Chris Grove, 2013 National Scout Jamboree vice chairman for Trek and Day of Service, is proud to announce that twenty deserving youth Arrowmen will receive scholarships to help alleviate their fees to serve on staff at Jamboree. The scholarships of $250 each have been funded by the "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt Trust.
"We are very proud of the fine youth members of the Order chosen to receive these scholarships," said Grove. "The selection committee received 45 strong applications and the 20 recipients represent a cross-section of the country's most dedicated Arrowmen."
Those chosen include 14 Eagle Scouts, five Life Scouts and a Star Scout. Nine recipients are Vigil Honor members, 11 are Brotherhood members, and one is an Ordeal member.
These Arrowmen are active leaders: fifteen have been lodge officers, including three lodge chiefs. Nine recipients have attended a national OA training or service program, and four have served as section officers. They represent all parts of America, including two from Northeast Region, nine from Southern Region, four from Central Region and five from Western Region.
The "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt Trust is the literary and financial executor of the estate of William Hillcourt (1900-1992), one of the world's most widely known and respected Scouters and a member of the BSA national staff from 1926 to 1965. A Scout since 1910, Bill was a protégé of Lord Baden-Powell and Scouting's most prolific author, having written hundreds of articles for Boys' Life and Scouting magazines, three editions of the Boy Scout Handbook, the first editions of the Handbook for Patrol Leaders and Scout Field Book, and the best-selling biography of Scouting's founder, Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero. He was America's first Wood Badge Scoutmaster, and spent his retirement years traveling the globe training leaders, for which he was called "Scoutmaster to the World." His work was recognized with the Silver Buffalo and Bronze Wolf Awards. He was a Vigil Honor member of Unami Lodge.
Nelson Block, biographer of both Hillcourt and OA founder E. Urner Goodman, explained, "Hillcourt worked for Urner during his tenure as BSA national director of program, from 1931 to 1951. They were close friends, and it is most appropriate that their legacies jointly continue to shape young men into leaders."