Chess and Philmont

I don't know about in other countries, but in the USA, Scouts and chess seem to be mutually exclusive. I only met one person on my entire Philmont trek that played chess. Any ideas on why that is?

hey uh 9th eagle whats a Philmont trek????

Philmont is a Boy Scout High Adventure Camp . . . go backpacking for 12 days, carrying everything with you.

I have tried to get Scouts in my area interested in chess by being a Merit Badge counselor but have never had any takers.

I taught my Cub Scout unit to play and even had two tournaments for my youngest son's Webelos den but after that not much.

As an aside, one of my Webelos taught me something I had never heard - a reminder to teach kids which color the King and Queen goes on. He told me to always remember that the Queens shoes (the color square) should always match her dress (the color of the piece). Amazing the things you can learn from 10 - 11 year olds....

Oh, and how I envy people who get to go to Philmont. What an adventure.

Hm...I know someone who goes to Philmont. He used to play chess.