The Boy Scout event, Operation On-Target, has been an annual event since 1981. 

While there had been similar peak mirror-signaling events before, most notably the 1965 "Signal Festival", it was in 1980 that Doug Brewer, then Great Salt Lake Council VS Training Chairman, separately conceived of using his 1973 mirror-signaling experience with boys on peaks to promote a new family of Scouting called Varsity Scouting. 

Thus in 1980 was created “Operation On-Target!” a, multi-council, multi-state activity promoting the new Varsity Scouting and emphasizing goal setting for the boys to "get on Target with the program and in life" and symbolically signaling to the world their having done so.

While 2017 was the last year of Varsity Scouting, Operation On Target continues to be held every year.

You can read more about the early years of Operation On-Target in the hyperlinked news articles cited by the Wikipedia article, "Operation On-Target", including the 1984 Boy's Life article, "Varsity Scouting On Target". You can also hear the story told in this podcast:  Podcast about Operation On-Target