We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Ashante Corey-Bey

Flag Day 2023

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Flag Folding at the National Harbor with FoX5 DC

In honor of Flag Day, National Harbor invited Troop 450 of Glenn Dale, Maryland to demonstrate how to fold a U.S. flag for a live news segment on Fox 5 DC. Reporter Gwen Tolbart FOX 5 DC joined in to help! Afterwards, our Scouts stayed to collect flags to be retired during a concert by the U.S. Army Band. Thank you to National Harbor for the invitation and the opportunity to invite the community to properly and respectfully dispose of U.S. flags.

 

St.Mary’s County Flag Day Celebration

Last week St.Mary’s County Celebrated its 37th annual Flag Day event. Scouts were able to participate in the color guard, retire American flags and enjoy the rest of the festivities. The Leonardtown Volunteer Fire Department Company 1 retired over 800 U.S. flags. One of our NCAC Scouts Kaden S, built flag collection boxes in his community and contributed 200 flags to be retired next year. This event was covered and featured in Southern Maryland News.

Photos by: Elizabeth Clark

Eagle Scout Project Retires Over 2,000 American Flags

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Austin Snip teamed up with Gold Star Post 191 to meet a need in his community. He had a prior relationship with the Post, which is the Chartered Organization for Sea Scout Ship 1191, and they shared that they had a surplus of U.S. flag donations. Since they wanted to retire the flags but didn’t have the time to do so, Austin found an opportunity to provide service for his Eagle project. At first, the estimate started with around 100 flags in the proposal steps but that number then jumped to about 1,000 during the planning process.
To start off the project, a few volunteers met at the Post to move the flags from the Post’s underground storage to a trailer for transportation. Once they arrived at the incinerator, volunteers from three different units (Troop 1450, Troop 447, and Ship 1191) as well as non-scouting volunteers worked to unload the trailer and begin folding flags.
“During the project, we got an unexpected donation of flags from the City of Poolesville, which was one of the factors in the increase of flags from planning to execution,” explained Austin. “For the next couple of hours, 26 volunteers worked together to count and fold flags. After the folding work, we held a ceremony. Four of the volunteers were speakers, reading a script that I had prepared beforehand. The Gaithersburg High School Navy Junior ROTC color guard was kind enough to provide their services in the opening and closing colors. Multiple military veterans working at the incinerator came out to watch the ceremony. The total number of flags we retired came out to be 2,171 U.S. flags. Afterward, any volunteers who stayed till the end were treated to pizza and were able to tour the flag incinerator.”
When asked what he learned about himself during his Eagle project, Austin replied,  “This project showed me how capable I am of taking complete control of a large group, which before the project I still wasn’t completely confident in.”

Austin was inspired to pursue Eagle by Mickey, an older Scout who was active when he first joined. Austin remembers thinking, “I want to be like him.” Austin further shared, “To me, being an Eagle Scout is a responsibility. One who achieves the rank of Eagle has a responsibility to share their skills and experiences with the people around them, the people under them, and the people above them. This responsibility applies both in and out of Scouting, as well as carrying on throughout an Eagle’s life.”

Austin plans on continuing in his Troop and helping in any way he can, sharing his knowledge with Scouts both new and old. Austin also plans to get involved in the other branches of Scouting, with his Ship and Venture Crew.

NCAC Eagle Scout Completes the Mount Everest Base Camp Trek

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Michael Hooper an Eagle Scout from the Colonial District (Troop 680 Eagle, March 3, 2020; Grand Slam of High Adventure 2020)recently completed the Everest Base Camp trek. Michael said that while he was struggling to make the climb he remembered his intro to backpacking five mile round trip to Manassas Gap on the Application Trail shortly after he crossed over to the Troop and later completed his Backpacking Merit Badge with his Scoutmaster, friends, and fellow members of the Hawk Patrol as well as our trips to Philmont and Northern Tier (Okpik dog sledding).The Everest trek took him 11 days in total. Six and a half days trekking up the mountain, two acclimatization days, and two and a half days trekking down the mountain. While the trek up was difficult as each step towards basecamp at altitude became laborious and his breath was constantly out despite flying up the mountain the previous few days, he finished the entire trek two days early because they were moving so fast, and they ended up skipping a stop. He said the views were some of the best views he has have ever seen in his life.Michael lives in Virginia and returns from India and Nepal in June and will go back to UVA in the fall.  He hopes to register as an adult leader when he comes back so that he can do a few backpacking trips with the Troop 680 Scouts when he’s not busy at school.Shared by: Scouter John Mirvish

Troop 55 Presented Volunteer Award from the North District of the George Washington Memorial Parkway NPS

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In April, BSA Troop 55 (Great Falls, VA) got presented the Volunteer Award by Ms. Franice Sewell,  the Supervisory Park Ranger from the North District of the George Washington Memorial Parkway National Park Services. Troop 55 was honored for community service, stewardship, and partnership with the Great Falls National Park (VA).

