HURRICANE — Southern Utah Boy Scouts have a new facility to call their own. Utah National Parks Council executives and members joined the celebration as the multi-use center at the Marion D. Hanks Scout Camp at Quail Creek was dedicated Tuesday.
A joint effort between the Utah National Parks Council and the Southern Utah Home Builders Association, the multi-use center at the camp, named for a long-serving general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was heavily involved in Scouting, is now open for area Scout units to enjoy and utilize.
District leaders, local leaders, and the public gathered at the camp for the dedication.
“Members of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association broke ground about one year ago,” executive officer of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association Mari Krashowetz said. “We just completed a 4,000 square foot pavilion and we’re just real excited that we finished this to benefit many youth in our community.”
Over 100 volunteers helped build the center. The new facility includes bathrooms, showers, campsites, a kitchen and a dining hall to feed over 100 scouts and leaders.
“It’s a legacy to all the folks that helped build and contribute to this here,” Utah National Parks Council field director and development specialist Paul Tiklasky said. “Our youth are going to have the advantage of this for years and years to come.”
Utah National Parks Council CEO David Pack said the experience of Scouting goes far beyond the merit badges and awards.
“I’ve been a member of the Boy Scouts since I was 8, so that’s 50 years for me,” Pack said. “In that period I have watched thousands of young men change their lives by participating in activities. It isn’t necessarily the badges that make the man, but it’s the experiences that those badges and those opportunities…that taught them how to do those wonderful acts as they’re an adult. The beauty of Scouting is that we teach leadership at a young age.”
Council commissioner for the Utah National Parks Council Richard DuBois summed it all up.
“What this buildings and these grounds and these facilities are about is boys. We have boys that are our responsibility between ages eight and 18, we’re trying to prepare them for their adult lives,” DuBois said. “Because of what they’ve done here it’s going to bless the lives of boys for generations to come. Generation after generation after generation. And those boys will be able to one day bring their sons back to this very facility, and say, ‘Let me tell you what I accomplished when I was here.'”
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