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Articles

Goose Creek District Campout

October 30, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Over 190 Webelos from 20 packs, with their parents, came out for a beautiful (if rainy)weekend at Camp Snyder. They exhausted themselves at the gaga pit, monkey bridge, human foosball, knife safety, cooking, wilderness survival, fire building, and first aid.

All of the activities were run by over 90 Scouts and Scouters from eight troops that came out to assist in the event. They had just a much fun showing the Cub Scouts about what Boy Scouts do and had a great opportunity to use the EDGE method in their teaching.

Topping it all off was an evening campfire, hosted by Goose Creek’s Order of the Arrow ceremony team. Packs and troops presented skits and songs for everyone to enjoy, and the staff performed their traditional “pie throwing techniques” skit to the amusement of all.

A special “Introduction to Webelos” presentation was provided to all of the first year Webelos and their parents while the Order of the Arrow did a ‘Webelos to Scout’ presentation for those that will be transitioning into Boy Scout this spring.

A special thanks to all the adult volunteers who came out to help set up, take down, pickup trash bags, distribute charcoal and fire pit stands, prepare foil strips, manage traffic, and run the food distribution area and to the troops who cut up the onions and peppers for the Webelos’s dinner and helped with the food line.

Filed Under: Scouting Programs Tagged With: Goose Creek

Autumn – A Time for Rejuvenation

October 30, 2018 by Roy "Rick" Rogers

Typically, people take time to reflect and rejuvenate twice a year: on New Year’s Eve, and in the spring as the hellebores and crocuses start to bloom.

In our Scouting calendar, we have third turning point for reflection: autumn, as we start recruiting the next generation of youth into Scouting.

This year, as the leaves start to change, the days shorten, the youth in our communities go back to school, and as Lions and Tigers (including girls!) enter Scouting, we have additional reasons to pause for reflection.

First, this fall is an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us in Scouting to welcome both girls and boys into the program. As we successfully roll out Family Scouting in our communities, even more youth will have access to the character development and values-based leadership that Scouting promises. I ask that all Scouters, and especially commissioners, pause to reflect on how we can support Family Scouting.

  • Here are three questions for reflection:
  • How can we ensure new youth and adults who join Scouting feel welcome and supported?
  • How can we ensure new girl troops are started in a way that they will deliver a quality Scouting program in a sustainable way?
  • How can we ensure that a young kindergarten or first grade girl who wants to join Scouting has an opportunity to do so?

Our Roundtable Commissioners are starting a “Five Minutes for Families” initiative that encourages each District Roundtable to be discuss how to roll the Family Scouting effort out, what tools to use (such as New Member Coordinators), and how boys troops will need to work on recruiting.

Second, with our incoming new Scout Executive Craig Poland, we all have the opportunity to think about how we can improve as a council. Craig has a powerful passion for Scouting, and inherits an incredibly strong council from Les Baron. While we have strengths that we should strive to retain, we also have what I consider to be a sacred responsibility to continuously improve on behalf of the youth we serve. I ask all Scouters, and especially commissioners, to start thinking about ways we can improve so that we are prepared to work hand-in-hand with Craig and our professionals.

Here are questions for reflection:

  • Is there anything we should stop doing as a council because it just isn’t working?
  • What can we start doing to serve more youth, better?
  • What are we doing well as a council that we need to continue?

Please share your ideas through your District Commissioners, and then on to me.

Our council is truly great but we can never rest on our laurels because the youth and communities we serve change, the environment changes, and we must always look for ways to be better. As we reflect on this, I believe one powerful source of ideas is learning from other councils and youth organizations.

Third, as a movement we face significant challenges. We are living through a dramatic collapse of the American civic society, which, as the book Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnum documents, started in the 1990s and impacts all facets of civic society (including civic-minded groups like the Boy Scouts of America). Our movement has been one of the heroic survivors in the across-the-board societal collapse that has impacted local houses of worship, service and civic clubs, neighborhoods, hobby clubs, and local political involvement. People simply do not connect with each other in common public spaces the way they used to, and many of us mourn that loss.

