In need of a Melita Island miracle

Concerning good causes: a fund-raiser to purchase Melita Island on Flathead Lake for the long-term benefit of Boy Scouts struck us as one of the best to come along in years.

This was an effort that seemed sure to succeed, simply because it is such a good cause. But that's not the case. Still well shy of its financial target, the fund-raiser is on the rocks, and it is on the verge of sinking with an approaching year-end deadline.

This is a shame, because this is a deal that had everything going for it. The incredible, $1.5 million purchase price for the 17-acre island seemed completely within reach. The volunteers who arranged that deal, a group of middle-aged men who spent summers at Melita Island as young scouts - the Phoenix Patrol - demonstrated complete dedication to the effort.

The fund-raiser went downhill, it appears, due to the Montana Council of Boy Scouts of America's inability to adequately support the campaign. The council paid a consulting firm $252,000 to raise money, and no money was raised. The consulting expense only added to a debt load that was so heavy that it forced the Montana Council to abandon its organizational support for the campaign this fall in order to focus on its pressing financial problems.

Meanwhile, a volunteer fund-raising effort has continued, led by the same volunteers who showed the potential that Melita Island has for current and future Boy Scouts. Members of the Phoenix Patrol made sure that Melita Island was not a hypothetical concept. Through a temporary arrangement with the island's owner, they re-established the camp, its marina and its merit badge programs for two-week camps the last few summers.

They envisioned it as being one of scouting's premier destination camps, much like New Mexico's Philmont Scout Ranch, only with an emphasis on aquatic programs. And of course, Montana scouts stood to gain the most.

The future looked bright not only for the scouts, but also for Flathead Lake and the Flathead Valley in general. This is an area where growth and development have become an issue, where there is growing support for "open space" and "traditional uses" of the land, whether it be farming, timber production or a Boy Scout camp.

Melita Island was a scout camp from the 1950s through 1975, when the Montana Masonic Order sold the island and ended its lease arrangement with the scouts. The island has remained mostly unchanged since then, with an old lodge still intact.

But the island has been subdivided into 17 lots and could easily be developed for considerable profit.

The profits of a scout camp are difficult to quantify - boys are immersed in so many positive educational influences. They learn about leadership and teamwork just as much as they learn about camping, sailing and crafts.

The benefits are so plentiful that Melita Island backers have not given up hope on the camp. This Christmas season, they deserve a miracle.