Scouts BSA

26th Camporee Centroamericano

January 17, 2019 by Phillip Fantozzi

Phillip Fantozzi and his son Jack, a 2nd Class Scout, recently attended the 26th Camporee Centroamericano in Honduras. What follows are their thoughts and recollections on the experience. Thank you to Phillip and Jack for sharing.

Phillip Fantozzi
My son Jack and I attended the 26th Camporee Centroamericano, which was held 26-31 December 2019 near the town of Valle de Angeles, which is about 30 minutes outside Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We were the only 2 BSA Scouts out of about 1,000 scouts from Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama.

We had a great time at the event. Jack slept in a troop tent with members of Troop 23 from Tegucigalpa who were very friendly and welcoming. The event was split into 4 “trails,” focusing on service, sports, cultural activities, and scoutcraft. We ate our meals at the mess hall and were transported to different events in Honduran Army trucks.

Jack Fantozzi
One of my most interesting experiences as a scout is the Central American Scout Camporee 2018. There were hundreds of scouts there from all over the region, from Mexico to Panama. I went with Troop 23 (“Panteras” or “Panthers”) from Honduras. I live in Honduras near their meeting place in a park, and I was already a 2nd Class scout so I went to learn about scouting in other countries.

It was interesting being the only American scout at the Camporee. I traded BSA patches the first night, and the rest of the time I was there I constantly had scouts asking to trade. There were long conversations about scouting, selfies, and even videos of us talking to people about BSA. It was an interesting experience, and I think everyone should try to go to an international scouting event once in their lifetime. It is a growing, learning, and changing experience.

All photos courtesy of Phillip Fantozzi.

Troop 98 Scout’s Eagle Service Project Featured by Several Local News Outlets

January 17, 2019 by Bryan Martin Firvida

Boy Scout Patrick Donnelly’s Eagle Scout community service project has attracted the attention of his neighborhood through local support and news coverage.

Patrick’s Eagle Scout project will bring 10 new Little Free Libraries across the neighborhoods of Ward 4 of Washington, D.C. bringing more books to the neighborhood beyond the one public library.

Patrick is a Life Scout in Troop 98, the Troop is chartered by at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Two weekends of work in January by scouts, scouters, and neighbors made quick work of the cutting, building, painting, and finishing of the buildings. Installation of the libraries will take place in the coming weeks and months.

The motivation for Patrick’s project was to help improve literacy in his community by making more books available and easy to access. His project has also received support from the community, through a GoFundMe campaign, a $500 grant from Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B, Annie’s Ace Hardware in Brookland, Galliher and Huguely in Takoma, and WT Construction in Manor Park.

Patrick’s work has also captured other local news coverage. The DC Line a local news organization profiled Patrick’s project in the story “Boy Scout prepares to seed Ward 4 neighborhoods with free book exchanges.” The DC Line story was highlighted in the Washington City Paper‘s “District Line Daily” .

Patrick was also interviewed about his project during the evening Fox 5 TV newscast on January 10, 2019.

50 People Attend Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls’ First Welcome Party

January 15, 2019 by The Scouter Digest Staff

DC-based Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls is pleased to report that it hosted more than 50 people at their most recent open house and Welcome Party. As a result they now have applications for 17 girl-members and 18 adult volunteers on their Troop Committee. And that’s just a start. Interested girls can still attend their final Welcome Party on Saturday, January 19 from 10 to 11 am.

Current and new girl members also received one of the Troop’s custom-made hats. They are specially designed just for 248 Troop for Girls. It has a shorter visor, is the same BSA green color, and looks great on.

For more information, visit DC Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls’ homepage at http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/. Or head to their Welcome Party this Saturday at All Souls Episcopal Church, 2300 Cathedral Ave., NW, Washington, DC and meet some of their girl members. More info on the welcome party, including transportation tips, can be found at http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/how-to-join/ . The first Troop meeting is on February 2^nd where they will also welcome prospective members, as well as on their first overnight campout on March 8 – 10.

Scout Builds Bicycle Shed for Brisben Center

January 11, 2019 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Fifteen-year-old Nolan Ragon protects a critical means of transportation for homeless adults by raising over $4,000 for Eagle Scout project

The Thurman Brisben homeless shelter, the largest full-service, emergency homeless shelter in the Fredericksburg area, keeps many bicycles on hand so residents can get to work and necessary appointments. The Center also makes children’s bicycles available for the 90 or so boys and girls who come through the shelter every year. Due to a lack of space, the bicycles were stored outside in every kind of weather, which negatively impacted their functioning and longevity.

But not anymore. To solve this problem, Nolan Ragon, a 15-year-old Scout from Boy Scout Troop #845 in North Stafford, planned, financed, and constructed a 20’ x 12’ shed for their storage.

