The Montana Council of the Boy Scouts of America was honored by the National Park Service for volunteer work in Glacier National Park during the 2010 centennial year. That year the group contributed more than 4,500 hours of volunteer work to the park.
In 2010, which was also the Boy Scouts’ centennial, more than 250 scouts from Montana and Alberta painted buildings, rebuilt picnic tables, cleared brush and picked up litter. Because of their work, the scouts are being awarded the National Park Service George and Helen Hartzog Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service by a Youth Group.
Glacier’s Superintendent Chas Cartwright said in a press release that many of the projects the scouts were involved with may not have been completed otherwise.
“Our joint centennial year was an opportunity to have the scouts involved with the park and reinforce the value of stewardship of our public lands,” he said.
Local scout leader Jim Atkinson said the Boy Scouts have a proud tradition of doing service projects with the Park Service and he was happy to continue it: “I’m honored to have been involved with this special once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.
A formal presentation of the award will take place sometime in May.