November 7,1996
NEWS/The Charlotte Post
3A
Urban kids getting involved as Scouts
Continued from page 1A
School seventh grader, lives in
Seneca Woods.
; And, like most young men his
age, he hkes camping out in the
woods and hiking along wooded
trails.
’ He’s learned archeiy and how
to fire a shotgun and has earned
First Class rank in his troop.
; Tony has been in scouting for
five years, three as a Cub Scout
and two as a Boy Scout. His
brother Shawn, a year younger
and a sixth grader at Sedgefield,
is also a scout.
’Others on the trip were Troop
177 members Maurice Fuller,
J^es Talley, Corey Chambers,
along with Troop 221 members
Kenneth McCauley, Jeoffrey
(Gardner.
^Tony had a great time on this
his fifth camping trip.
Troop 221 is based at Seneca
Place, Troop 177 is a more
established troop at Greater
Galilee Baptist Church. Another
troop. No. 139 is based at
Southside Homes.
“The Urban ProgrEim has been
going on three or four years,”
said Sims Bostic, coordinator of
the program. “It has switched
direction on how they are going
to approach it...putting forth
greater efforts, bringing'in
resources, professionals to work
with urban units. We are
recruiting scoutmasters to go
with those units.”
The effort involves few
changes in Scouting’s tradition
al program, Bostic said. “The
boys enjoy scouting as it is,”
Bostic said. “We do suggest spic
ing it with innovative ideas as it
relates to achievements that
they can earn. We encourage
leaders to be more innovative in
games, but we stick pretty
much to the program.
“It has built in flexibility- The
achievements boys earn with
history, for example, does not
have to stay on just American
history. We encourage them to
learn something about their
own history.”
To reach as many youngsters
as possible requires more adults
taldng an active role in scout
ing.
“The diffictdty in serving pub
lic housing is lack of adult lead
ership,” Bostic said. “That’s a
challenge you face when serving
scouts anywhere. Because of the
lack of male adult leadership,
that’s where we are facing the
hugest challenge.”
Part time professionals are
now working in public housing
communities. Their efforts to
Alexander gives up position
Continued from page 1A
tired of the whole thing. This
IS ridiculous.”
; NAACP president and chief
Executive officer Kweisi
^fume said late Wednesday
he could not confirm
Alexander’s resignation.
► “We have received no notifi
cation from Mr. Alexander or
^ny one associated with him
that he has resigned or is con
sidering resigning,” Mfume
said.
’When he was asked about
the reported 30-day deadline
to respond to questions raised
fiy the audit, Mfume said,
“^r. Alexander will be given
simple time to respond to any
questions that a committee of
the board (the Committee on
Branches) may have.”
Mfume said the resignation
may not end the NAACP
probe of the N.C. conference’s
finances, however.
“I don’t know how it will
impact it,” Mfume said. “We
will cross that bridge when we
get to it. It is more prudent
not to speculate, out of fair
ness to Mr. Alexander.”
Acting state president
Melvin Alston said he had
also heard about Alexander’s
resignation.
“It doesn’t surprise me,”
Alston, the state conference
first vice president. “I think
he probably looked at the
overall situation and felt it
was in his best interest to do
Alston said he’s not at liber
ty to discuss what may have
led to Alexander’s decision.
“I can’t say,” Alston said. “It
is up to the National Board
and the state conference exec
utive board as to what steps
they take now. The resigna
tion doesn’t do anything as to
the investigation into account
ability of funds. It is not their
desire for him to resign. They
just wanted some accountabil
ity there.”
“The audit spoke for itself,”
Alston said. “It was up to him
to justify the findings that
where in the audit.”
The audit, a 40-page docu
ment, was completed by Bill
Williams, from a CPA firm in
Washington, D.C.
S.C. church vows it won’t close
: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
(GREENVILLE, S.C. - The
Sounds of a sermon and
hymns will ring again through
Bakers Chapel on Sunday, the
tiny church that neither man
nor nature could close.
Founded nearly a century
ago by a former slave. Bakers
Chapel has collapsed in the
elements and been rebuilt
twice.
But last year, when the con
gregation dwindled to three
members, the Piedmont
Conference of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church
ordered the church closed.
; The remaining members
defied the order, renovated
the deteriorating sanctuary,
recruited about a dozen new
members and declared them
selves independent Baptists.
The denomination went to
court, claiming it owned the
property, and got a judge to
order the rebellious congrega
tion to leave. But Oscar
Klugh, presiding elder of the
Piedmont Conference said the
conference also followed the
judge's suggestion that the
issue be resolved in Christian
love and without further liti
gation.
“If there are people that just
insist that the church should
remain open, or should
remain active as a church, the
conference decided it would
assign someone there as pas
tor,” he said.
“They gave us our church
back,” said member Hattie
Cureton. “The/re not going to
lock the doors and throw us in
the street.”
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recruit new scouts have been
successful, Bostic said, and they
hope to bring in more as word
gets around.
“The immediate goal is to plan
on having 40 units in public
housing...aU staffed with para-
professionals,” he said. “We also
hope to serve about 480 kids by
the end of the year. Those are
our short term goals.
“Our long term goals are to
recruit adults into these units so
they can function as any tradi
tional unit. We don’t want our
public housing or urban units to
have a stigma attached to them.
We want them to have the same
benefits. We want them to
receive the total benefit scouting
has to ofier.”
For more information about
the Urban Scouting program,
contact Bostic at 333-5471.
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The church property, located
near busy. Inter?,tate 85, was
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The denomination had the
property surveyed but made
no immediate plans to sell it.
Conference trustees will study
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An 1898 deed says the land
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