Suburban Boy Scouts councils expect business as usual in wake of national group's bankruptcy
Stressing that they are independent financial entities, regional Boy Scout councils serving the suburbs expect operations to continue as usual after Tuesday's bankruptcy filing by the national organization.
Facing hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Wilmington, Delaware, in anticipation of assembling a victim compensation plan.
Similar to other local chapters, the Boy Scouts of America Northeast Illinois Council anticipates business as usual despite the national group's bankruptcy. The Vernon Hills-based Northeast Illinois Council serves at least 11,000 youths and 3,000 adults in Lake County and northern Cook County.
"The Northeast Illinois Council has not filed for bankruptcy," Scout Executive/CEO Nick Roberts said in a statement. "Meetings and activities, district and council events, other Scouting adventures and countless service projects are taking place as usual. In short, there should be no change to the local Scouting experience."
Chicago-based Pathway to Adventure Council issued a similar statement, noting the local organization - not the national Boy Scouts - provides programming, financial, facility and administrative support to individual units. Pathway to Adventure also controls Chicago-area camps and local donations.
About 21,000 youth members and roughly 8,000 adult volunteers are in the Pathway to Adventure Council's wide service area that includes Downers Grove, Palatine, Barrington, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Elk Grove Village, Lake Zurich, Chicago and northwest Indiana.
Lisa Szczupaj, a committee member for Boy Scout Troop 209 that's served the Palatine area since 1964, said that while the organization of about 100 members is self-funded, there would be concern if the national organization folded.
She likened the national organization to "the behind-the-scenes business office we have at our jobs." For example, Troop 209 is covered by insurance obtained through Boy Scouts of America, which Szczupaj said has buying power unavailable to the local units.
"If they're not there it becomes significantly more complicated," she said.
Accusations against Boy Scouts of America haven't affected Troop 209, which is part of Pathway to Adventure and sponsored by the First United Methodist Church Men's Club in Palatine, Szczupaj said.
Three Fires Council in St. Charles also serves the suburbs, with about 13,000 Scouts and 4,000 volunteers in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, DeKalb and portions of Will and Cook counties, spokeswoman Maria Feitlich said. Like the others, it is legally separate, distinct and financially independent from the national organization.
"Earlier (Tuesday), the Three Fires Council communicated with our local stakeholders about the BSA announced restructuring," Feitlich said. "We will continue to communicate with our stakeholders to assure them that the Scouting program for their scouts continues to operate as before."
Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Boy Scouts of America began 110 years ago. Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in statute-of-limitations laws.
Until last spring, the organization had insisted it never knowingly allowed a predator to work with youths. But one day after an Associated Press report in May, Boy Scouts chief executive Mike Surbaugh wrote to a congressional committee acknowledging the group's previous claim was untrue.
• Daily Herald wire services contributed to this report.