(KLFY)- UPDATE: The Evangeline Council said local programs will not be impacted by the national youth organization’s filing.

Meetings and activities, district and council events, other Scouting adventures and countless service projects are taking place as usual, Scout Executive Art Hawkins said, adding that there should be no change to the local Scouting experience. The Evangeline Council released the following statement:

The national organization of the Boy Scouts of America is the only entity involved in the Chapter 11 filing. The Evangeline Area] Council – which provides programming, financial, facility and administrative support to local units and individual Scouts in our area – is separate and distinct from the national organization. Our camps, properties and all local contributions are controlled and owned by our council. 

(AP)- ORIGINAL: The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in hopes of working out a potentially mammoth victim compensation plan that will allow the 110-year-old organization to carry on.

The Chapter 11 filing in federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Delaware, sets in motion what could be one of the biggest, most complex bankruptcies ever seen.

Scores of lawyers are seeking settlements on behalf of several thousand men who say they were molested as scouts by scoutmasters or other leaders decades ago but are only now eligible to sue because of recent changes in their states’ statute-of-limitations laws.

By going to bankruptcy court, the Scouts can put those lawsuits on hold for now. In a public service announcement, the Boy Scouts of America said scouting programs will continue.

Ultimately they could be forced to sell off some of their vast property holdings, including campgrounds and hiking trails, to raise money for a compensation trust fund that could surpass a billion dollars.

The bankruptcy petition listed the Boy Scouts’ assets as between $1 billion and $10 billion, and its liabilities at $500 million to $1 billion.