MSPP #38: Mike’s Eagle Slideshow

on May 19, 2008 in court of honor, Eagle, podcast

Since I became the scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 68, I have had every Eagle Scout court of honor videotaped for our local cable television access station. This weekend I taped the seventeenth ceremony. It was a great court of honor. I am probably as proud as each of the parents when the Eagle Award is pinned onto the Scout’s uniform.

As the date approached for the tenth Eagle court of honor in 2002, I was getting a head start on producing the television program by preparing the opening titles. I was using several photographs I had taken of the Scout over the years and putting together a 60-90 second slideshow over which I planned to put the opening titles.

It was working out pretty well when I received a call from the Scout’s mother. She was concerned that one of the speakers would be arriving a few minutes late for the court of honor and what could be done to fill some time until he arrived. I looked at my computer screen and explained what I was working on, and then suggested that we could add more photographs and make it part of the ceremony. She thought that was an excellent idea. After she hung up she began looking for photographs from his Cub Scout years to add to the slideshow.

During the next week we were scanning photographs and trying to get this done in time for the court of honor. The date of the ceremony finally arrived, as did the speaker, right on time. Oh well, the slideshow was now part of the program so we showed it, and everyone loved it.

I have had to do a slideshow for each Eagle Scout since then. To tell the truth, I do not mind. The Scout, his parents and family, and the members of the audience have always enjoyed watching the shows. Everyone likes seeing how this young man has grown doing his Scouting years.

This weekend I attended the court of honor of my seventeenth Eagle Scout. (My Eagle Scout??) Mike helped with this slideshow, choosing the music and the pictures from my photo collection. His parents were not involved in the preparation of the slideshow. He wanted it to be a surprise to them. Everyone at the ceremony enjoyed the show, including his parents, and got a few chuckles from some of the photographs we included.

Mike has given me permission to share this video with you. I hope this will be an example of something you could add to your troop’s Eagle courts of honor, if you are not already doing it.

This video will not have the PTC media logo or the MSPP logo at the beginning of the video. I just did not feel comfortable adding them to an Eagle Scout video.

If you enjoy this video I would appreciate hearing from you. Do you do anything like this in your own troop? Drop me a line and let me know by emailing me at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org, or at the PTC Media forums, or by going to my iTunes feed. Thank you.

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