Tuesday July 10 07:51 AM EDT

How Scouts are getting more Chicano boys involved

Cesar Cruz was disappointed. He was standing at a PTA meeting this past spring, with a Boy Scout brochure in his hand.

Cruz, the father of four children, thought Scouting was just the thing for his 11- and 7-year-old sons. He was eager for them to roast marshmallows, go camping and feel the pride of earning merit badges. He looked forward to watching them work on their Pinewood Derby cars.

But looking at the brochure, his heart sank. It would cost about $300 each - $8 to register, $100 for a full uniform and $200 for summer camping trips - to enroll Jorge and Julio in the local Palatine troop.

His family didn't make much money, and a temporary disability prevented his wife from working.

"It's a lot of money," Cruz thought. "I have two kids, and this isn't going to be possible."

And so he walked away.

Cesar Cruz had not yet met Ismael Reyes.

•Þ•Þ•

In November 2000, the local Boy Scout council of the Northwest suburbs was looking to try an experiment.

Since 1994, the Boy Scouts nationally had been testing a new kind of chapter in both inner-cities and hard-scrabble rural areas around the country. It was called Scoutreach and its aim was to make Scouting cost-effective and interesting to growing numbers of minority children.

The result has been the Boy Scouts have added to and diversified their 4.5 million membership.

"But now minorities are moving anywhere," said George Randall, national director of Scoutreach.

The 2000 U.S. Census proved what everybody already knew: The Northwest suburban population has become increasingly diverse, Randall said. So Scoutreach wanted to move into the suburbs.

In the end, officials tapped Ismael Reyes to head a new program in the Northwest suburbs.

Reyes, a 55-year-old family therapist, was a native of Mexico City and was fluent in both English and Spanish.

He had lived in the suburbs for 20 years and worked for 10 years as a family therapist at local social service agencies. He also held two bachelor's degrees - one in liberal arts from a college in Mexico, another in psychology from Northeastern Illinois University - and a master's degree in child/family therapy from Northern Illinois University.

Most important, he had an "in" with the Hispanic community that made it easier to gain their trust and cooperation.

"We had done different attempts at outreach. But having the right person who speaks the language made all the difference," said David Steele, field director for the Boy Scouts Northwest Suburban Council.

The council's first hire had been a Pakistani woman who spoke only a little Spanish. She quit six months into the job.

"We searched long and hard for somebody who fit (Reyes') profile," Steele said. "Someone who was able to interact well and recruit people from other cultures, whether Hispanic or Asian."

Reyes' best credential may have been his personal experience: a father who wasn't wealthy but trying to raise his family in Hoffman Estates in the 1970s. Reyes had enrolled two of his three sons in Boy Scouts but had to pull them out after a few months.

"It was very expensive," said Reyes. "I didn't know the language and I was so frustrated that my kids couldn't get involved in things like this."

Given the chance, Reyes abandoned his therapy practice and took over a $155,000 Scoutreach program budget.

Since November, Reyes has spoken to local churches, schools and worked with resource centers to recruit for the program. He has attracted more than 350 Hispanic children and many volunteers in order to form seven new Scout troops in Mount Prospect, Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows, Des Plaines and Palatine - which is the largest troop, with more than 120 children.

Another troop might be formed in Prospect Heights. Yet another in Hoffman Estates might be the first one created especially for black children from the Steeple Hill area.

"I've been very content with the job I'm doing because I'm helping my people, my community, my culture," said Reyes.

"When I see children playing with uniforms on and getting involved, it's a big, big step for me. It's something that I wish my children had the opportunity these children are getting now."

•Þ•Þ•

Part of Reyes' success is getting clips about Scoutreach aired on shows that broadcast over local and national Spanish channels. But the biggest draw is the unique way Reyes has used sports to market the program.

Hispanic Scouts are playing soccer three times a week this summer while also working on earning their merit badges. Reyes wants to build a program for black Scouts based on basketball.

Randall said Reyes's use of sports to draw kids to Scouting is mostly unique. Only a program in Santa Ana, Calif., is also trying what Reyes is doing.

Representatives from the Boy Scouts will travel from their headquarters in Texas this fall to look at the program Reyes has put together. If they are suitably impressed, they want to unveil a similar sports-based program for all of its Scoutreaches in 2003.

"We've found that sports is an ideal way of reaching young people and giving them an opportunity to look at the traditional program," Randall said.

The goal of Boy Scouts is to help boys and young adults build character, learn to be participating citizens and develop personal fitness. And despite recent criticism that the organization discriminates against homosexuals, Randall says the Scouts continue to try to be more inclusive through programs like Scoutreach, while maintaining the same standards.

There are no glaring differences between "traditional" Scouts and Scoutreach Scouts, Randall says, but there are some variations.

Scoutreach is made up of low-income participants, which in this area has been mostly minorities. All of their expenses - for uniforms, handbooks (which are in Spanish), camping trips and other activities - are all absorbed by the local Boy Scouts council, which earns its money through donations and fundraising. Costs are covered for each troop up to three years, at which time fundraising efforts are supposed to take over.

The troops are started in areas where high concentrations of minorities live so that transportation to and from meetings isn't a problem. Scoutreach participants recite the Law and Oath, complete activities year-round to earn merit badges, perform public service and have their different age categories - such as Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing.

The key difference is uniforms. Reyes' Scouts use their soccer attire as their main uniforms, which carry the troop numbers, American flag and Scouting badges.

"I consider my program traditional with Scouting values, but non-traditional to get their attention to register and get a uniform," said Reyes.

•Þ•Þ•

Two months after Cesar Cruz left the PTA meeting empty-handed, a neighbor told him about Scoutreach. He signed his boys up the next day.

Jorge and Julio now spend two hours a day, three times a week this summer playing soccer with their Scout troop. It's the first formal team they've belonged to. They race home after practice to wash their uniforms in preparation for the next game.

"I really like the program because it's about rules. They learn and they feel good," said Cruz, 30. "I can bring my kids up in a good society because they can learn how to grow up in a good community and not get into gangs."

Parents have grabbed hold of the program and have found such value in it that they are willing to volunteer their own time to ensure it sticks around.

While Cruz's intent was just to sign his two sons up, soon he was coaching the 14- to 16-year-olds in soccer.

The same can be said for coach Jose Anguiano.

As a single parent, Anguiano often found himself rushing his three kids off to the local YMCA after getting off from a full day of work.

At the YMCA, the 20-year Palatine resident would teach his children, Taylor, 9, Alexander, 6 and Jacqlyn, 4, how to swim and would also run with them. But the social component of having his kids play with other kids their age was missing until he enrolled them in Scoutreach.

"They're giving us everything we need. All they need is our support, our interest and our enthusiasm," said Anguiano.

"We really lack the grounds to help other younger kids. So this is an opportunity to help out the community and especially the kids and support their interest."