Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972 Page: 24
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24
young people can help each
other reach for the real things. Fur-
ther, they have told us that young
people can and will reverse the pres-
sures they have put on each other to
experiment with drugs, and convert
these to pressures to take an open
stand against drug abuse. The young
people with whom we have talked
have agreed.
So Scouting's Operation Reach has
some goals. No pledge, just goals:
"REACH" for the real highs instead
of going for a poor substitute like
drugs.
"REACH" for real friends and stand
by them.
"REACH" for warm and open rela-
tions with my parents, other mem-
bers of my family, and friends.
"REACH" an understanding with my-
self by taking an open stand
against drugs.
"REACH" others by telling them
about Operation Reach.
We have printed these goals on
cards and provided pins that simply
say "Reach." Our hope is that our
members will take a stand against
drug abuse by wearing the pin. When
a friend asks "What's that?" we hope
the wearer will give him or her an
Operation Reach card and find the
right thing to say to that person. So
we hope the plan will reach far be-
yond our members.
We have conducted a pilot project
in four councils to test out the Oper-
ation Reach plan. It worked with
many young people, and their parents
and leaders felt it was a natural and
important thing for the Boy Scouts
of America to do.
HOW OPERATION REACH WILL
GET UNDER WAY
Key volunteer and professional
leaders of your council have recently
attended training sessions in your
region. These leaders have now com-
pleted plans for Operation Reach to
be undertaken in your council. Scout-
masters and senior patrol leaders will
be trained in a special session, Ex-
plorer Advisors and post presidents
in another. These training sessions
will be conducted early in 1972 at a
time to be announced by your coun-
cil. In the sessions Operation Reach
will be explained, and the training
session that units might conduct for
parents and members will be dem-
onstrated.
It will not be necessary for you to
become an expert on drugs and their
misuse. Operation Reach focuses
upon what is already important to you
and your members, and suggests
sharing your fortune.
If you are an Advisor or Scout-
master, you are giving freely the most
precious gifts that are yours to give—
your concern, your time, and your
energy. Your goal is to enrich the
lives of youth and to help them shape
n illtfci urn
their future. Operation Reach is not
just another project—an extra job—
it is a means of helping you accom-
plish your goal. At the same time you
will be lessening the drug abuse
problem. It deserves your best effort.
So you owe it to yourself and your
Explorers or Scouts to attend the
Operation Reach meeting and bring
the post president or senior patrol
leader with you, because you will not
wish to exclude your unit members
from the benefits they can derive.
As you approach the post elected
officers or troop leaders council,
there are two things to stress. First,
make sure they understand that Oper-
ation Reach is not just another drug
abuse education project. They have
probably had a great deal of that
already. It is a youth-to-youth action
project through which they can help
each other find the important things
for which they are all reaching.
Second, make sure they know Op-
eration Reach is not a rigid plan im-
posed upon them by adults. It must
be their plan. They must be involved
in its application from the beginning.
After you learn about Operation
Reach, we hope you and your mem-
bers will meet with parents to achieve
their understanding and cooperation.
Your Explorers and Scouts can do the
most to see that their parents attend.
It's vital that they do, because Oper-
ation Reach can help parents and
their sons and daughters to be more
open with each other.
All necessary materials for carrying
out Operation Reach will be furnished
without cost to your post or troop.
They will include cards and pins and
a guidebook to be read by your mem-
bers and their parents. An action plan
which will give complete details for
the meeting you conduct for mem-
bers and parents.
We have been told by people who
know much about the drug abuse
problem that Operation Reach is the
soundest drug abuse prevention plan
they have seen. We hope they are
right. We have taken every conceiv-
able step to make it so. Many young
people worked with us throughout the
developmental stages in writing the
books and designing the goals, pins
and cards. They used these in the
pilot project, then helped us rewrite
the books in light of what we learned
by working together.
NOW IT IS YOUR TURN
If after reading this article you are
not yet sure, please do not decide
about Operation Reach without at-
tending the Operation Reach meeting.
Urge your post president or senior
patrol leader to come with you and
keep open-minded until he knows
what it is all about.
It is our goal that every single Ad-
visor and post president, Scout-
master and senior patrol leader, will
attend. Remember Explorer and
Scout leaders will have separate ses-
sions designed specifically for their
programs.
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
If you join this effort enthusi-
astically, it will make a great differ-
ence in the attitude of boys and
young people. If you help them
reach, what they find can enrich their
future. You will be reaching out to
the objectives you set for yourself
when you accepted the responsibility
to help young lives unfold, but now
your reach can be extended beyond
your own members toward many
young people who need your help. X
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972, periodical, January 1972; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353658/m1/30/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.