During this collapse of American civic society, those of us who have remained committed to Scouting have served as shining lights on the hill by maintaining our civic mindedness.

  • Here are questions for reflection:
  • How can we remain relevant and teach the next generations of youth the value of civic society?
  • How can we involve more people in our communities with our project to improve American civic society?
  • How can we strengthen the bonds we share, and help others to understand how powerful personal bonds across groups serve Lord Baden-Powell’s vision for world peace?

We have powerful new technological tools available to us, such as Scoutbook and visual storytelling on YouTube and Instagram. Please think of ways we can leverage these tools to reinvent ourselves (while staying true to our mission), and how we can help restore our civic society in an increasingly diverse yet interconnected world. Our council membership and marketing committees are hard at work exploring these questions and are welcoming of feedback.

We live in a truly exciting season of rejuvenation. Let’s find ways we can improve so we can improve the lives of young boys and girls as individuals, and improve our civic society as a whole!

Filed Under: Leaders Tagged With: Commissioner’s Corner

Reflections on a Scouting Legacy

October 30, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Our outgoing Scout Executive Les Baron helped grow Scouting in many ways, but one of his strongest legacies is in his work to grow our Council’s endowment. In January 2014 our Council was awarded a matching grant from the Cecil and Irene Hylton Foundation, $2.5M of which was earmarked for our endowment fund. Les immediately took the precaution of meeting with the Endowment Team over blueberry pancakes to lay out our plan of attack and to mobilize members – his inspiration and experience were everywhere and he always kept a steady hand on the helm!

Fast forward 4 ½ years. By April of this year Les had already led us to achieve several milestones – the endowment matching grant was completed 8 months early; the endowment fund more than doubled, reaching $13M; over 170 Camperships and 400 Scoutreach Scholarships were awarded in each of the past three years; and over $160K was earmarked for top-priority camp maintenance from endowment fund interest…oh, yes, and a debt-free Council!

Les’ impact reaches far beyond donors and checks – he taught us that Endowment isn’t just fundraising, but maintaining genuine long term relationships with all our Supporters–with Scouts, Scouters, parents, colleagues, professionals and friends. He knows that 1,520 Eagle Scout Awards earned annually make a powerful force for citizenship and leadership in our communities, and that Family Scouting today puts our Nation in capable hands tomorrow. Les understands that making Scouts “Prepared. For Life” with sound values, moral compasses, and training to make ethical decisions is the best investment we can ever make in our youth!

Across his career in Scouting, Les built his solid Legacy for future generations and we know we are better citizens because of his leadership! Thanks, Les, for showing us how to make the perfect cast, to lead those clay pigeons and to keep our priorities straight!

Godspeed, Les and Kim!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Endowment

Troop 544 Honors Five Eagle Scouts

October 30, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Scouts from left to right: Campbell James Wilson, Elmer Douglass Ellis, Jr., Columbus Jared Giles, James Omar Dorman, and Ian Groom

At the end of July, Troop 544, chartered by Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington, D.C., hosted an Eagle Court of Honor to jointly recognize the accomplishments of five of their Scouts who had recently completed the journey to earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

“Troop 544 is honored to recognize five distinguished Scouts who have recently achieved the rank of Eagle Scout,” said Robert Simpson, Scoutmaster of Troop 544. “Their accomplishments highlight Troop 544’s proud lineage of Eagle Scouts which now stands at 49. As one of the first African American Boy Scout Troops in the country, with over 86 years in Scouting at Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ, we are proud to celebrate this historic event.”

Columbus “Jared” Giles became an Eagle Scout in February 2016, with Bronze, Gold, and Silver Eagle Palms, and is a member of the Order of the Arrow. He recently graduated from Blyth-Templeton Academy in Washington, D.C. and this fall began his studies to become a clinical psychologist.

