What do we mean by the skills of safety? Well for one thing, we're talking about learning to find the emergency escape doors and windows in a building like this one. We tried to do that tonight. From now on it will probably be in the back of your mind when you enter an unfamiliar building.

In other words, training your mind to think safety is one lesson. Another is carefulness and common sense. By being careful and using your common sense, you're not likely to get hit by a car while crossing the street. Still, a lot of kids are killed every year because they thought they could beat a car. Others die in accidents around the home that could have been prevented with a little more forethought. Still others get trapped in their burning homes, partly because they hadn't planned escape routes.

Safety is not the most exciting topic in the world, but it's a vital one for all of us to learn and to pass on to our younger brothers and sisters. Boring or not, the skills of safety are important. They may save your life or that of someone you love.

You new Scouts probably learned tonight that our troop neckerchief has other uses besides looking good and showing our troop's colors. You found that it can be used in first aid, too. Over the next few months, you'll find that the neckerchief has other uses, too.

There's one use, though, that you may not think of - and that's to remind you of the Scout Oath. The neckerchief is a triangle, and its' three corners should remind you of something you recently learned - our Scout Oath.

The Oath, you remember, has three corners, too - duty to God and country, duty to others and duty to self. From now on, every time you put on your neckerchief, it should remind you of the things you pledge each time you repeat the Scout Oath.

Your patrol or soccer team can't be as good as it should be if you goof off a lot or constantly complain about your teammates or your patrol leader or coach. A winning patrol and a winning team, must have a winning attitude. That means that every member must be willing to do his part and not spend time griping because the patrol's plans or the game are not going his way.

That doesn't mean that you have to be close friends with everybody in your patrol or team or even like all of them. But it means that when you join, you commit yourself to the success of the patrol or the team and pledge to give it your best effort.

Probably some of you will earn the Sports merit badge this month. If so, the first thing you'll have to do, is understand what sportsmanship is, because it's the first requirement. I'd like to read you a little story from the Sports merit badge pamphlet which sums up sportsmanship very well. Here's the story.

"In 1940, an underdog Dartmouth football team played powerful Cornell, which needed only one more victory for a perfect season and a number-one ranking in the country. Trailing 3-0 Cornell scored a controversial touchdown that the Dartmouth players insisted was made on an extra "fifth down". However the referee counted the touchdown, and Cornell won 7-3.

But after the game, Cornell officials watched the game on film and saw that, indeed their team had been allowed and extra play. They immediately sent a telegram to Dartmouth stating that they could not accept the victory. It went into the record book as a 3-0 victory for Dartmouth. "