The Boy Scouts of America Troop 120 has a long history of serving its community. Chartered on April 1, 1965, at St Pius X Catholic Church, the troop has had 53 Eagle Scouts in their 53 years.
Scouts and adult leaders enjoy activities such as camping, rock-climbing and rappelling, canoeing, target-shooting. But more than fitness training, this year-round program is designed to offer and encourage effective character, citizenship and many other useful skills for boys age 11-17.
“Part of Scouts is service to community,” said Scout Leader Rob Nash. “We talk about citizenship and their rights and duties as citizens.”
A small piece of that, Nash said, is Troop 120’s yearly service to the Daviess County Clerk’s Office on election night. For the last 12 years, the troop has been helping the clerk’s office carry equipment and materials into the office, which are delivered from the 85 polling locations across Daviess County. Boy Scouts are actually tasked with running precinct voting data to the election command center to be totaled on election night.
Evan Harvilla, 15, is the senior Scout patrol leader. Harvilla has been in scouts since the second grade and has helped on election night the last few years. Harvilla can count the hours served at the courthouse Tuesday night toward obtaining his “citizenship of the nation” service badge.
“It is neat to see the goings on of the election process,” Harvilla said.
Other opportunities that help earn the citizenship of the nation badge include learning about the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution and visiting the federal building on Frederica Street.
According to Nash, the lessons learned in Scouts are invaluable to the 17 boys in the troop this year, but that is especially true of their volunteer work on election night.
“It is important to show these boys what being a leader in the community looks like,” Nash said.
