Brennan Hawkins has been found alive, the Boy Scouts of America has confirmed. The 11-year-old had been missing since Friday and is said to be in great shape.
(via FOXNews)
Wow. Guess I’ll be signing S*tchel up for the Scouts. Unless the ACLU succeeds in shutting down the organization before he’s old enough, I mean.
How in the hell does a kid get lost on a gravel road?
He had yet to earn his Road/Not Road Differentiation Merit Badge.
Such wonderful news, really. I’ve got two boys in scouts.
I’m not sure I’d sign my kid up for scouts because of this story. It sounds to me like scouting is to blame for the boy getting lost, not for him being found.
That said, I wish they had a scouting program for four year olds.
O/T *smirk*
I help run a cub pack (8-10 year old boys), with my oldest a member. This is an important illustration of the following:
1) Stick with your partner. 2 people lost are in less danger than 1 person lost.
2) Stick with your pack. A pack, with leader, is in less danger than 2 boys. This also means that leaders stick with their boys.
3) Stay on trails, or within eye sight of trails. You’re boys, and don’t have the skills necessary to make your way in the woods.
4) If you do get lost, don’t wander around. If you must wander, leave evidence of you being there (ie, drag a stick in the dirt).
Last year, a boy went to change his clothes after falling in the lake. The camp was about 100 yards from the lake. They still haven’t found him. I’m thrilled that case has a happier ending, and I’m sure that this will be a hug lesson in this kid’s life.
On a lighter side, there aught to be some kind of reward for surviving 4 days in the wilderness.
I don’t know what it is about Utah, but we have the darnedest time keeping ahold of our scouts on hikes. Seems you can’t turn around without hearing of the latest young sense-of-direction-deprived tyke losing hisself.
Man, just thank God he’s OK.
Notice this doesn’t happen to Girl Scouts. They’re not against stopping and asking for directions.
Hmmm.
The moral of this story is that people with large groups of kids should run a flag/light up from a pole or hang one from a very tall tree so people can see it from a distance.
And teaching kids how to find their way home again is probably a good thing to start right off.
I hope he gets a really cool badge for this. The “Suing the Scoutmaster” one might be appropriate.
Why the HELL didn’t the kid have a serious whistle? (One that can be heard from a really long way away.)
That, or one of those rape alarm thingies that sounds like a car alarm. Our kids would never have been allowed to camp out without whistles.
Well, my daughter is in Girl Scouts and their idea of camping is sleeping in a lodge. When I offered to take them camping out of doors, what I heard back was, “Ewwwwwwww.”
“The moral of this story is that people with large groups of kids should run a flag/light up from a pole or hang one from a very tall tree so people can see it from a distance.”
Do that, and the next thing you know, a woman in a sledge will be offering lost scouts some Turkish Delight.
He didn’t have a whistle because he was walking between the rock wall and the mess hall. On a gravel road. He wasn’t anywhere close to “camping out”.
I got lost in Linville Gorge once with a buddy of mine. We were hiking an unmarked trail and it got dark on us on our way out. Then started raining. It was a real swell time.
If you mean Linville Gorge in NC, that’s some pretty wild country, shank, and about two ridges over from me. I live near to Thunderhole Gorge, so named for the loud waterfalls, and not it’s proximity to Jessica Cutler.
The very same Joe. I’m actually working up a post for the ol’ blog on the story right now, seeing as how it’s a nice tie-in to current events.
I’ve hiked through Linville Gorge, but I stayed on the trails. Great place.
I did manage to get lost in a national forest here in Colorado. The trail I was on petered out and I pushed on anyway. Luckily I had a GPS so I knew what general direction to go. Still nerve racking.
I hear Michael Jackson showed up and, after sniffing the kid’s underwear, tracked him for miles.
Since it has already happened I do not think it matters what he should have had with him or should of done or even how he could have gotten lost but the family may want to teach him some ways to prevent it from happening again.
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