Figure 1.--As I was too young to join the Scouts father was organizing , I complained. To meet my needs my oldest sister, who is 10 years older then me organized a Cub-pack and served as Akela. Here I am about 1942 at age 7 in my brand new Cub uniform.

I am very intrigued over the wonderful HBU section on the Boy Scouts. I was active in the Scouts from my early youth on in Switzerland and then became a member of the professional service of the American BSA, where I spent 27 years, before taking on the position of Director of the World Scout Foundation in Geneve Switzerland. Now retired from the Scouts I am still active in Fundraising for a local Hospital. Enclosed you find a picture of me as a "fresh baked" Cub Scout at the age of 7 years in Switzerland. As you can see I wore the long stockings, which were common at that time. The were held up by a waist. As we grew up in the mountains, we wore them all winter long and well into the spring. During son-time we wore long knickers-type ski pants which were held together at the ankles. Once it was a bit less cold it was tradition to wear short pants and stockings. As we grew older these stockings were replaced with either woolen hand knit tights or commercially bought tights.

Father

Scouting was very much a family experience in my youth, due to the fact that my father was the guiding light in this matter. Scouting did not exist, when he was a boy. He was born in 1894. My father used to be a Free Mason and therefore was familiar with the priciples for which scouting stood. Baden Powell did not reinvent the wheel, but "borrowed" a lot from the Masons as well as America youth group leader, Ernest Thompson Seaton. My father was interested in finding a meaningful activity for my two older brothers. When he was told that if he wanted his two sons to be in Scouting, that he had to organize a troop, so he did. Father not only introduced Scouting to our whole family, but to local boys as well. When my two older brothers became of Scouting-age, my father wanted them to join the Scouts. There was at the time, however, no Scouting organization in Montana. Father wrote to the Scout headquartes of Switzerland and the reply was, that if he wanted to have his sons join Scouting, that he had to organize a Scout troop himself. So, that is what my father did. Father was also the founder of Scouting for the handicapped in Switzerland and therefore we spent a lot of time in camps for handicapped scouts.

Our Troop

Montana was a very small village. As there were not sufficient boys who had an interest in Scouting in Montana, father organized a troop with boys from Montana and the nearby town of Sierre, which is the town below Montana in the Rhone valley. Sierre is the town where one had to get off the train to go up to Montana. This created a problem for the boys who came from far away. To resolve that problem, the meetings were held every Saturday afternoon. The boys from Montana hiked half way down to the valley and the boys from Sierre hiked half way up the mountain. There was an ideal place to hold the troop meetings, which were always held in the outdoors.

Cubbing

As I was too young to join the Scouts like my older brothers, I complained. And to meet my needs my oldest sister, who is 10 years older, organized a Cub-pack. This way I was able to join the Cub scouts which we called the Wolf Cubs then. We also met on Saturday afternoons at the same place as the Boy Scouts. Enclosed you find a picture of me as a "fresh baked" Cub Scout at the age of 7 years in Switzerland (figure 1). The Cub Scouts were organized around the theme of Rudiard Kippling's book the Jungle Bbook. We were called Cubs-Wolves. The leader was Akela, the teacher was the bear Baloo. Every animal in the jungle-book had a speical meaning in Cub Scouting and it's structure. Cubing was very much a fantasy world and what we learned od did was generally wrapped around a story. We had Summer-camps, but not in tents but in chalets which generally had group-sleeping quarters. The Cub-scouts did not cook their own meals. Usually we had a few mothers with us who took charge of the kitchen. We Cubs had to peel potatoes, was dishes etc. The Activities at camp where again wrapped into a story and thes theme could go on for the duration of the camp. Naturally during Summer camp we did a lot of hiking and swimming etc. But everything was geared towards the yougher boy and we had a higher ration of leaders to boys then in the Boys Scouts. There were no patrol-leaders, therefore no peer-leadership. That was reserved for the Boy Scouts.

Gang Show

In wintertime we met in local church-halls and prepared for a "gang-show" like event. This was always the highlight where we presented our best.

