Year of the Volunteer Profile: Patty Chappel
By Mark Ray
Photograph By Kevin Liles.
Pack 2's Webelos den leader in Columbus, Ga., has guided dozens of boys through Cub Scouting in the past seven years. Her love and care extend equally to all, including her own three sons.
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Like many dedicated Scouters, Patty Chappel didn’t set out to be the person in charge. When her oldest son, Tyler, joined Cub Scouting in the third grade, the Columbus, Ga., mom only agreed to serve as assistant den leader. But over the course of that year, she and the den leader gradually, almost imperceptibly, traded places.
“I started running the meetings more and more, and it became assumed that I was the main leader,” Chappel said.
After Tyler crossed over into Boy Scouting, Chappel stayed on as Pack 101 committee chair, also serving briefly as acting Cubmaster. Then, when her second son, Thomas, joined Cub Scouting with Pack 2, Chappel put on her den leader hat again, leading Thomas and his fellow Tiger Cubs.
Now, three years later, she runs Thomas’s first-year Webelos den and the Tiger Cub den that her youngest son, Patrick, is in. “If I do one thing for one child, then I want to do it for all of them,” she said.
By “all of them,” Chappel means her own sons. But Don Sharitt, Scout executive of the Chattahoochee Council, said her love and care have extended to dozens of other boys during her seven years in Cub Scouting. He and his wife, Cindy’s, own son, Hayden, is in Chappel’s Webelos den.
“She treats everyone as equals and makes all the boys feel important,” said Sharitt. The Scout executive praised Chappel for welcoming a boy with autism into the den. In part because of her attitude, he said, “The boys in the den treat him as an equal, and he gets included in everything.”
Chappel credits her success as a den leader to the mentoring she received from two longtime Scouters: Pat Liner and Connie Sieg.
“Pat actually saw something in me that maybe I wouldn’t have seen,” Chappel said. In particular, Liner realized that Chappel’s knack for multitasking, which makes her an effective administrative assistant at Columbus State University, would serve her well as pack committee chair.
Now that she’s on her third tour of duty in Cub Scouting, Chappel has shifted roles again, becoming a mentor to other volunteers—even those who have more Scouting experience.
“A lot of the den leaders at the Tiger, Wolf, and Bear levels take notice of Patty and how she runs her meetings, how she organizes herself,” Sharitt said.
Chappel’s mentoring extends to the adults in her own dens. She gives each parent a job, whether it’s serving as den treasurer or leading a field trip.
“If every parent did one thing in a pack, it would make the pack great, and it would let the child see a positive influence in his life,” she said.
Chappel is a persistent recruiter. As a single, working mom with three active sons, she doesn’t take busyness as an excuse. Nor does she let parents off the hook if they don’t know anything about Scouting.
“This is not rocket science,” she said. “I’m always willing to help people out and to give them ideas.”
Chappel is quick to point out that volunteering benefits both the pack and the family.
“When you do things with your children, you’re helping an organization, but you’re also spending quality time with your child,” she said. “I’ve always had a good relationship with my 15-year-old, but I feel that Scouting has made our relationship stronger.”
Scouting has also given Chappel the confidence to take on other challenges. A couple of years ago, she started a children’s worship program at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, which is Pack 2’s chartered organization.
“Scouting actually helped me to start my children’s church program,” she said.
But Chappel’s biggest challenge may lie in the future. So many people have told her she should be a teacher that she’s now considering pursuing an education degree at Columbus State.
Although she’ll earn a diploma for the effort, Chappel will approach college with the same attitude she approaches Scouting: “I don’t do it for me,” she said. “I do it for the kids.”
Writer Mark Ray lives in Louisville, Ky., and is a frequent contributor to Scouting magazine.