JohnstonPatch Meets... Joe DelPonte, Boy Scouts Of America Silver Beaver Recipient

He's moved a few times, due to his career as a systems engineer, but Joe DelPonte has never really been too far away from the Boy Scouts of America. After growing up in Scouts and living in Alabama for a time, DelPonte had just moved back to New England in 1987 when he went looking for social opportunties for his son, Jonathan.

"So here's this first-grader with a Southern drawl, moving into a new school in the middle of the school year, and all of the kids have their groups already — we were looking to figure something out for him," DelPonte recalls of the relocation to Lexington, Mass.

After considering sports — many of which weren't meeting during the winter — DelPonte says: "It hit me that Cub packs meet year-round, and I said, 'Let's put him in Scouts.'"

A former pack leader, DelPonte explains he already knew the positive impact that Scouts can have on young men; still, he was "a little nervous" about bringing Jonathan to his first meeting, "then he saw some kids from his class and started hanging out with them — by the end of the night he had a group he'd fallen in with."

Further moves were afoot, until DelPonte landed in Johnston after his brother, Peter — who's the town's code enforcement officer — introduced him to his current wife, Marguerite.

With her support, Joe says he started thinking about how to continue his work with Scouts, but in a different capacity than unit director, which he had done in Bedford, Mass.

"I was looking for something to do that I could plan it, do it once a year, and then come back to it the next year," DelPonte explains. Employed by the Raytheon Corporation at the time, DelPonte began formulating a new idea, which he called "Merit Badge College."

Basically, the College gives Scouts a chance to complete badges that they'd otherwise lack — with the added dimensions of experienced instructors for one-day seminars on a college campus, in this case, Rhode Island College in Providence.

"I'd seen something like it in Huntsville (Ala.), and I brought it to Raytheon — I figured there was a lot of talent in the company and that I could tap that," DelPonte says. Company officials were open to the idea and even proposed the idea of funding the event. "Honestly, I hadn't even thought of that."

Once off the ground, the Merit Badge College grew quickly — from 200 Scouts in 2005 to 1,000 this past January. DelPonte chalks up the success to having instructors teach from their expertise in the careers and hobbies they have.

"If you or I wanted to do a program on dentistry, we could go online and get the information and put together a program — but it's not the same (as) when you get a dentist who was a Scout and wants to teach the kids; it's a whole different experience," he explains, adding that the instructors also bring the tools of their trades. "We also have surveyors (who) bring down a dozen guys and all their equipment. The kids get to use the equipment, they absorb it — and they learn."

Another benefit to the College is that Scouts attend program and earn badges in areas that may otherwise be difficult to achieve in their hometowns — public speaking, citizenship, short-wave radio transmitting, and geo-caching (which is basically a scavenger hunt using a Global Positioning System).

DelPonte says the College programs are aimed more toward what he terms the "lifelong interests and hobbies" and "career" categories of Merit Badges.

"The traditional Scout programs, the outdoor skills, they're taught everywhere, but this is a unique opportunity for the kids," DelPonte says. "For a lot of the kids, this is their first time on a college campus; it's cool, and it's not intimidating."

When the subject of his honors is brought up — he's received the BSA's Silver Beaver Award, the Association's highest for volunteers; two resolutions from the Rhode Island General Assembly; and a proclamation from Mayor Joseph M. Polisena — DelPonte lets out a sigh and a "Yeah."

Not that he's unhappy with the awards, mind you — it's just that he wants to spread the credit for all of the work that goes into the College.

"It's certainly not the driving motivation, the recognition," DelPonte explains. "Without somebody driving it, the train wouldn't move — but I couldn't do it alone."

He credits the parents who send their kids to RIC for the College — some from as far away as Connecticut — as well as the instructors who, year after year, give an entire day to working with the Scouts. And in saying that "90 percent of the job, I don't have to worry about," he's also acknowledging his gratitude for the support and help he's received.

"It's a reminder that you have to be smart enough to know that you don't know everything," DelPonte says. "I grew through this process."

But it's the fact that the Scouts grow from the expereince of being at Merit Badge College that's topmost in DelPonte's mind, he says.

"It's important in this opportunity (that) you're not just yammering things at them — you're putting them in situations where they have to depend on themselves and get along," DelPonte explains. "That's what they need, and I've never found a kid who backs away from it — every kid matures because of it."

Read some of the responses Joe has received from Merit Badge College instructors by clicking on the attached .pdf file.