ESTHER CEPEDA: Adding to the pack: Scouts aid assimilation

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are a good way for kids to get together and become assimilated, but not many immigrants join, maybe they should. - - Donna Poisl

by ESTHER CEPEDA, The Bakersfield Californian

The Flintstones introduced me to the world of Scouting. I vividly recall the episode where Fred and Barney took their families camping in Shangri-La-De-Da Valley and found themselves in the middle of the biggest international Boy Scout jamboree of all time.

That episode taught me about camping trips, good deeds and being prepared. Later, I learned that the Boy Scouts were an integral part of American culture.

But to a child of recent immigrants, the thought that either of my male cousins or I would ever have anything to do with Scouting was as foreign to me as the Irish soda bread I first tasted during my third-grade classroom's "cultural celebration."
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