The Boy Scouts of America may be more than 100 years old, but the longstanding youth organization is still as relevant today as it was back then. Just ask Ernie Valentine, the 80-year-old Idaho man whose life was saved when a troop of scouts came to his aid after he took a serious fall while hiking.
“I’m grateful to be alive, but it’s not my story. It’s Troop 77’s story. They are the ones who made the difference for me,” Mr. Valentine said in a recent interview. “It’s their scout leaders who trained them as well as they were trained. So they are the future, and I’m just part of their scouting career.”
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Back in May, Mr. Valentine was hiking Hell’s Canyon, near the border of Idaho and Oregon, when he bent over to remove a weed from his boot. He lost his balance and went tumbling down the hill. Thankfully, he was able to summon the strength to drag himself back up the steep embankment to the trail where he waited and prayed for help.
“I prayed, ’Lord, send me your angels’, and He sent me Troop 77,” said Mr. Valentine, who is also a former scoutmaster. “How many coincidences does it take to make a miracle?”
Nearby, members of BSA Troop 77 from Eagle, Idaho, were on a canoeing trip down the Snake River when a hiker flagged them down saying someone had fallen and was in desperate need of assistance. So, the boys tied up their canoes and rushed to the elderly hiker’s side to provide first aid.
“It felt like another scenario that we normally practice… but it was just going through the motions,” explained McCoy Bondelid, one of the scouts who was there that day. “Our whole motto is to be prepared. That’s not just like you get thrown out in the wilderness. It’s in your life and everyday things.”
The scouts stayed with Mr. Valentine until someone was able to help transport the man down the river where he could be picked up and airlifted to a hospital.
And it’s not just Mr. Valentine’s words of praise that are making headlines. Eight of the troop members were recently awarded the Heroism Award for their brave actions that day, one of highest honors in scouting.
“The slogan is ’Do a good [turn] daily’, and historically we thought of the scouts taking an elderly woman across the street. In my case, they took an elderly man out of Hell’s Canyon,” Mr. Valentine noted. “We need scouting, and this certainly proves it.”
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Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
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