One day in 1909 in London, England, an American visitor, lost his way in a dense fog. He stopped under a street lamp and tried to figure out where he was. A boy approached him and asked if he could help.
"You certainly can," said Boyce. He told the boy that he wanted to find a certain business office in the center of the city.
"I'll take you there," said the boy.
When they got to the destination, Mr. Boyce reached into his pocket for a tip. But the boy stopped him.
"No thank you, sir. I am a Scout. I won't take anything for help."
"A Scout? And what might that be?"
The boy told Boyce about himself and about his fellow Scouts. Boyce became very interested. After finishing his errand, he had the boy take him to the British Scouting office. At the office, Boyce met Lord Robert Baden Powell, the famous general who founded the scouting program in Great Britain. Boyce was so impressed with what he had learned that he decided to bring Scouting home to America. On February 8, 1910 Boyce and a group of outstanding leaders founded the Boy Scouts of America.
The identity of the Scout was never determined. In the British Scout Training Center at Gilwell Park, England, Scouts from the United States erected a statue of an American Buffalo in honor of this unknown scout.
Source: The Boy Scout Handbook