Nolan first assessed the Center’s need for a suitable Eagle project with Joe Hargrove, the Brisben Center’s Volunteer Coordinator. After deciding on a bicycle shed, Nolan recruited 30 volunteers, including his father, to help with the planning and building. Through yard sales and online sales of donated items, he raised over $4,000. He also negotiated with the store manager of the Lowe’s on Rt. 610 in Stafford on the sale of building supplies at store cost. It took 495 man-hours to complete the project. Nolan and his volunteers are quite proud of how it turned out.

“It is very, very solid and will last many years,” remarked Joe Hargrove with satisfaction, “and the bicycles will last longer, too. Nolan has done an incredible job.”

Staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Center provides a safe and secure temporary residence for up to 80 women, children, and men at a time. In addition to food and shelter, the Center provides intensive case management and other services that enable residents to resolve their crises and move back into housing. Thanks to Nolan’s work in preserving their bike fleet and lessening maintenance requirements, the Center’s resources will go a little bit farther in delivering its mission.

Happy New Year! Scoutbook Is Now Free for Scouts and Scout Units

January 2, 2019 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Authored by Bryan Wendell, this post originally appeared on Bryan on Scouting: A blog for the BSA’s Adult Leaders, January 1, 2019.

Fellow Scouters, 2019 is off to a great start.

Scoutbook, the Boy Scouts of America’s online tool for managing and tracking Scouting advancement, is now completely, totally, 100 percent free. The change became official today — Jan. 1, 2019.

Longtime users know how Scoutbook makes it easy (and fun!) for Scouts, parents and leaders to track advancement and milestone achievements along the Scouting trail.

Before 2019, individuals, units or councils paid a small annual fee — up to $1 per Scout per year — to access Scoutbook’s suite of unit-management features.

In 2019 and beyond, those same great features are available for the best possible price: $0.

Now everyone can learn what more than 1 million users already know: Scoutbook can improve your Scouting experience.

Here’s what else you need to know:

How will my unit be affected?

Units with a current Scoutbook account will continue to use Scoutbook as before.
Councils that provide Scoutbook accounts for their units will no longer need to manage a subscription process for units starting a new account.
Units without a current Scoutbook account will be able to access Scoutbook free on Scoutbook.com and elsewhere.

How will subscriptions/renewals work in 2019 and beyond?

The need to subscribe or renew annually will become unnecessary.

Once your unit is on Scoutbook, you’ll be set for as long as your unit would like to continue using this free tool.

How will making Scoutbook free affect its performance?

Scoutbook will only continue to improve.

The BSA IT and Member Care teams will continue to support Scoutbook with their timely service and quality resources. Scoutbook performance enhancements have been implemented regularly over the years, and its performance is continually monitored. That will continue.

What’s new in this release of Scoutbook?

Scoutbook has a new Single Sign On (SSO) process that will allow users to easily create accounts with the same properties as my.scouting accounts.

You’ll use the same account credentials (username and password) for both platforms. This makes things much easier for users by streamlining the login process.

For details, consult this list of Frequently Asked Questions [PDF], which includes a step-by-step guide for use of SSO.

Where can I get more information about this change in Scoutbook?

Keep an eye on Scoutbook.com for all the latest updates.

If you still have questions, you can always contact the friendly and helpful folks at Scoutbook support. Their email: Scoutbook.support@scouting.org

Troop 1959 from Fort Washington, MD A Bike Ride to Remember: A Scouts View

July 20, 2018 by The Scouter Digest Staff

by Kawbena McGaneyOsei,
Senior Patrol Leader

June 29th, 2018; The beginning of our terrifying yet thrilling adventure. Today is the day that Troop 1959 from Fort Washington, MD would embark on a 90-mile bike ride to Whiteford, MD. A trip that is only 5 miles from the border of Pennsylvania, a total of 10 hours, spread across 3 days. A year ago, Troop 1959 attended Goshen Summer Camp, where we came across another troop who had biked to California and back. Immediately my Scoutmaster envisioned the same for us. From the birth of the idea to days beforehand, Troop 1959 had been training. Once a month we would gear up and prep ourselves for a ride. We would practice 5 miles here, 10 miles there, eventually all leading up to our 50 mile finale. We also needed to make sure our diets were ready. We switched the chips and soda for fresh fruit and water. All the prep would make it worth it in the end.

The first day, our ride was enjoyable! We were able to keep up a reasonable pace and distance. Day two was a different story, the heat and hills were almost unbearable. Our strength, and endurance was definitely tested. Day two was without a doubt the hardest leg of the trip. The final day wasn’t a breeze, but nothing compared to the dreaded day before. Luckily this day gave us downward hills and cooler temperatures. One of my favorite parts of this trip was the hotel nights, after a long day of biking. We were able to make a lot of memories and bond with one another. The trip allowed me to discover my strengths and weaknesses, it gave me a roadmap for how to do even better on our next adventure! I never thought I would do this in a million years. I’m sure a lot of us, didn’t think we would make it (especially on day two). But with every pedal we believed in ourselves! Plus, a great 80s playlist for motivation is a big help!