Boy Scouts

The boy on the playground near Rutland Avenue in East Baltimore saw one man chasing another down the street with a gun. The grade-schooler dropped from the monkey bars and lay flat on the ground. When the men had passed, the boy ran for cover. Shots rang out.In addition to building birdhouses and learning how to build campfires, the youngster had been trained to dodge the cross fire of urban warfare at a Boy Scouts meeting two weeks earlier.Finding volunteers to tailor life-enhancing lessons to suit the realities of the inner city is an unending task for the Baltimore Council of Boy Scouts of America.

WASHINGTON - Allowing homosexuals to be shut out of one of America's most revered institutions, the Boy Scouts of America, a divided Supreme Court barred states yesterday from forcing Scout troops to accept gays as scoutmasters. The mere presence of an openly gay person as an adult Scout leader, the court declared in its 5-4 ruling, would contradict the Scouts' own "sincere" belief that homosexuality is immoral and "unclean." In the most significant gay rights case the court has considered in four years, the justices issued a fairly narrow decision confined to the Scouting policy against homosexuals.

Carroll County Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts will join other metropolitan area Scouts on Saturday to distribute more than 300,000 plastic grocery bags to residents in the organization's seventh annual Scouting for Food drive for the hungry."

He's been a scrap metal tycoon, a brewer, and a force in the state's thoroughbred racing industry, where he revamped the track at Laurel and launched an event that brought the world's best horses to the United States. But through it all, John D. Schapiro never left the Boy Scouts.Now, at age 88, he's given Scout troops in the Baltimore area the largest gift they've ever seen: A $600,000 endowment to promote Scouting for needy children in the city."Scouting is probably the greatest youth movement we have in the world today," Schapiro said, explaining why he established the endowment.

WASHINGTON -- The Boy Scouts got the Supreme Court's implied permission yesterday to exclude boys who do not believe in God or are not willing to say that they do.The court's permission, however, did not come in a binding decision; the court simply refused to review a lower court ruling in the Scouts' favor.Because the court's action set no precedent, the Scouts were left with the costly task of defending their membership policies in a variety of state courts where legal challenges are now pending.

The Baltimore Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America is beginning a campaign to raise $3 million to pay for repairs to the aging Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation in Northeast Harford County.Since 1948, the camp has provided year-round recreation for youngsters -- particularly Boy Scouts -- from the Baltimore metropolitan area. Now, as the 50th birthday of the 2,000-acre campground approaches, donations will be solicited from scouting families and leaders as well as from corporations and foundations.

What began with a mother's intuition and her son's quick action in a swimming pool resulted in a national award from the Boy Scouts of America.John Thomas Danza, an 8-year-old Cub Scout in Pack 790, Hampstead, was recognized May 15 with the Boy Scout Medal for Heroism, an embroidered patch for his uniform and a certificate that read in part, "For demonstrating heroism and skill in saving or attempting to save life at minimum risk to self."Todd Walter, Carroll District executive of the Boy Scouts, presented Johnny with the award during the scout pack's annual Blue and Gold banquet.

The Boy Scouts of America celebrated two major events Monday: the organization's 83rd birthday and Kevin Kasprzak's Eagle Scout award.The 18-year-old son of Kenneth and Marcella Kasprzak joined the scouts as a little boy in Toledo, Ohio. He was well on his way to scouting's top award when he moved to Maryland in 1989 and joined Troop 450, led by Col. Charles Smith. Later, under the guidance of Scoutmaster Porter Tawes, Kay Tawes and Sharon Hornberger of Troop 918, Kevin chose the restoration of the pre-school playground at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church as his Eagle project.

Saying they wanted to ease the confusion of donors, officials of the United Way of Central Maryland announced yesterday that they will continue to fund the local council of the Boy Scouts of America, despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows the organization to prohibit those who are openly gay from becoming troop leaders. United Ways in several states, including New York and Florida, have pulled their funding from the Boy Scouts in protest against the policy. Several school districts across the country have prohibited Scout troops from using schools to recruit new members, and an Anne Arundel County family recently asked that school district to do the same.

WASHINGTON -- Giving homosexuals a right to join one of America's most revered organizations -- the Boy Scouts -- the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it is illegal to bar gay males as Scouts or as troop leaders.The Boy Scouts of America said it would appeal the unanimous decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was the first ruling against the Scouts by any state's highest court.The decision is binding only in New Jersey. Even so, it was a major symbolic breakthrough for gay rights advocates, who have long stressed the importance to their cause of gaining access to the nation's mainstream institutions -- including marriage and military service.