Chattahoochee Council of Boy Scouts announces 2017 Distinguished Citizen

The Chattahoochee Council of the Boy Scouts of America announced Thursday that W.C. Bradley Company chairman Steve Butler has been selected to receive its 2017 Distinguished Citizen Award.

The council will honor Butler during its Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner on May 11 in the Columbus Convention & Trade Center, starting with the reception at 6 p.m. and followed by the dinner program at 7 p.m. For reservations, contact the council’s scout executive, Anthony Berger, at 706-341-3340 or anthony.berger@scouting.org.

Butler is a longtime supporter of the Boy Scouts, and the W.C. Bradley Company has sponsored Camp Frank G. Lumpkin, the council’s camp in LaGrange, since 2011, helping the camp’s attendance in its weeklong program grow from 500 scouts to more than 700 from across the South, according to the council’s news release.

“We are proud to present this honor to Mr. Butler as he exemplifies the values of Scouting found in the Scout Oath and Scout Law,” council president Rob McKenna, an attorney with the Columbus law firm Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford, said in the news release. “He is a servant leader to the community and has always been helpful to the Boy Scouts of America.

“This event is the single largest fundraiser for the Chattahoochee Council. Funds raised provide direct support to local volunteers as we work to instill values in the nearly 5,000 youth that we serve. One hundred percent of the funds we raise stay right here in the local community.”

Gardiner Garrard, chairman of the Jordan Company of Columbus, is chairing the award dinner that will honor his friend.

“Steve is a humble man and prefers to be in the background rather than the spotlight,” Garrard said in the news release. “I believe he agreed to be honored because the values of the Boy Scouts of America are worth supporting.”

Indeed, Butler told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview Thursday, “I am kind of amazed they would pick me, but I am deeply humbled by it. It’s such a wonderful organization. I’m honored to share this with them.”

Butler was a Cub Scout “for maybe not very long,” he said, but his support of the Boy Scouts is rooted in his appreciation “for the role they play in building young men through the values they represent and all the great training they get.”

America needs servant leadership organizations such as the Boy Scouts “more than ever,” Butler said, “because it seems that, in our culture, the values they represent are kind of slipping away, in my opinion. … Certainly, you can’t generalize too much, but we see a lot of need for character and integrity and strong work ethic now.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Chattahoochee Council of Boy Scouts announces 2017 Distinguished Citizen."