Feb. 4, 2012
Article from The News - messenger.com
When Scouts across the country observe Scouting Anniversary Week beginning Sunday, one Fremont man clearly has more to celebrate than most.
Generations of Fremonters can, in turn, celebrate his involvement.
Denny Setzler has been involved in the Boy Scouts of America for almost six decades, starting when he joined the Cub Scouts in 1953.
Setzler, Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 339 at St. Ann Church, advanced through the ranks as a boy, became an assistant to Scoutmaster Dan Shanahan when he was 18 and became Scoutmaster of the troop in 1979.
Even college and military service didn't take him away from Boy Scout service.
As a college student in Toledo, he worked with the Gesu Scout Troop 71. While serving in the Navy, he was Scoutmaster for Troop 365 at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Fla., serving children of military personnel.
"I really enjoyed it and stayed right with it," Setzler says simply enough.
Stay right with it he did.
From paper drives to Camp Alaska outings, from weekly meetings to high adventure trips, Setzler has been providing leadership and direction to area Scouts for decades.
"Scouting really teaches self-confidence as well as a lot of skills," Setzler says.
"One of the big things is the self-improvement and at your own pace. You don't have to beat the other guy. It teaches you to be positive with your thinking and not negative to someone else."
The formal aims of Scouting are growth in moral strength and character, participating in citizenship and development in physical, mental and emotional fitness.
Setzler is obviously a believer.
"You can tell the difference" in kids as they grow in the program. "It's a good opportunity to learn basic skills."
From astronomy to wood carving, from computer skills to wilderness survival, from dog care to soil and water conservation, there are more than 100 badges Scouts can earn by developing skills.
They learn to work together as well, through programs that include camping trips that demand they accept the challenges of self-reliance.
Setzler can relate stories of meaningful -- sometimes exciting -- camping trips that provided life lessons for young men.
Camp Alaska, for instance, is a winter camping experience that requires participants to prepare wisely and react appropriately to their environment.
They must provide their own improvised tents, usually using plastic sheeting. And they must be able to carry all of their equipment from the camp in just one trip.
"It's all on their own," Setzler says. "If you want a fire, you build a fire."
Camp Alaska is primarily for older Scouts.
"They like it because of the freedom. It's an experience completely different than a family camping outing," Setzler says.
The Scoutmaster can relate experiences in which Scouts responded wisely to severe weather while camping, and he proudly talks about more basic experiences such as the Klondike Derby, where Scouts make and compete with their own sleds and participate in events involving first aid, map and compass use, fire building, mock ice rescue and other skills.
Setzler, who has been a professor of engineering technology at Terra State Community College since 1981, has received numerous awards and held a variety of camp and district offices in Scouting.
The big reward to Setzler is "seeing the success of kids who have gone through Scouting. You work with them when they're young and you see how some of the skills that they learned in Scouting have helped them in life."
It's a belief shared by others in his family.
Both of his and wife Josie's sons, Eric and Brian, became Eagle Scouts and worked at Camp Pioneer in Williams County. Daughter Cathy also has worked on that staff, although she teaches school most of the year. She is married to a camp ranger and lives at the camp. Younger daughter Autumn is a student at Ohio University.
There are 27 boys in Troop 339 at St. Ann Church. There are three other troops in Fremont: 312 at First Presbyterian; 302 at Hayes United Methodist and 307 at Grace Lutheran Church.
This week they will mark the anniversary of the Feb. 8, 1910, incorporation of Boy Scouts of America, and they will be grateful for men like Setzler who have been devoted to helping boys gain self-confidence and skills for a lifetime.
Article from The News - messenger.com
