The St. Louis Chapter of the EOCS was established in the 1990’s under leadership of Leonard Cook. After a number of years, the leadership was continued by Tyler Burch because of Leonard’s illness and continued until 2008. It was disbanded because of lack of parental involvement and assistance. In 2010, the chapter was reconstituted under the leadership of Michael Tsichlis, PhD, with Tyler Burch as vice chairman. It continues to be a vibrant chapter serving all Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions in the St. Louis area.
Back in the 1990’s, Leonard Cook discovered that a great number of Eastern Orthodox Boy and Girl Scouts traveled a long distance to attend church, and for that reason they chose to join a local Scout Unit in their neighborhood. In order to bring these Orthodox scouts together, Leonard decided to create the St. Louis Chapter of the EOCS to promote Orthodox Scouting. He held an annual EOCS Retreat/Camporee and he encouraged the Scouts to participate in the Eastern Orthodox Religious Awards Programs by working with their parish priest.
Mr. Cook established a committee that promoted the EOCS programs by contacting all the area Eastern Orthodox Churches, announcing their events and programs and inviting all Orthodox Scouts to participate. As a result, a number of parents and Scouts answered the call and the St. Louis EOCS Chapter was on it’s way. It started small and grew as the years went by.
Quoting Dr. Tsichlis, “Remember, Orthodoxy and scouting make a great combination.”
For more information about the St. Louis EOCS Chapter contact:
www.stbsa.org/programs/religious-programs/Pages/Eastern-Orthodox-Scouting.aspx
[...] effort with other Orthodox Scouts. The Greater St. Louis area Orthodox parishes are working with this model of combining the best of neighborhood troop affiliation with regional Orthodox Scouting [...]
Great work St. Louis! I’m working on the same concept here in the Capital region. There is a typo in your link, I think the St. Louis BSA council is http://www.stlbsa.org