NCAC tied their own record of nine of the top twelve troops at the 43rd Annual Maryland Scout Orienteering Championships on Nov. 2, led by Chain Bridge District’s Troop 111 from Arlington, Potomac District’s Troop 439 in Kensington (teamed with a Howard County unit), and Arlington’s Troop 647.
The super-competitive Advanced competition was won with a time of 42:12 by Nate Beardmore of Western Shores Troop 347 in Prince Frederick, the fifth overall unit (teamed with Chesapeake Beach Troop 429.) Not far behind were Rockville Troop 944 teamed with Patriot District Venture Crew 1345 from Burke, and La Plata Troop 1321. Nate edged out Jeremy Bloom from Rockville Troop 1450 by two minutes, 111’s Thomas Sullivan, and 1321’s Christian Decker.
Over 775 attended this map training and competition event at Broad Creek Scout Res. north of Baltimore, including over 60 girls. Amongst 110 teams in the Older category, 111’s Houston Burnside and Jon Hales plus Owen Caputo and Kaden Carpenter were the top NCAC teams, with Milo Engel and Keni McBee from Venture Crew 1130, McLean. Topping the Younger competition’s100 teams from NCAC were 111’s Andrew Hales and Michael Corso, 647’s Connor Jones and Aiden Madden, and Charlie Conroy and Felix Shareno from DC’s Troop 1946.
For Troop 111, it was a record tenth time finishing in the top two troops at this event. Everyone completed several beginner to intermediate map training courses, then competed on two orienteering courses. As with the past few years, the top 14 places in the Older category were captured by twelve different troops, and eight different troops nabbed the top nine in the Younger competition! Troops from NJ, DE, PA, MD, DC, and VA took part.
On March 21, 2020, Jim Chaplin’s 15th Annual NCAC Scout Orienteering Day will be at Pohick Bay; reach Jim at jhchaplin@comcast.net. In 2020 the 44th Annual MD Scout Orienteering Day will be at Patuxent River Park near Upper Marlboro October 24; you’ll find more details (and full results from 2019) at BaltimoreBSA.org/orienteering, plus information via qocweb.org for good orienteering events suitable for scouts on most winter and spring weekends.
Photos by: Stan Turk
Scouts from Troops 1916 and 2119 at Redeemer Lutheran Church in McLean, VA ready to head out on the C&O Canal Tow Path for a 50 mile bike ride from Cumberland, MD to Great Cacapon, MD on October 12th.This is their seventh ride for the Cycling merit badge after completing two tens, two fifteens, and two twenty-five milers. The Scouts finished their ride in under 6 hours!
The Outdoor Ethics Awareness course is an action & information-packed introductory course that teaches attendees the BSA version of outdoor ethics:which includes Leave No Trace, Tread Lightly, and the Land Ethic. The course is suitable for scouters and mature scouts. We hope as many units as possible are able to send at least 2 scouts and 1 scouter; this will allow your unit to have youth & adult members qualified to lead Outdoor Ethics at all outdoor events and help your scouts & scouters complete some of the requirements to earn the Outdoor Ethics Awareness award for Scouts https://www.scouting.org/outdoor-programs/outdoor-ethics/awards/scouts-bsa/ or NCAC award for Cub Scouts http://www.ncacbsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/New-NCAC-Outdoor-Ethics-Awareness-award.pdf
Over 200 members of Sea Scouts BSA, the U.S. Coast Guard and other BSA units gathered on September 7 at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay for the 2019 “Safety at Sea” Adventure. Despite the threats posed by Hurricane Dorian all week, the weather was perfect and the scouts jumped in (literally) to a day of safety, career and environmental STEM training with volunteers from the Active Duty and Auxiliary Coast Guard.
Just up the dock, other Scouts put on the orange Mustang Suits – full body life jackets designed to keep them afloat and warm should they ever have to abandon their craft in ice-cold arctic waters. Across the harbor, a Damage Controlman Petty Officer 3rd Class fired up a P6 pump to teach Scouts how to either fight fires or flooding, depending on what emergency they faced. Others worked with Firemen on mastering a fire hose with target practice exercises where objects 25 meters away had to be moved with a careful stream of the powerful water jets.
he TREAD Lightly! Trainer Course, is the newest component of the BSA Outdoor Ethics program was recently opened to Scouts ages 14 and over for the FIRST TIME EVER. The minimum age to be able to take the course was originally 18 years old but was changed in 2019.
Patrick, Connor and Teagan learned how to share the TREAD Lightly! concepts and understand the role outdoor ethics plays in the recreation community. They learned the TREAD Lightly! Principles of Responsible Recreation and were provided with the knowledge and tools to conduct workshops and coordinate community outreach as the FIRST youngest TREAD Lightly! Trainers in their Districts. The boys are qualified to present the TREAD Lightly! message to Scouts and others in their District, State or Region. Also completing the TREAD Lightly! Trainer course are: Michael Gephart, Scout Master Troop 13 and David Martinez, ASM Troop 996.