Scouting For Memorabilia North Side Man Obsessed With Collecting Boy Scout Paraphernalia

Glancing down at his Boy Scout uniform, 39-year-old Bill Harris expressed some concern about his physique.

“If I get any bigger I won’t fit into this,” he said.

Harris hasn’t outgrown his love for the Boy Scouts that began as a child, then re-emerged years later when his son took up Scouting.

The 1939 uniform that he modeled on a recent afternoon is just one piece of the Spokane man’s extensive collection of Boy Scout memorabilia.

Two rooms of his North Side home are dedicated to his passion.

In one, three bookcases are filled with 400 Boy Scout books, including the annual handbooks and other stories he’s collected.

In the other room, boxes of Boy Scout badges, first-aid kits and belts are piled in heaps. There are shelves of mugs, a sleeping bag against a wall and a closetful of Scout uniforms, some American and others from Liechtenstein, Sweden and Japan.

Despite spending nearly $10,000 on Boy Scout memorabilia, Harris still isn’t satisfied. He’s on a quest to collect more Boy Scout materials in anticipation of the Scout-O-Rama this June, when the 80th anniversary of Inland Empire Scouting will be celebrated.

Harris hopes people in Spokane will give or lend him old newspaper clippings, photos and scrapbooks for the event.

“If I had to, I’d buy things,” he said. “But like everyone, I’m on a limited income.”

Harris began collecting Scouting relics six years ago.

At first, he bought a book here and there. Soon, the hobby turned into an obsession. Now, he does his buying through antique dealers, at auctions and from overseas trading companies.

Harris sometimes finds books and other memorabilia that he can’t afford on his salary as an evening store manager at Tidyman’s at Sprague and McKinnon.

“I bid on one book last April that went for $315. I had to drop out before that,” he said.

His wife has grown to appreciate his hobby, even with its cost.

“Sometimes, when he tells me I need to buy him a $600 book, I think he’s a little crazy,” said his wife, Jessi.

Harris wasn’t always nuts about Scouting. As a child, he was a Cub Scout for two years and a Boy Scout for only about a year.

He didn’t get involved again until the 1980s when his youngest son, now 17, joined the Cub Scouts.

“They needed a leader for the Cub Scout group he was starting, so I got volunteered,” he said. “As my boy moved up, I moved up in Scouts.”

Since then, his son has dropped out of Scouting but Harris remains actively involved, not just in collecting, but also as a unit commissioner.

He doesn’t camp out with the Scouts as much as he’d like because of his work schedule. A couple of times a year, he takes time off from work to do so.

Some of the uniforms he finds he gives to Scouts whose families can’t afford them.

Harris is committed to Scouting because he believes it teaches boys the values of leadership and community service as well as giving them an opportunity to try different things.

Also, it gives some boys role models they don’t have.

“A lot of kids don’t get that male bonding,” he said. “We all should give back somehow. If I can help one kid down the line, it’s worth the time.”