Scouts, Mormons mark 100-year partnership

Event • Conference Center program commemorates centurylong ties.

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A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent and, in Utah, quite often Mormon.

So deems the Scout Law and so say Scout membership statistics.

The Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is by far the largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in Utah and, indeed, across the nation. More than 90 percent of the state's 182,000-plus Scouts are LDS, and more than 430,000 U.S. youths belong to about 38,000 Mormon-backed troops.

On Tuesday night, the LDS Church and the Boys Scouts celebrated their 100-year partnership at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City.

The two organizations presented an original stage production — called "A Century of Honor" — about the history and values of Scouting, according to a news release. The program — broadcast live to thousands of Mormon meetinghouses across the United States and streamed at scouts100.lds.org — featured choirs, historical re-enactments and more.