AAMES Celebrates Its Silver Anniversary!
The Association of African Methodist Episcopal Scouts (AAMES) is celebrating 25 years of serving the Connectional scouting ministry in the AME Church. The ministry started when a call was sent out in April 1993, by the then executive director of Christian Education, the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Hill, to Scout leaders across the breath of the AME Connection to come together on one accord.
Under Dr. Hill’s administration, AAMES was formed and was formerly included in The Doctrine & Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as a ministry under the Department of Christian Education in 1996. AAMES flourished under Dr. Hill’s leadership. After the retirement of Dr. Hill, the Rev. Dr. Daryl Ingram was elected as the executive director. Dr. Ingram challenged AAMES to expand our reach to ensure that AAMES serve all AME scouts, those units chartered by an AME Church as well as by other religious or civic bodies.
In 2016, Dr. Ingram retired and the Rev. Garland F. Pierce was elected the executive director. The Rev. Pierce is challenging AAMES to include the whole body of the church and our youth in the districts that are outside the geographical boundaries of the United States.
In AAMES’s 25-year history, AAMES has had four Girl Scout directors: Anna Sanders (2nd Episcopal District), Cora Palmer (4thEpiscopal District), Hattie Mae Saulsberry (10thEpiscopal District), and Vivianne Frye-Perry (5thEpiscopal District). It has had four Boy Scout directors: Artis Phillips (4thEpiscopal District), Robert McRath (5thEpiscopal District), Anthony Franklin, Sr. (4thEpiscopal District), and Clarence Crayton, Jr. (2nd Episcopal District).
At the seat of the 28thConnectional Christian Education & Youth Congress, AAMES elected the following new leaders: the Rev. Dr. Missiouri McPhee as secretary (11th Episcopal District), Ms. Tammy Davis as assistant secretary (9th Episcopal District), Mr. Robert McRath, as financial secretary (5th Episcopal District), Mr. Anthony Franklin, Sr. as historian (4th Episcopal District), Ms. Michelle Neal as treasurer (4th Episcopal District), Dr. Jerry D. Brewster, Jr. as parliamentarian (6th Episcopal District), and the Rev. Linda Brown-Saffore as chaplain (13th Episcopal District). The Rev. Pierce appointed Mrs. Vivianne Frye-Perry as the Connectional director of Girl Scouts (5thEpiscopalDistrict) and Mr. Clarence Crayton, Jr. as Connectional director of Boy Scouts (2ndEpiscopal District).
As AAMES moves through the 2018-2022 Christian Education Quadrennial, the initiatives that AAMES will adopt as part of their Scouting Program include “How to Grow Scouting in your Church,” whose goal is to grow and strengthen both Boy Scout and Girl Scout units in our local churches;“Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Our Scouts Our Church,” whose goal is to prepare a program that both AME Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts can use to prepare for their futureto have a competitive edge in the world; “AME Scout Chaplains & Chaplain Aides/Adult and Youth Service Awards and Emblems,” whose goal is faith formation and to certify AME clergy as chaplains to train our youth to be chaplain aides; and “Emergency Preparedness,” in partnership with the AME Health Ministry, whose goal is to train and certify efforts to assist families, local churches, and communities who have been hit with disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, flash floods, mudslides, fires, and domestic terrorism.
To learn more about how to start a Girl Scout or Boy Scout unit, please contact Vivianne Frye-Perry for Girl Scouts (vfrye-perry@amescouts.org) and Clarence Crayton for Boy Scouts (ccrayton@amescouts.org).