Summer Camp

During the Summer our Scout troop always held a 2-week long Summer camp somewhere on one of the Alpine meadows. This terminated always with a 2 or 3-day long hike over the Alps. Summer camp for Swiss Scouts was a process that generally started in the Spring. I have some photographs of the first Scout Summer camp my father organized for the Scouts from Montana and Sierre. It was not far away, as it was in 1941, just above Montana on one of the Alpine meadows. The pictures show, how primitive the instalations were, as eveything had to be built by the scouts. I was too young to join in the camp, but I heard all the stories about it from my brothers and couldn't wait until I could join in the adventure.

Scouting for the Handicapped

About, when I became of Scout-age, my father decided to organize Scouting for the handicapped. As he was physician and worked very much with long-term patients he wanted to provide the Scouting Program to the Handicapped. That is why he organized Scouting for the Handficapped.Most handicapped at that time lived somewhere in an institutional setting. Scout-units were organized at these institutions. My father provided them on a monthly basis with program-helps for activities tailor-made for their handicaps. The highlight was always during the Summer months when my father organized regional Summer camps for the Handicapped which our whole family attended and where we functioned as helpers to the handicapped. These Camps provided me with a life-long affinity for the handicapped. We did not just have those regional camps, but we also had large delegations at the National Jamboree in 1948 near Lugano and then at the World jamboree in 1951 in Austria. Again, our whole family was involved in some way in assisting at these Camps.

Swiss National Jamboree (1948)

The Swiss National Jamboree was held at Trevano, near Lugano in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. It was the third?? national Jaboree held in Switzerland. It was a very exciting time for me. I was 12 years old and had just moved up from the Cubs to the Scouts. Until then my experiences had been with very small groups. It was almost overwealming to be involved in such a major Scout activity.

World Jamboree (Austria, 1951)

The World jamboree in Austria was my first trip into a foreign country. The whole Swiss-delegation had organized a special train from Switzerland to the destination in Austria. For the Handicapped Scouts we had a luggage car, where we had put down cots and beds so that the more severely handicapped were comfortable for the long trip. For many of these handicapped scouts this was their first time away from their institutional setting. One of our priorities was to make these Scouts more independent. Many of them learned how to walk without any assistance from an other person, or learned how to cook a meal, or wash them selves without assistance. I developed many, long lasting friendships with some of these scouts. My father became the national head for Scouting for the handicapped and was a member of the Swiss National Leadership team.

Bording School Troop

While I was at boarding school I was active in the Scout-troop at the school. We too had many activities and many weekend-camping trips. The one thing we did not do, we did not organize a summer camp, as all the members of the school understandably wanted to remain at home during the summer.

Uniform

As you can see in my Cub phtograph, I wore my uniform with long stockings, which were common at that time. They were held up by a waist. As we grew up in the mountains, we wore them all winter long and well into the spring. During son-time we wore long knickers-type ski pants which were held together at the ankles. Once it was a bit less cold it was tradition to wear short pants and stockings. As we grew older these stockings were replaced with either woolen hand knit tights or commercially bought tights.

Adult Scouter

Once I left the boarding-school I went to Basel Switzerland to pursue my studies in Business administration. There the long arm of Scouting found me and I became a Cub master to a local Cub scout Pack. Once I ended my studies I went to England, became involved in Scouting over there, especially in the International Scout club. This Scout club was made up of Scouters form around the world and from England. We had regular meetings and reunions and offered our services at the reception of the Baden Powell House in London and at Gilwell Park, the international Training Center near London. Upon my arrival in the United States I became Scoutmaster of a Scout troop in the center of New York City. Le me tell you that from Montana to New York was quite atransition. We took a lot of advantage of the great trails around New York and became a well know troop with great expertise in survival living. After a few years I was invited to join the professional services of the Boy Scouts of America, where I moved up the ranks until I retired 27 years later, to assume the position of Director of the World Scout Foundation, in Geneva, Switzerland. This way I ended my Scouting experience in the Country I started it. It was a life-long, very positive experience and also helped my two children in becoming young people, with a very international outlook and positive attitudes, reflecting the principles of Scouting.

Sources

Voute, Tom. E-mail message, May 13-23, 2006.