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Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

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Troops 111, 439, 647 Tops at Orienteering!

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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

Duty to God Interfaith Brunch Brings all Together

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On November 3rd, 2019 many gathered for the the Duty to God Interfaith Brunch, at the newly refreshed John Mosby Russell Interfaith Chapel at Camp Snyder to celebrate Scout Fellowship and Interfaith diagloue. The free event began with a model Interfaith Campfire Worship Service humbly led by Scouts. The brunch included a “Duty to God” youth seminar, presentations of youth and adult awards, the “A Scout is Reverent” midway featuring local faith-based sponsors of Scouting programs and special words from Keynote Speaker Brig. Gen. Ron Harvell, USAF, Deputy Chief of USAF Chaplains.

ADAMS Center Youth Choir singing “America the Beautiful” to participants at the brunch.
Scout Executive Craig Poland and Forrest Horton present Brig. Gen. Ron Harvell with Camp Snyder Hiking Staff for serving as keynote speaker 3.

Brig. Gen. Ron Harvell, USAF, Deputy Chief of USAF Chaplains, serving as Keynote Speaker for NCAC Duty to God Brunch.
Eagle Scout Mikaeel Martinez- Jaka addressing participants at Duty to God Interfaith Youth Seminar.

32nd Annual Scouting For Food Drive!

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Cub Scout from Pack 250 in Silver Spring, MD distributing #SFF door tag.

NCAC kicked off the 32nd annual Scouting for Food on November 2nd. The Safeway Foundation provided thousands of door tags for Scouts to distribute to homes throughout our Council last Saturday. Our Scouts will be returning this Saturday, November 9th to collect non-perishable food items that will nourish the area’s hungry.

Scouting for Food (#SFF) is one of the largest annual food drives in the DC metropolitan area. Last year Scouts collected one million pounds of food, and this year’s goal is to top that. Capital Area Food Bank and other local food banks will use these items to help with its distribution of 45 million pounds of food – equivalent to 37.5 million meals – to 478,100 people through a network of 500 partner agencies and direct service programs.

SFF is held every fall prior to Thanksgiving. Local food banks rely on it to stock their shelves for the upcoming holiday months, when food demands are the greatest.

Items in highest demand include:

  • Non-perishable food items
  • Canned protein (tuna, salmon, chicken, peanut butter)
  • Soups & stews (beef stew, chili, meat-based soups)
  • 100% fruit juices (all sizes)
  • Grains (pasta, whole grain pasta, rice, brown rice, boxed macaroni & cheese)
  • Cereals (multi grain, low sugar such as cheerios, cornflakes, raisin bran, grape nuts, oatmeal)
  • Canned vegetables
  • Canned fruits
  • Condiments
  • Hygiene products (diapers, toilet paper, tissues, soap, toothpaste

Scouting for Food is co-sponsored by Capital Area Food Bank, the Safeway Foundation, and WUSA9.

Boy Scouts at the Ballpark, A Home Run Eagle Project!

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Check out this home run of an Eagle Project! Julian Edmonds, a creative writer who’s active on his school’s debate team, decided that he wanted to help the local little league players. The players desperately needed benches for their dugouts, as they were forced to stand while waiting for their turn in the game.

Leading his group of volunteers, Julian built, painted, and installed secure seats for the small baseball players. Julian did his research on what benches would work for the park, and how he would be able to build them before instructing his team and completing an awesome addition to the baseball field.

Julian helped the little league teams of his area with new benches, who will your eagle project help?

2019 Nuclear Science Merit Badge Program at University of Maryland

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On Saturday, October 12, 2019 the Baltimore-Washington Chapter of the Health Physics Society, a professional society of radiation protection professionals, hosted a nuclear science merit badge program at the University of Maryland Radiation Facilities. Approximately 60 Scouts, 15 parents, and 30 technical volunteers attended this unique event.

Activities included, tours of a nuclear reactor and a cyclotron, building of cloud chambers to see radiation tracks, detecting radiation sources with survey meters. Also a virtual reality tour of the Chernobyl exclusion zone using Oculus Go glasses, radiation fundamentals lecture, M&M candy half-life and mouse trap reactor labs, donut breakfast, pizza lunch and more.

At the end of the day Scouts received a variety of giveaways donated by several federal agencies and non-profit groups including periodic tables, SI unit charts, rulers, NS Savannah DVDs, radiological emergency preparedness fact sheets, health physics career brochures, atomic fireball and nuclear fusion candy, and science themed pencils.

Please enjoy this video slideshow of photos from the day: https://youtu.be/ztdcLDLzDpY .

Troop 58 Breaks Summer Camp Record!

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Ashburn’s Troop 58 Swoops into Summer Camp!

Summer may be over, but the stats are rolling in. This year was the Troop 58’s largest group yet to swoop into Summer Camp, as over 50 Scouts and adult leaders from Ashburn’s Troop 58 attended Camp Shenandoah in Swoope, VA in mid-June. Camp Shenandoah has been serving Scouts for almost 70 years, since 1950. Across the troop, the Scouts worked on 143 merit badges and attended 22 other classes like stand up paddleboard.

Sixteen of the troop’s recent cross-over Scouts joined in the fun and successfully completed the Timber Mountain Program. Troop 58’s Treasurer, Wilson Chua, also conquered a 1 ½ mile swim around Hope Lake earning his Mile Swim patch. Water-related merit badges earned by the Scouts included swimming, lifesaving, motorboating, canoeing, kayaking, rowing, and oceanography. The final lakeside campfire on Friday night included Troop 58’s rendition of TopNotcher – always a classic! One of the troop’s Life Scouts, Daniel Han, had such a great time at Camp Shenandoah and made such a good impression that he was offered a job at the camp.

When he arrived back at home that Saturday, he did his laundry returned to Camp Shenandoah the next morning – as a member of the camp staff for the remainder of the summer! Troop 58 is also prepared to attend the Sea Base Out Island Adventure in late July. During this high adventure trip, 2 crews of Scouts flew to Miami, FL, drove to the Brinton Environmental Center, and then paddled to Big Munson Island in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. They camped there for an action packed week of ocean kayaking, snorkeling (day and night), fishing, sailing, and exploring the ocean – all without running water and electricity!

Remember camp registrations are quickly approaching, be on the look out for the registration dates for Camp Shenandoah!