Summer Camp recap & Troop News

We had one of our best summer camps in recent memory this year..Want to thank Mr. Lepianka, Major Kidd, Mr. Gunn for spending the entire week with us and for Mr. Elmore for coming in Wednesday until we departed Sat Morning earlier than we ever left than we can remember.

It was one of our most spirited fun camps in a long time with the boys leading the way in spirit for the rest of the Camp....which earned them the Camp Spirit Award and Commissions best Camp site award for the week.

Mr. Frost will publish the results of the merit badges soon so the Scouts who earned a partial can get to work on those quickly to complete them. All of the new Scouts attending earned their Tenderfoot rank, should be complete with Second Class when they attend Shiloh for the Compass requirement and should have completed their First Class by the beginning of next year. E Gibbs and A Yarbrough completed their Second Class rank at camp and J Clark (Life) and J Taylor (Star) received their Board of Review at camp. All of the Sharks attending also earned the following merit badges: First Aid, Swimming, Fingerprinting, Emergency Preparation, and Orienteering. Want to thank Mr. Griffith for taking an entire day to complete all the requirements for first aid for all the Sharks and for teaching the First Aid Merit Badge and likewise to Major Kidd for assisting all the attending Scouts in earning the Orienteering Merit badge this week. From appearances, few older Scouts earned less than four merit badges.

This year more than six Scouts, incuding Mr. Lepianka, swam the mile swim: D Lepianka, Z Gandy, Z Morrow, E Kidd, and A Yarbrough.

Finally, thanks to their volunteering, D Holditch (Canoe), A Yarbrough (swimming) and E Davis (Running) competed in the Camp Iron Man Marathon and earned us an overall second place.. Everyone competed in the Camp Water Carmival and kept as a strong competitors throughout.

The new water slide (sidewainder) was real popular and constantly used by the Scouts also.

The weather the entire time was comfortable. The food in the dining hall was above average when compared to times past. Fijnally, during the last night we experienced some of the wind from the storm but had no rain until we were packed and on our way home.

We have had a record number of Scouts attending camp as Counselors this year: P Kidd, D Peterson, J Kunka, and J Ellis along with J Ng (CIT), J Clark, B Garrett, and M Frost will be there in the next few weeks also. This is a good, paid experience for the boys to consider each year in terms of leadership development, fun, service, and time well spent during the summer months in the Scouting Program.

The following Scouts were tapped out for the Order of the Arrow during summer camp, making them eligible to be members of the OA: B Debalsi, S Hardy, S Hardy, J Taylor, M Gunn, A Turner, and N Madison. Mr. Berry and B Garrett went through the Ordeal in May at Camp Comer. All the information required for the follow-up on this is at: coosa50.org. He should plan on attending.

There are about 21 Scouts and leaders now active OA members in the Troop, including five Scouts, J and K Berry, P Kidd, J Ng, and J Kunka (the Coosa Lodge pre-ordeal ceremonies team), who with the new tapped out candidates should plan on earning their Brotherhood at the next OA Ordeal in August at Camp Comer (See coosa50.org). This is a great deal of fun and adventure and should be a routine part of their road to Eagle. More will be published as we get closer to the time.

We will get some digital pictures of camp to Mr. Simon for posting on the web site in the next few days..

Thanks again for sending your son and participating with us to make the summer camp as great as it was.

There is a Patrol leaders Conference at 6:45 PM Monday, June 15..please make sure the Scout is present for this in order to plan out the next month's agenda. Also feel free to attend the Troop Committe Meeting following at 8:00 PM if you haven't attended in the past and join us in keeping the "show on the road."

Have you taken a look at the Sea Base Pictures posted on the Troop web site yet....great time there for sure....

Thanks to Mr. Hardy, Mrs. Kidd, Mr. Branin, Mr. Harbin, and Mr Smith for continuing to sit on District Eagle Boards for us this last week . Thanks to their time and effort, especially Mr. Harbin, for assuring J Ellis and A Byrd's Eagle projects were approved with the same for J Kunka's next month.

Thanks for all your support...

YiS Dan

"Delivering the Promise"