For his Eagle Scout service project, Jared planned, designed, and supervised the construction of three weather stations, all of which were donated to Stoddert Elementary School in D.C.

Campbell Wilson became an Eagle Scout in August 2016, and is a member of the Order of the Arrow. Campbell currently attends a college prep program at the Gow School in Buffalo, New York.

For his Eagle Scout service project, Campbell oversaw the building of a retaining wall to stem the erosion of the garden walls into Sligo Creek to benefit his neighborhood community garden.

Ian Hunter Michael Groom became an Eagle Scout in July 2017. He graduated with honors in June 2018 from St. John’s College High School (SJC) in Washington, D.C., and was inducted into the National Honor Society in September 2016. He is attending Hampton University on an academic and athletic scholarship.

For his Eagle Scout service project, Ian worked with the non-profit Sole4Souls and organized a shoe drive to collect 750 gently used pair of shoes, and then worked to transport the collected shoes to Sole4Souls central distribution center in Nashville, TN.

James “Omar” Dorman became an Eagle Scout in May 2018, and is a member of the Order of the Arrow. He graduated from Georgetown Day School and currently attends the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

For his Eagle Scout service project, Omar planned a book drive for children in Africa, working with non-profit organization that supplies books to libraries and orphanages in Africa, he collected approximately 1,000 books from his neighborhood, school, and church.

Filed Under: Scouting Programs, Uncategorized Tagged With: Washington DC

A Summer of Fun, and Service

October 30, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

George Mason District’s Scouts and Scouters were excited to serve on staff of the 11th International Vietnamese Scouting Jamboree. Thẳng Tiến returned to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area after 20 years with the Eastern U.S. Region hosting Vietnamese Scouts from across the globe at Camp William B. Snyder for 7 days of action-packed adventure and fellowship from June 28 to July 4, 2018. From George Mason District, Eagle Scouts Timothy Farr and Christoper Serfass served all week on the Medical Team Staff, and District Committee members Matthew Burns, Julia Farr, Jeffrey Ludin, and Mark Serfass served on the Scuba Staff.

In August 2018, George Mason Chapter arrowmen Roy DeLauder, Julia Farr, Timothy Farr, Allison Hoopes, Christopher Serfass, and Mark Serfass spent a beautiful weekend at Goshen Scout Reservation, where the chapter enjoyed the opportunity to give cheerful service and lead an OA service project to stain the Camp Olmsted Tech Center.

Filed Under: Scouting Programs Tagged With: George Mason

Troop 1094 Scouters Clean Vietnam Wall

October 30, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Early Saturday, September 22 at 6:30 am, long before the tourists arrive, Troop 1094 (chartered out of Darnestown, MD) Scouts undertook the solemn duty of cleaning the Vietnam Memorial Wall to show reverence to the more than 58.000 names of people who gave their lives for freedom. The Vietnam Wall, a US national memorial, honors service member of the US Armed Forces who fought in the Vietnam War, including service members who died, and those service members who were unaccounted for (MIA) during the war.

Although cleaning the wall is a time of respect, the Scouts also demonstrated great camaraderie, sharing hoses, buckets, and scrub brushes with the NAM KNIGHTS MC IMMORTAL 400 Chapter, MD, who shared in the event with the Scouts.

The work took less than an hour. Afterwards US Park Ranger Mark Morse spoke to the Scouts about the history of the wall and the significance of keeping the black granite polished. Park Ranger Morse explained that making the wall have a mirror effect symbolically brings the past and present together. “The wall is part of the healing process for so many families, whose loved ones never came home”, Park Ranger Morse explained to the Scouts.

US Park Service makes the cleaning schedule available early in spring. Contact Park Ranger Mark Morse at mark_morse@nps.gov for information.

 

Filed Under: Scouting Programs, Uncategorized Tagged With: Seneca

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