A Scout cares about other people. He willingly volunteers to help others without expecting payment or reward.
For nearly two decades, Nita Grubbs has been helping scouts prepare for life. She coordinates the health and safety training for the Old North State Council and is involved with risk management on the council executive committee.
Grubbs didn't openly pursue the work, it just happened.
Her involvement started 18 years ago, when her son was just old enough to join Cub Scouts. The Assistant Cubmaster of Pack 401 in Julian asked if she would be the Cub Committee chair. "We were not a scouting family. We didn't know anything about Boy Scouts," says Grubbs.
But that didn't prevent her from getting involved. "I enjoyed the camping part when the cubs went camping. It was really a lot of fun to go out with that age boys and watch them learn things in nature."
It was on a Cub Scout outing that she identified a need. A nurse by profession, she thought it would be good for people to know CPR. She started teaching people in the district, and then the council. That grew into more teaching, and more training. She attended national training at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico.
Over the years she's taught countless scouts and leaders. "I had a young man in the course who was 15 years old. He came back some time later and told me he had used what he had learned and saved a life. There are no words to describe the feeling that gives you. That you've taught someone and they've used it to save a life. It's an incredible feeling."
Grubbs believes she gets more out of her involvement than anyone. She says she was a rather shy person, but the training she received in scouting gave her the confidence to do presentations before national conferences."I think we forget how much scouting helps the leaders grow as individuals. It's given me opportunities that have led to other things outside scouting I wouldn't have done."
As for being helpful? Grubbs says it's just something you do without thinking. "I guess I know I'm being helpful, but I don't think about it at the time. It's just something that needs to be done and I do it to take burden off other people. Sometimes what I get back is so much greater than what I've done."
Nita Grubbs is Helpful
