Troop 544 of Washington D.C. District, organized and executed a service project to help the homeless. The Scouts collected hand warmers, hats, gloves, soap, wipes and hand sanitizer into 50 individual Blessing Bags, and distributed these today at Franklin Square.
Meet Noah Harmon, an animal lover with a passion for his religion. For Noah’s Eagle project, he built an entire rosary garden for the St. Jude Catholic Church in Fredericksburg, VA. This huge task took Noah and his team of 62 volunteers almost six months to complete! The first steps of his project was the fundraising.
Noah raised $3,291.13 from selling mulch, popcorn, having two car washes, and from receiving several private donations. With the help of all his fundraising, Noah began his task of leading the physical labor. He had to dig about six inches into the ground and get rid of the many roots in the area. After clearing the area completely, Noah created the cement path, making religious shapes and phrases in a circle around the garden space.
The rosary garden included a large statue, several benches and a great deal of plants which were donated to Noah’s project. In a total of 345.5 hours, Noah and his team successfully built his rosary garden. Noah found that by “having confidence in [himself], and working hard,” he was able to create a beautiful, livable space for the church to enjoy.
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
Meet Ethan Frank! He’s an aspiring journalist who has learned a lot through his many years of Scouting. For his Eagle project, Ethan refurbished an old shed at the Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Center.
This creative writer claims that his “leadership skills developed in a way somewhat akin to your average fantasy/adventure novel.” He learned a lot from leading his group of volunteers in redoing this dirty old shed.
Ethan finds that he found the leader within him when he “was thrust into a position in which [he had] to quickly learn the fineries of leadership.” During his project, Ethan and his team repaired rotten plywood, re-shingled the roof, re-built doors, weather proofed the white trim, and sanded and repainted the whole shed.
Ethan’s project transformed a formerly unusable, falling apart shed into a beautiful, spacious storage unit that the environmental center could use. What will your Eagle project do?
“Quack Quack!” Check out this awesome Eagle Project from Maximo De Leon. He used cedar wood planks, chicken fencing, wood screws, and sign posts to build and install safe nesting boxes for wild ducks at Lake Fairfax park in Reston VA. In just two days, Maximo and his team of volunteers built and installed 15 duck boxes! Maximo was happy to “see [his] project develop from an idea to the installation!” These boxes give the wild ducks a safe space to keep their young away from predators, what will your eagle project do?
This post originally published, April 13, 2019 by Bryan Wendell. Original post can be found at:
https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2019/04/11/bookmark-these-two-essential-scouts-bsa-resources-for-new-and-longtime-leaders/
Better make room on your bookmarks bar.
The BSA has refreshed and retooled a pair of online resources for Scouts BSA volunteers.
The first is the Program Resources page. Think of it as your quick-start guide to Scouts BSA. Here, you’ll find a collection of links for starting a Scouts BSA troop, helping Scouts earn merit badges, guiding youth leaders toward more effective troop meetings and more.
The second is the Program Updates page. This one’s for both newcomers and veterans, and it’s where the National Scouts BSA Committee posts the latest information on any changes to the program. If there’s a new program initiative, updated requirement or any change to Scouts BSA printed material, you’ll find it there first.
Feel free to stop reading here and explore the pages for yourself. If you’d like a little more info on what you’ll find at each one, keep scrolling.
What other Scouting-related sites are on your bookmarks bar? Leave a comment with your favorites.
