Matt Gidney

Service Masculinity History

Davy Crockett: A Trailman’s Kind of Hero

There’s something about the frontier spirit that stirs a man’s soul. The call of the wild, the test of character, the proving ground of adventure—this is where boys become men. And few names loom larger on the American frontier than Davy Crockett.
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Matt Gidney

Service Masculinity History

Raising the Next Great Generation: Why Remembering the Past Is the First Step Toward Building Strong Men

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.” —Laurence Binyon
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Matt Gidney

Mentoring Parenting Leadership Masculinity

God Sent Men: A Story of Single Motherhood, Mentorship, and the Power of a Troop Family

“When my husband left our family, my prayer for my sons was simple: ‘God, please send godly men into their lives.’”
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Stephen Ashton

Parenting Let Boys be Boys

Delaying Manhood, Developing Manliness

Let Boys Be Boys There was a time when boyhood was an untamed, unhurried thing. When creek beds turned into racetracks for hand-carved boats, the tops of hay bales became mountain peaks to be conquered, and backyard disputes ended in a wrestling match and a handshake.
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Matt Gidney

Let Boys be Boys Troop Adventures Masculinity

Trailmen Don't Hibernate!

There's No Offseason for Adventure When the world falls asleep beneath a blanket of snow, when bears slumber in their dens and squirrels hunker down, waiting for warmer days—boys see something different. To them, winter is a blank canvas for adventure.
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Matt Gidney

Let Boys be Boys Troop Adventures Masculinity

Yukon Adventure: Mud, Mayhem, and the Measure of a Trailman

The rain started the night before, a steady drumbeat on the tents that turned the ground into a quagmire by morning. But no amount of mud was going to dampen the spirits of the Trailmen. This was the Yukon Adventure—one of Trail Life’s longest-running and most challenging events—and they had come prepared.
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Stephen Ashton

Parenting Masculinity

Off the Trail:  Step into the Unknown

There’s something about the masculine soul that craves risk and adventure. Men weren’t created for monotony. In a world that often feels too structured and predictable, there is deep longing to step outside the box, break free from the mundane, embrace the unpredictable, and rise to the challenge. It isn’t ...
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Matt Gidney

Leadership History

Sir Robert Baden-Powell: Molding Christian Men Through Outdoor Adventure

In the summer of 1900, on the dusty plains of Mafeking, South Africa, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell surveyed his unlikely army. It wasn’t only the British soldiers stationed with him that caught his attention—it was a cadre of young boys, the Mafeking Cadet Corps, carrying messages and supplies through dangerous ...
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Stephen Ashton

Masculinity History

Jim Elliot

"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." —Jesus (John 15:13)— "Forgive me for being so ordinary while claiming to know so extraordinary a God," chronicled Jim Elliot in his journal. "We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth ...
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