Gee keynotes annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner
E. Gordan Gee, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipient and president of West Virginia University, receives a walking stick from Kootaga District Chairman and West Virginia State Delegate Vernon Criss Tuesday night during the 54th Annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
E. Gordan Gee, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipient and president of West Virginia University, speaks to a group gathered at the Parkersburg Country Club Tuesday during the 54th Annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
E. Gordan Gee, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipient and president of West Virginia University, receives a walking stick from Kootaga District Chairman and West Virginia State Delegate Vernon Criss Tuesday night during the 54th Annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
E. Gordan Gee, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipient and president of West Virginia University, speaks to a group gathered at the Parkersburg Country Club Tuesday during the 54th Annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)
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VIENNA -- The 54th Annual Kootaga District and Buckskin Council Leadership Dinner was held Tuesday night at the Parkersburg Country Club with guest speaker E. Gordan Gee, Distinguished Eagle Scout Award recipient and president of West Virginia University.
"I'm very proud of being an Eagle Scout," Gee said.
Gee said he's always been involved in scouting and is on the National Executive Committee of the scouts. He said scouting has been through some challenging times recently.
"These fundraisers allow the various councils to be able to support their camps, their executives, to be able to support the communities that they're serving, and to be able to grow scouting in and of itself," Gee said. "I think without a doubt, these are important."
The dinner is a fundraising event to help support the Kootaga District that serves more than 1,000 scouts, along with volunteers, from Wood, Jackson, Wirt, Roane, Ritchie, and Calhoun counties in West Virginia and the communities of Belpre, Little Hocking and Coolville in Ohio.
Gee said scouting is even more important for young people now then it was when he was a scout himself.
"We're losing the sense of community, we're losing the sense of conversation, the sense of being available for each other," Gee said. "I think that's really the challenge of the human condition right now. Is how do we reconnect with people? And scouting makes that happen. Because you go out, you go camping, you have to cook your breakfast, you have to do a little bit of toil and tumble, and it's all great."
Gee said scouting teaches young people life skills. He said it teaches kids how to connect and help each other. He said it teaches kids things like the Heimlich maneuver, or how to tie a knot.
"Today's generation, these students, they love to get out into nature, but they need to learn the rules of the road, and safety, and I think that's one thing scouting does teach you," Gee said.
He said scouting also teaches patriotism and how to celebrate who we are rather than denigrating what has been accomplished.
"I think what scouting has meant to me, and even to this day, is that it gave me a sense of self worth, and accomplishment," Gee said.