Denver Parents Find Hooters Girls at Cub Scout Day Camp

Parents who went to pick up their Cub Scouts from a day camp in Denver were likely excited to hear about their sons' experience, but that excitement was quickly marred when they found out the camp had been sponsored by Hooters, the AP reports. Although pictures accompanying a Facebook post from last week by the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts didn't show anything amiss—just young boys practicing archery and doing arts and crafts under sunny blue skies—parents encountered a slightly different scene at pickup time. "I step back for a second and … take a look and I'm like, 'Are they wearing Hooters visors?'" mom Michelle Kettleborough describes to KMGH the reaction she had when she went to get her 7-year-old son and saw him surrounded by Hooters girls. There had initially been pictures on the Hooters Colorado Facebook page of the attendees at the Frontier District Day Camp posing with restaurant employees, who were wearing short shorts and fitted camp T-shirts, but they were taken down once KMGH started checking into the story.

The Denver Area Council said the restaurant had approached the Boy Scouts about working with the camp, and while a Boy Scouts of America spokesperson acknowledged in a statement that the Hooters employees "mistakenly wore the wrong attire," the Boy Scouts "relies on millions of dedicated volunteers and we are very appreciative of their commitment." The parents who were upset about Hooters' involvement—which included a financial contribution and three employees to help out at the camp per day—says it's not even the outfits that bothered them the most. "The philosophies of the two organizations are polar opposites and I just don't think they should be together," says another mom, who notes her concerns were more or less ignored when she inquired about the sponsorship with the local Boy Scouts chapter. (Eighth-graders on a field trip stopped at Hooters for lunch.)