COMMUNITY: Saying goodbye to the Boy Scouts after 36 years.
From camping out during a thunderstorm as a sixth grader in small-town Alabama, to serving as CEO and Scout Executive of the Sam Houston Area Council, Tom Varnell has dedicated 36 years of his life to serving the Boy Scouts of America.
His next mission? Retirement.
Working with the Boy Scouts after Scouting as a child was not Varnell’s original plan. In college, he’d hoped for a position with the Central Intelligence Agency. He’d become an Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest achievement, shortly before his 14th birthday; but dropped out not long afterward. For many years afterward, his Scouting days were an afterthought.
Varnell had not thought about Scouting for years, until he came across an opportunity at a job fair as a district executive for the Scouts’ Birmingham Area Council in Alabama just before graduating college.
“In college, I knew I wanted a career where I could serve my country,” Varnell said in a statement.
The job posting was for the business side of Scouting, and Varnell’s college degree matched the profile perfectly. He got the job, initially planning to stay only for a few months, but something changed.
“While I was in that district executive position, I came to understand, for the first time, the aims and methods of Scouting and how Scouting impacted me in ways I had not ever thought of,” Varnell said. “When I was a Boy Scout as a youth, I was just having fun camping and working on merit badges. I did not realize at the time that, with every campout, I was learning how to work with a team of people (my patrol), to plan, to budget, to problem solve and to (persevere).”
Then one day his phone rang with a job opportunity as an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency working at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
“However, by the time that call came, I had found my career, which allowed me to serve my country, and it was with the Boy Scouts of America,” Varnell said.
Over the past three decades, Varnell has worked in four different area councils for the Scouts: Birmingham, Ala.; Baton Rouge, La.; Austin; and finally Houston.
Clay Williams, director of the Sam Houston Area Council, said Varnell initially recruited him to help with the organization as an adult 10 years ago — along with Williams’ former scoutmaster, Stan Stanley.
“Stan Stanley tracked down my mom one day after church and found out how to get a hold of me,” Williams said. “What I learned is that when Tom Varnell, your old scoutmaster and your mom conspired to invite you to volunteer for Boy Scouts, there’s no saying no.”
Williams and Varnell worked closely in 2020 due to the pandemic’s effect on operations and fundraising, along with the organization’s recent bankruptcy filing. One of the biggest projects they’ve worked on together is Camp Strake, the council’s flagship camp, which was founded in 1943 and originally located south of Conroe.
Varnell said over the years, urban encroachment and pollution “changed the environment from rural to suburban.” In 2012, the property was sold; Camp Strake relocated to Cold Spring this past fall.
The project was an eightyear effort, with teams coordinating land procurement, project definition, camp design and camp construction to build the scouts’ own “small town” — including its own domestic water and wastewater treatment plants. Roads were built and power had to be brought in before construction could begin on buildings, Varnell said.
Although the camp had to delay its summer 2020 opening due to the pandemic, weekend camping for Scouts was offered and a winter camp was conducted over the winter holidays.
“This was a huge project in which the Sam Houston Area Council is making a nearly $92 million longterm investment for the Houston Region with Camp Strake,” he said.
“The commitment of everyone involved simply speaks to the importance and impact that Scouting continues to have in our community,” Varnell continued. “Camp Strake is the largest project ever taken on by a local council, and we are proud to have the crown jewel of Scouting right here in the Sam Houston Area Council.”
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo serves on the board of directors for the Sam Houston Area Council and has been a Scout for years. He also worked with Varnell when they were both located in Austin; Acevedo said the organization helped get boys from disadvantaged communities in Austin more involved with Scouting, leading to increased high school graduation rates.
“What we did there is that we actually created troops in schools like (Varnell) has done here in Houston, in these (Austin) neighborhoods. So kids that live in the neighborhood, attend those schools, can have the services … and the opportunities provided by Scouts, right there in the neighborhood,” Acevedo said. “It even included helping with homework, helping with projects … I think that has been huge, and really helped. The fact that the police departments in both Austin and here have been involved has really helped bridge the gap and helps us enhance trust and build trust, which is so important, especially in this day and age.”
Acevedo said Scouting is starting to be more reflective of Houston’s “big melting pot,” especially among volunteers and professional staff.
Varnell said he still remembers a young boy named Maurice he met while in Birmingham one summer. Maurice — whose nickname was “Worm,” due to his small stature — had a rough upbringing where “it was not uncommon for (him) to have to duck from nearby gunshots while in his apartment,” Varnell remembers
“I recognized that Maurice and boys like him did not have the opportunity to see and learn from the positive environment I had when growing up and that Scouting provides. Maurice inspired me, and ever since meeting him, I have had a passion to provide the Scouting program to youth in our inner-city areas,” Varnell said. “We here at the Sam Houston Area Council not only have made a commitment to serve this at-risk and underserved population, we believe it is our responsibility. I am proud of that.”
As for life after his years on the council, Varnell will stay involved in the Boy Scouts. His children grew up in Scouting and his own father served as a troop volunteer when he was in the program.
“I will always be a Scouter and do plan to find a volunteer role post-retirement,” Varnell said. “I believe so strongly in Scouting and the Sam Houston Area Council whose vision statement is ‘leading youth to lifelong values, service and achievement.’ ”