Written by Ben Cox – The Brown County Museum of History will be premiering an exhibit dedicated to Brownwood’s Boy Scouts, opening this Saturday at 10a.m.

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With the month February hosting National Scouting Day, Exhibit Coordinator Beverly Norris says “We wanted to highlight the rich heritage of Scouting in Brown County. In the Brown County area we had great Scout leaders, like Walter Walske, Professor O E Winebrenner, and Neal Pepper.”

With scouting being an active part of the community for almost 100 years, there are several artifacts from local scouts, some dating back to the 1920’s.

Mike Bieniek is a local Scouting expert who helped curate the exhibit. He grew up in Scouts, became a “Scout Shop manager in Houston, spent 35 years as a Scout master, about 10 years as assistant Scout Master, Den leader, WEBLOS Den Leader, on district staff. Scouting brought the boys in may area self interest, it built up their knowledge of the outdoors, collecting, and just having fun.”

Bienek says he saw the boys he was in charge of go on to many places in life, one of which stands out. “I had one boy whose big interest was ‘being an Army person’. He made it up to Life Scout, which is almost an Eagle Scout. After he graduated High School, he joined the Navy and after two years in he became a Navy Seal.”

Already the site of notable Scouting projects, like the rebuilt log cabin inside the museum, the History Museum is also a repository for old records, uniforms, and other Scouting related items.

Wanda Ferguson, Director of the Museum, says “We have close to 100 boxers of old, donated scouting memorabilia. It was so interesting to go through those boxes to find things for the exhibit, there were so many local treasures to uncover.”

Norris grew up watching her mother as a Den Leader. “It showed me a lot about how these young boys grew into men. It was really something, seeing them earn their merit badges and progress through the scouting program.”

There were also personal touches that spoke to the curators, who take their jobs very seriously and personally. Norris says “For me, it was the hand typed, hand filled out cards of an Eagle Scout listing each one of his badges. It was the intimacy of these hand written and other items that spoke to how hard the scouts worked. It was a real personal endeavor.”

Ferguson says scouting was important in her family, as well. “Both of my older brothers were scouts, and as I look back on it now, scouting helped them go on to grow up to be wonderful very professional men.”

The Boy Scout Exhibit opens this Saturday at 10 a.m., and is open till 4 that afternoon. There will be reduced pricing, $2 for Scouts and their siblings, $1 for accompanying parents.

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