Boyce, to show his gratitude, offered the youth a tip, but the youth would not accept it. When asked why, the young man told Boyce
he was a Boy Scout and taking a tip would negate the good deed he had done and violate his Scouting code.
The youth's gesture impressed
Boyce, who later visited with Robert Baden-Powell himself. Boyce was so taken with Baden Powell and the Scouting idea that back in
America he and other men interested in youth development founded the Boy Scouts of America in Washington D. C., on February 8, 1910.
No
one knows who the Scout was who performed his Good Turn for Boyce, but he had not been forgotten. In Gilwell Park in London, American
Scouts had a statue erected in his honor. A large scale representation of the Silver Buffalo Award, the statue bears the inscription,"
To the Unknown Scout Whose Faithfulness in the Performance of the Daily Good Turn Brought the Scout Movement to the United States
of America."
Wayzata, Minnesota .
Lake Minnetonka District .
Northern Star Council
Scouting was brought to America by William D. Boyce, a Chicago publisher, and the way Boyce discovered Scouting is one of the movement's
most colorful stories. Boyce, it seems, was in London in the fall of 1909 and was out in a famed London fog looking for an office
in the center of the city.
Nearly at his wit's end, Boyce stopped a young man and asked directions. Not only did the youth tell Boyce
how to reach his destination, he actually led Boyce there to make certain the American found his way without becoming lost again.
