Former Boy Scout Jim Quinn recalls getting back into scouting to help out his grandson.

“My grandson is a Cub Scout, and one year his leader canceled the first three meetings, so I went to the Cub master and said, ‘This is not going to work,’” Quinn said. “I told him, ‘I’ll lead the first three meetings.’”

Those three meetings led to four years of volunteering in various ways for the Boy Scouts.

“I like the mission and goals of the organization,” said Quinn, who does communications work for the Boy Scouts’ Neosho District. “It’s a character-building organization for boys, and it teaches them things they don’t get in school. It reinforces the family, as well as duty to God, country and others.”

Quinn and his wife, Donna Quinn, have volunteered in various way for the Boy Scouts. He said he leads a Webelos troop for boys transitioning from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts while Donna is a Cub Scout den leader.

“But some volunteers don’t want to work directly with boys every week, so they do things in the background, on committees,” Jim Quinn said. “Just like any organization, we use the talents of anyone interested in helping us.”

Neosho District Director Richard Goforth said many volunteers are boys’ parents.

“We ask for volunteers at our rallies,” he said.

Neosho District volunteers are visiting schools in the five-county area recruiting members, he said.

Volunteers do not have to be parents or grandparents of boys, he said.

Goforth said prospective volunteers go through background checks.

Anna Barcellos of Fort Gibson said she has volunteered for Boy Scouts for 23 years. She currently is commissioner of the Neosho District.

“I started out working with my son, and now it’s my grandson,” she said. “More than anything, it’s the wonderful people you associate with. They become your friends.”

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