For many years, Troop 55B & 55G scouts and scouters have supported this neighboring national park with many Eagle Scout projects, Leave No Trace (LNT) education sessions, Cub Scout Day at the Park, as well as three years of biweekly litter pick up projects during the nation’s COVID-19 challenge. Currently, Troop 55 has five Eagle Scout candidates working with the Great Falls National Park on their Eagle projects.

Scout Thomas Y. (LNT project lead) and Drew K. (Litter pick up project lead) represented Troop 55 and received the award from Ranger Sewell, along with Troop 55 Eagle Scout advisor Mrs. Kristie Kim and Scoutmaster Jeff Ye (Troop 55B).

In addition to the Great Falls National Parks, Troop 55 volunteers supported many local, regional, and national parks with many service projects: Wolf Trap National Park, Daingerfield Island National Park, River Bend Regional Park, Sandy Run Regional Park, Fairfax Difficult Run Stream Park,  Great Falls Grange Park, and South Run Park,  to name a few.

 

 

 

Match Point for Sustainability

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Zane Javeri of Troop 345 in the George Mason District is an avid tennis player. He shared “I have been playing tennis since I was 6 years old and I am on the James Madison High School varsity tennis team.  I joined Cub Scouts in first grade and am now working on my  Eagle Scout Project and Distinguished Conservation Service Award (DCSA) project.  My Eagle Scout Project recycling used tennis balls is creating waves in the community.”He partnered with Fairfax Racquet Club, neighborhood tennis clubs, schools, and parks to collect used tennis balls and transport them to a recycling center.

Zane spotted a chance to reuse old tennis balls in addition to reducing waste. Zane explained, “My project is a huge success, with over 10,000 tennis balls collected and recycled. The used tennis balls are sent to Recycle Balls in Vermont and used for a variety of purposes, such as playground surfaces, sports surfaces, and pet toys. Recycle Balls is a non-profit organization in Vermont that specializes in recycling tennis balls.  They have recycled over 10 million balls since 2016. Each tennis ball takes 400 years to decompose and millions of tennis balls are disposed of in landfills each year”. This Eagle Scout project not only reduced waste but also made a positive impact on the environment by keeping used tennis balls out of landfills.  Zane educated over 300 individuals about recycling tennis balls.

The Scout BSAs of America’s Distinguished Conservation Service Award program honors scouts who carry out significant conservation projects. The Distinguished Conservation Service Award project requirements are more rigorous than a  Scout BSA Eagle Award project.  To earn the award, Scouts must complete two Eagle Scout environmentally related projects.  It requires the Scout to conduct in depth research of a conservation issue; determine a solution;  write a report; plan, execute and lead a project; educate the community outreach; write final project reports; present their projects and findings before a conservation committee; and earn 7 conservation type merit badges.

This Eagle Scout Project, which is centered on recycling tennis balls is a prime example of the positive environmental impact that can be made through the Distinguished Conservation Service Award program. It demonstrates the leadership skills and environmental stewardship that are at the core of the program’s mission. Zane hopes that his Eagle Scout Project makes a lasting impact on the community and serves as a model for others to follow.

Pack 1100 “Join Forces” with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden & Military Families

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Pack 1100 recently earned their Art Explosion pins in an extraordinary way. The Military Program at the Lorton Workhouse asked them to participate in a project for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden‘s Joining Forces program. First Lady Biden is both a military mother and grandmother, she has witnessed first hand the great amounts of sacrifice these families make. She shared a poem written by a fourth grader whose parents are stationed overseas. The student explained her military suitcase is filled with both happiness and sadness having to relocate constantly.

Being that April is the National Month of the Military Child, Scouts were provided copies of the student’s poems. They decorated suitcases and wrote reflections representing what the poem meant to them. The suitcases will be on display in the East wing of the White House.