Legacy Interview – 1933 WJ Participant Walter Helmreich, pt4
We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.
Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.
Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.
In part 4 here, Walter discusses meeting James West, Bill Hillcourt, and Baden-Powell.
on July 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Thank you so much for making this interview available. Fascinating! You are correct, developing an interview format would be helpful for others who wish to post similar interviews of historic interest. Think of the stories lost by our Scouting friends who have “gone home”. Thank you for continuing to lead in the area of Scout collect and history preservation.
My best-
-Ray Gould
on July 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Ray,
Thanks for the blog comment. I do believe that there are many of us with not only the passion for patches and Scouting but also the passion for our history. Think about what the international exposure of going to a World Jamboree had on Walter’s experience. His seeing a Hitler youth movement gathering was so disturbing that their images are still with him today. On the positive side, he has seen what Scouting can do for all youth so that he has made Scout Reach programs active in our area. Just wonderful.
We’ll keep working on the technology.
Regards,
Roy