When I was a kid, I was in Boy Scouts. But I didn’t get very far. I guess I thought Scouts were a little square, and uncool. It was the Sixties.

Years later, our youngest son joined Scouts, and my wife and I found that we were true believers. I think it takes an adult to fully appreciate what Scouting does for boys and young men.

For Scouting is not only a “youth leadership program,” as Ed Caldwell, the executive director of the Erie Shores Council of the BSA, likes to say. It is a values program.

Again, adults understand that. The boys just drink it in.

So I was interested, in visiting with Mr. Caldwell at the Scouts’ beautiful new A-frame headquarters on Sylvania Avenue, to learn of a new initiative the council has launched: the Moms Project.

Each year, the council will honor four moms for their commitment to Scouting. Specifically, for their level of engagement, even beyond their own son; for loyalty and time commitment; and for leadership.

Robert Gates, the former U.S. secretary of defense, is one of the greatest civil servants in our nation, and, not surprisingly, an Eagle Scout. He has said his mom was responsible for pushing him to become an Eagle Scout.

We all know that’s how it works. It’s the moms who see that the homework is finished, that the chores are done well; that there is follow-through.

Mr. Caldwell told me that research shows dads love Scouts for the experience, the fun. Moms love it for the values.

Anyone with any experience with Scouts knows that, typically, moms keep the troop organized and that it is usually moms who push sons to complete their badges and move up through the ranks. The Eagle Scout rank is the No. 1 predictor of success in life.

As a Scout dad, the Eagle Scout ceremonies always moved and impressed me. And there were many single mothers who stood by their Eagle Scouts.

I want to learn more about another program the Erie Shores Council runs called Scoutreach, which takes Scouting to boys growing up in the inner city without a lot of advantages, and often without active dads. I know it can shape, and maybe even save, lives.

I had a good dad and was a mediocre Scout. But for one or two things I have done in my life of lasting value, like earning a PhD, I have mostly my mother to thank. She believed that anything difficult and accomplished by only a few was worth doing. You have it always.

I remember a campout to West Point, N.Y., during which our troop was privileged to tour the campus with two exemplary cadets. The troop got snowed in on a mountain that night and park rangers were dispatched to escort us down the hill to private homes, for our safety. There was a lot of snow and ice and it was not pleasant. At one point, one boy sat down on the ground and began to cry. He said he wasn’t going on. He wasn’t moving. Ever.

He did move eventually, of course.

That was the trip the boys in that troop talked about most. Especially the boy who cried. He’d overcome.

Scouting teaches kids to overcome, and to do so together.

This is the Scout law: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

That is actually the epitome of cool. And moms are the backbone of Scouts.

Keith C. Burris is a columnist for The Blade.

Contact him at: kburris@theblade.com or 419-724-6266.

First Published March 6, 2015, 5:00 a.m.