For the last 65 years, M.H. Pridgen has lived by a certain code.

It exhorts him to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. It is a code taught to him as a teenager by his scoutmaster, Bill Draper, who helped him discover that he could accomplish anything if he tried hard enough.

The code, known by the Boy Scouts of America as the Scout Law, has helped shape the lives of more than 100 million boys like Pridgen since the organization was founded on Feb. 8, 1910. The organization in January kicked off a two-year nationwide centennial celebration, which will include special events, membership drives and recognizing many Scouts and their leaders for their contributions.

Then as now, the organization has tried to develop character, leadership skills and fitness in boys while instilling in them the values needed to make the right — if not always the easiest — choices, said Ray Franks, Scout executive for the East Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

There are about 9,000 boys and girls in 368 packs, troops and Venturing crews in the council, which was stared in 1931, Franks said.

As boys, Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, 11 of the 12 men who walked on the moon, actor Harrison Ford, newsman Walter Cronkite and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche promised to do a good turn daily, the concept at the heart of the Boy Scouts.

Then there are men like former Eagle Scout Bill Boddie, who along with his father, brothers, uncle, cousins and sons, has had his life shaped by Scouting. Boddie is on the East Carolina Council Board of Directors with his father and uncle, Mayo and Nick Boddie. Being a Scout is practically a right of passage in the Boddie family.

“We continue to believe in it because of the values it tries to instill in kids and the opportunities to learn how to lead and get outdoors and do things,” said Boddie, president and CEO of Boddie-Noell Enterprises in Rocky Mount.

Even Boddie’s daughter, Carolyn, has become involved through the co-ed Venturing program.

Boddie’s favorite part of Scouting as a boy was camping, which he did with his three sons when they were Scouts. Now, Boddie, Carolyn, his brother, Mike, and his niece Olivia, are going camping in July at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico as part of a Venturing trip.

“I told her this one might kill me, but I am going. I am looking forward to it,” Boddie said laughing.

Scouting also has been a family tradition for the Pridgens. Years after M.H. Pridgen had left the Scouts, his sons, Jeff and Steve, joined. In 1970, the year Jeff joined, M.H. Pridgen became involved as an adult and has never left. Through the years, he has been a cubmaster and scoutmaster and worked at the district, council and national levels.

“It is a lot of fun, and the pay is good: seeing the smile on a boy’s face,” said Pridgen, chairman of the council’s national jamboree committee.

What has kept Pridgen involved so long is knowing the organization has stuck by the standards it was founded on 100 years ago.

Though it wasn’t begun until 1910, the idea for Scouting in the United States had its start the year before in London, Franks said. American newspaperman William D. Boyce was lost in the fog one night, when a Scout helped him find his way. The boy refused a tip, saying he was doing his good turn as a Scout.

After visiting Scout headquarters to learn more about the organization, Boyce took the information to the United States and incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on Feb. 8, 1910, in Washington.

Since then, Scouts have left their mark on U.S. history. They sold war bonds during World War I, collected millions of clothing items during the Great Depression, watched former Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong be the first man to walk on the moon in 1969 and started a nationwide food drive that collected 65 million containers in its first year in 1988, fliers from the Boy Scouts say.

To commemorate the organization’s contributions to North Carolina and the nation, a Scout from all 100 counties will be in Raleigh on Feb. 8 to give a report to Gov. Bev Perdue and pledge 100 service projects as a gift to the state, Franks said. Ryan Jason Rogerson, 16, of Tarboro, will be the Scout from Edgecombe County, and Dalton Barrett, 15, of Spring Hope will represent Nash County.

Barrett said he is proud to be part of an organization that has been serving the community for 100 years. He credits being a Scout with teaching him to be a leader, a gentleman and someone who wants to be helpful on a daily basis.

“It can be little things like picking up some books for somebody that dropped them or maybe encouraging somebody. They can be big things, but they can also be just little things,” Barrett said.

The anniversary also has special meaning for Eagle Scout Connor Davis of Rocky Mount, who will turn 16 on Feb. 8. He said it makes him feel more connected to the century worth of boys who made the anniversary possible.

“I feel like Boy Scouts is a part of my life. I have made my dedication to it. I have become an Eagle Scout. I have gone through everything with it. Now, I think I should give back to the Boy Scouts as it has given to me,” said Davis, who is in training to be a junior assistant scoutmaster.

Scouting has not only endured but thrived through the years in large part because of its volunteers, said Steve Pridgen, an assistant scoutmaster with Troop 11. Many of the men who grew up in the organization learning about leadership, good decision making and honor have returned as positive role models and Scoutmasters to help mold the next generation.

Steve Pridgen left the Scouts in 1981 and joined the Air Force a year later. In 2004, several months after returning from a tour in Afghanistan, Pridgen was at St. Paul United Methodist Church’s annual Boy Scout Sunday, a day when troops nationwide encourage their boys to go to church in uniform to make people aware of Scouting. At the urging of his wife, he decided to volunteer, even though he has no sons. Recently, he switched to Troop 11, which he, his brother and his father were in as boys.

“I always wanted to go back to the troop I came up in because it is like family. I have a lot of good memories there,” Pridgen said.