The best efforts to mold and guide young lives are among the oldest. Take Camp Fire USA, the national youth organization known for summer camps and a conservationist focus. Camp Fire turned 100 this year and celebrates a century of community outreach to young people on Saturday evening with huge bonfires set simultaneously across America.

Camp Fire's Puget Sound Council begins their centennial celebration in the afternoon with activities at Magnuson Park. The ceremonial campfire begins at 7:30. Something tells me to expect lots of family fun and maybe a few corny sing-alongs. (You know, the ones you groan about but still stand up giggling to do).

Dr. Luther and Charlotte Gulick in 1910 started Camp Fire Girls to train young women for work outside of the home. (Maybe that's when embroidery began to fade as a household pastime.) In 1975, the organization went coed, changing its name to Camp Fire USA.

Today, as then, Camp Fire's primary focus is on the outdoors, nature, and conservation. The popular Camp Sealth - 400 acres of fun and wilderness on Vashon Island - is probably Camp Fire's signature program.

In 2009, the Puget Sound Council served more than 13,000 young people and their families with before-and-after school programs and summer camps. An atmosphere of inclusion runs through the organization. There are Camp Fire gluten-free camps and ones designed for children who have asthma. The organization's Saturday Club offers daylong activities for children with disabilities and Camp Fire service projects fit Washington state's public service requirement for high school graduation.

Growing up I was a Girl Scout. I still remember cooking a casserole and taking it on my bike to the Scout Leader two blocks over in order to earn a badge. I remember setting up a camp site alone and volunteering at a senior citizens center. At the time I did those things to earn a badge but the thing about learning values is pretty soon you see them not as lessons but as the way to live your life.

With all of the concern these days about how young people are being raised, or not being raised, it is worth highlighting Camp Fire and its work molding young people into leaders, independent thinkers and contributors to their communities.