United Way to give Atlanta area Boy Scouts money it had withheld

<p>The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta has decided to give the Boy Scouts' Atlanta Area Council the remainder of a grant that was withheld after it was found that the Boy Scouts inflated the numbers of inner-city recruits.</p><p>The Boy Scouts will get $250,000, which was part of a $945,107 grant the United Way approved in May. But in July, the council's largest donor, kept the $250,000 after an audit found problems in Operation First Class, a program designed to recruit more inner-city youth.</p><p>United Way's decision this week to release the money came after officials reviewed a summary of the Scouts' plan for improving Operation First Class. The agency expects to deliver the money within the next few weeks, United Way spokesman Mark Dvorak said.</p><p>"The board felt the Scouts have done due diligence in addressing the situation, so they decided to release the funds," Dvorak said.</p><p>Rainbow/PUSH Coalition's Joe Beasley, who made the initial complaint against the council, said he does not have a problem with the United Way's decision.</p><p>"There is a genuine attempt to get things right in Atlanta. I think Atlanta can become the model," Beasley said. "I think we've got an opportunity to really deliver Scouting to the poor boys that need it. I feel quite comfortable with the direction we are headed in."</p><p>Operation First Class is a national program designed to draw more inner-city boys, mostly blacks and Hispanics, into the Boy Scouts by waiving registration fees, providing free uniforms and offering scholarships for camps.</p><p>Before the audit, the Atlanta Area Council reported having 10,238 Scouts in the program. But an audit found only 5,361 boys were registered. The audit concluded that pressure to show increased membership led some council staffers to inflate numbers.</p><p>Then-council director David Larkin resigned last May, saying he was "deeply disappointed both personally and professionally."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cda30c)</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc280)</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc418)</p>