It's important for one generation to transfer its values to the next - and the Boy Scouts play a key role in that, both John and Jay Ashcroft told Scouting supporters at a fund-raising breakfast Tuesday morning in Jefferson City.
"I said on a repeated basis, when I was in the governor's office here," John Ashcroft told nearly 100 people gathered in Lincoln University's Scruggs University Center ballroom, "that the most important responsibility of a culture is the transmission of values from one generation to the next - and I believe that with all my heart."
Ashcroft was in the Boy Scouts while growing up in Springfield. He noted "how much my family is indebted to the Scouting movement. Both of my sons became Eagle Scouts.
"I have a grandson who lives now in Dallas, Texas - I think he became an Eagle Scout by the time he was 16 years old."
Eagle Scout is the highest rank a boy can reach in the scouting program. It's a rank reached by only about 2 percent of all Scouts.
Jefferson City native Jay Ashcroft, now an engineer and attorney living in St. Louis, told the breakfast audience how important his earning the Eagle rank was to his adult life.
"I would not have done as much as I've been able to do in my life without people like (Scoutmaster Dave Harris) and people like you who support helping young men to be the best that they can be, and to grow into the leaders of tomorrow," he said.
However, it wasn't certain he would make it to Eagle Scout.
"One summer, my mother - who was very unhappy with my apathy - gave me a very instructive choice for a young man: I was told that we had a campout coming up, and I could either clean the house with mom, or I could go camping," Jay Ashcroft recalled. "I think, from that day on, I didn't miss two or three campouts for the rest of my time as a Boy Scout."
From those experiences, Jay learned the skills needed to complete the requirements for the Eagle award - and, he said, he learned some things about life, as well.
"I think maybe the two strongest things that I learned through scouting were how to work with people - to be part of an organization or a group that works corporately to make a difference, and also how to work individually," he explained.
Jay especially thanked Harris, who spent 30 years as Scoutmaster for Jefferson City's Troop 2.
Harris told the News Tribune: "There's a small percentage, I think, of boys who have made Eagle Scout that actually had the drive themselves.
"But a big majority of it is an uncle, a mom, a friend of the family, a Scoutmaster, somebody who gives them an extra kick in the rear end (that), "Hey! You've only got until your 18th birthday!' to complete the work and qualify for the Eagle award.
John Ashcroft now heads a Washington, D.C., legal and consulting firm after years of public service - including Missouri state auditor, attorney general, governor, U.S. Senator and U.S. attorney general.
Service is one of those values he wants to see transmitted from one generation to the next - and that service doesn't always have to be publicized.
John Ashcroft recalled the story of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America - how American businessman W.D. Boyce "was in London one day, a little confused about where to go and how to get to his destination. And a young boy came up to him" and helped Boyce find his destination, then refused the businessman's offer of money because, the boy said, he was a scout just doing a good deed.
That event led to Boyce meeting with Gen. Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Britain's "Boy Scout Association" in 1908.
Boyce was so impressed he founded the scouting movement in the U.S. in February 1910.
"Here is a young person, inspired to do that which is appropriate and good," John Ashcroft noted. "The interesting part of this whole story, to me, is that the young man's identity is unknown. ...
"Little did the unknown Scout in London understand that he was doing something that would influence the course of a nation across the geography of the globe.
"But he did."
In the same way, he said, adults who volunteer with the scouting program or contribute money to it do a lot to help develop "the lives of human beings who turn out being constructive citizens."
The Great Rivers Boy Scout Council serves 33 Central and Northeast Missouri counties. A fact sheet at each attendee's seat said the "Friends of Scouting" program contributes 26 percent of the Council's activities. Those attending Tuesday's breakfast were asked to pledge financial support to the scouts - and they pledged almost $30,000.