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History of the Earth Scouts
On September 29, 2001 we launched the Earth Charter in the United States from Pepin Rood Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Twelve cities participated in the simultaneous Earth Charter Community Summits and we connected with one another via satellite broadcast. It was a momentous day that generated collective energy to make the Earth Charter: A Declaration of Interdependence a reality around the country.
Earth Scouts - An Initial Dream:, In early 2002, while giving a talk in Tampa, I dreamed out loud about starting Earth Scouts for children and youth using the Earth Charter’s principles as a foundation for badges. Earth Scouts was not a new idea to me as I remembered an attempt in 2000 to start Earth Scouts in the Philippines but, unfortunately, there was only one gathering and no resources for follow-up or development. However, the idea stuck in my head and when talking about all the ways to make the Earth Charter come alive, Earth Scouts sprang out of my mouth almost as an after-thought.
There was an immediate positive reaction from some members of the audience including Rob Serenbetz, an active Earth Charter volunteer, who became very excited about the idea. He pushed me further to bring community members and children together to grow the Earth Scouts.
Our Initial Planning Group: Encouraged by his enthusiasm, I invited a group of about 8 adults and 4 children to come to a meeting at my place. We spent the next six months identifying key ingredients for the Earth Scouts. I remember the first meeting when we all went around the room and gave one or two sentences about what we thought the mission statement of the Earth Scouts should be. I wrote them down on a flip chart. Then we all put our heads together to link the key ideas into a mission statement. I was writing on the flip chart people’s ideas when a voice interrupted me. Ten year-old Kyle Hunt had come to the meeting with his mom, Sandi Hunt and he wanted to know, “Are we doing this in adult talk or kid talk?” I had to laugh because sure enough I had been furiously writing jargon like “Empower youth to act. Empower people to stewardship - responsible care-taking roles.”
"Kid Talk" Led To Our Initial Slogan: Kyle’s question put the focus on the kids present and their ideas. After an energizing discussion they came up with “Changing the World One Fun Badge at a Time”. The rest of us helped to add the subtext: “Youth working together to make the Earth Charter a reality at home and in the community”. Over the course of our monthly meetings we drew up guidelines for Earth Scouts that included points like it would be open to boys and girls; adults and older youth would serve as mentors and guides rather than leaders; badge guidelines would be open-ended; the emphasis would be on cooperation rather than competition; and there would be no dues but local groups could raise funds for their activities.
Earth Scouts' First Activities - At Earth Charter Community Summits: Amy Moran-Moberg, an Earth Charter volunteer with experience in manual writing, wrote a brief Earth Scouts facilitators’ guide to be used as a basis for training interested adults at the 2002 Earth Charter Community Summit in St. Petersburg, Florida. We partnered with the National Conference on Community & Justice’s Camp Anytown youth , University of South Florida Oceanography Camp for Girls among others to assure that youth had key roles in the Summit. The activities were webcast to library locations where other youth gathered to participate in Earth Charter discussions. Mike Trepper, Youth Director at the National Conference for Community & Justice, helped get the Earth Scouts portion of the Summit funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough. Although there was strong interest in Earth Scouts, the feeling among the interested adults was that they needed more detailed instructions in our guide. Amy’s launch at the Summit of Earth Scouts may have been the first but not the last.
Earth Scouts Festival at Earth Charter Community Summits: We went back to the “drawing board” to see how to move forth with little funds but lots of enthusiasm. Katie Templin Culbert, a student at University of South Florida, came to one of our Earth Charter meetings and jumped in with both feet to have an Earth Scouts Festival at the 2003 Earth Charter Community Summit in Tampa. Katie took the lead for the festival and along with Barbara Cloud Weisman, a curricula developer for Hillsborough County Schools, designed the terrific hands-on activities that demonstrated Earth Charter principles. Terry Willingham in nearby Ocala, Florida, had been running an Earth Scouts Group for a few months and her scouts, including her children Elizabeth, Andrew and Christopher, were very helpful as hosts for the festival activities. As Katie says, “It was a rockin’ festival”.
Development of Initial Earth Scouts Guides: Following the festival, Katie and I definitely had BIG dreams and thought that in six months with a little funding from the Children’s Board of Hillsborough, she would complete an Earth Scouts Guide. We were definitely out of touch with the tremendous work involved in writing the Guide but Katie did a wonderful job connecting folks who were interested in Earth Scouts. She facilitated a list serv and conference calls among parents and other community members around the country over the following months.
During 2003, Sue Carter, a former curricula developer in Sanibel, Florida, answered our prayers. She called out of the blue and offered her help in writing badge guidelines for Earth Scouts. Sue did extensive work with writing lesson plans that served as a basis for the Earth Scouts group in Portland, Oregon and others. Other volunteers from around the country who sent in their ideas supplemented her work. Sue worked many hours researching other resources and writing the lesson plans. Her contributions have been priceless to Earth Scouts and we are very grateful. I wish there were space to name all of the dedicated Earth Scouts’ volunteers who have contributed their energy and creativity to building the Earth Scouts’ foundation.
Latest Earth Scouts Guide: Kelli Lopardo, a former middle school science teacher and mother of two small children, came to an Earth Charter meeting at my place following the 2003 Earth Scouts Festival. Kelli had taken her daughter to the festival and she was “wowed” by how organized and how much fun it was. She was a bit surprised when she found out that Earth Scouts at that time was not a fully established organization. Undaunted, Kelli took on the task of organizing the 2004 Earth Scouts Festival. The 2004 festival was another resounding success with adults and kids giving it rave reviews.
It was becoming painfully clear to me, though, that Earth Scouts would not really grow until we had a detailed instruction guide for parents and interested community members to use. We had hoped that volunteers would take the Earth Charter, create badge activities, and share their work with us. However, most people simply did not have the time to do that, they wanted a completed guide to use. Unfortunately, even with the work on the Guide to date, it was not complete.
The Children’s Board of Hillsborough County had been generous in their donations to us for the Earth Scouts Festivals. I decided to write a grant to them to fund Kelli’s development of an Earth Scouts Guide. Although, there were some materials available, I wanted Kelli to bring her magic to Earth Scouts. It’s not always easy to sell “out of the box” thinking. My first grant application to Children’s Board was rejected because Kelli’s “curriculum” did not follow the standard for lesson plans. We rewrote the grant application and again it was denied. I appealed and finally Kelli received funds for 260 hours of development time.
Although the Guide will always be a work in process, Kelli’s work makes clear the Earth Scouts’ culture and philosophy in addition to providing suggestions for fun badge activities. I believe you will find the Guide’s conversational and instructional style easy to grasp and exciting to use. Her commitment and mine is that Earth Scouts inspire and empower children and youth to engage with the Earth Charter and their families in making it real in their lives and communities. This is an organic and on-going process and your input and feedback will enrich and soar the Earth Scouts to heights yet unimagined.
Jan Roberts
Founder, Earth Scouts
Founder & President Earth Charter U.S.