at Webster, where four others were pulling trout after trout out of ice holes.

He was ready to try his hand.

Cooper, Grainfield, wasn't in much of a hurry. The weather was otherwise ideal, even if the fishing was slow.

"I've got all the time in the world," he said of his fishing technique. "I've been out here a couple hours."

A couple hours without a bite, however.

"I like to ice fish," he said. "but I don't know how thick it is."

A quick conversation with one of the four people already out on the ice resolved that uncertainty, letting him know the ice was plenty thick.

His words a few moments earlier became prophetic.

"I haven't caught a thing," he said. "I haven't even had a bite. I'm getting desperate."

Cooper said he ventures up from Grainfield to Webster as often as possible.

"Last week, the wind blew so hard," he said a week ago. "And no fish is worth that.

"I was wanting to come over Monday and Tuesday, but I didn't want to fight that wind."

So far this year, he's been up to Webster five times.

Not long ago, he said, he caught his "limit in just a couple hours."

Despite his love for fishing, and the urge to go home with a stringer full, it's all for him.

"I'm the only one in the house that eats fish anyway," he said.

Cooper said he frequently gives fish away to friends.

"I usually catch my limit," he said of his trout-fishing expeditions. "There are times when I get skunked, however. I think today is one of those days if I stay here."

And he said Webster is a nice place to fish, especially for trout.

"I've got a daughter up in Damar," he said. "We stop in and visit once in a while."