A Scoutmaster's Blog

It is nearly time for Scouting Anniversary to begin. Troops and Packs around the country will be participating in the celebration. Many units will start the week by attending local religious services on Scout Sunday, February 4th.

In Central Minnesota we have a local newspaper, the Shopper, that helps support the program by including a supplement for Scout Week. This year it is a four page spread and includes pictures from 7 Cub Scout Packs and six Boy Scout Troops. Melrose Cub Scout Pack 68 and Boy Scout Troop 68 are included in the spread, of course.

We nearly did not make it this year. The troop did not have a recent photo ready to turn in. Luckily, on Saturday January 27th, the troop had an activity that allowed us to get a photo that included most of the current Scouts and adult leaders. The Cub Scout Pack also had to scramble a bit for a photo that included a fair portion of the pack membership.

Not only is it great to see this type of promotion in a local paper, but it is also great to see all the sponsors who have an ad with the spread that paid for the four pages. The packs and troops would like to give a big Scout Salute to those businesses.

Of course, in the name of youth protection, I removed the names of the Scouts before I posted the photos to this blog. You can click on the pictures for a larger view of the photos.

Does your local newspaper do anything like this to celebrate the anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America?

My good friend Bob recently send me a photo of a new patch available from the council office. The patch celebrates the 75th anniversary of Parker Scout Camp, our council’s camp. Of course, I needed one for my collection. He picked one up for me and dropped it off Friday afternoon.

I have a lot of memories from Parker Scout Camp. I attended summer camp there for three years in the 1970’s. Our troop has used the camp for many weekend outings during the last three decades, including winter camps and district camporees. The Naguonabe Lodge holds most of their Order of the Arrow functions at the camp.

While the camp closed as a summer camp after the 1970’s it is still used a lot for weekend Boy Scout outings, Cub Scout day camps, and youth and adult training sessions. In fact, I heard it once said that the camp probably gets more use now than it did during the summer camp years.

The camp was established in 1941 by Clyde Parker. It is located north of Brainerd on North Long Lake.  The camp has gone through a few names changes over its 75 year history. I think its first name was Camp Clyde. When I went there for summer camp it was called Parker Scout Reservation. Now it is simply Parker Scout Camp. The camp is unique in that it has a castle on the property, with modern conveniences of course. The castle is popular with the Cub Scouts during day camps. Troops can rent it for weekend outings.

Information about the camp can be found at http://www.bsacmc.org/parker-scout-camp .

Wow. I just realized I missed the anniversary of this blog. It is hard to believe all the years that I have been sharing my thoughts, activities, and special events with you through this site known as A Scoutmaster’s Blog. How many years is that, you ask? Well, let’s see. The first blog article was posted on May 18, 2006. This blog is now ten years old! Again, I say WOW! (Do I get a ten year pin for this?)

I never would have dreamed back in 2006 that I would still be writing articles about Troop 68 ten years later. I have shared a lot of articles about the comings and goings of the local troop. I have also shared a lot of my own thoughts during the last decade. When I started this blog there were not many Scoutmasters who had one. There still are not many, but there are a few others out their nearly as old as this one, and probably much better than mine.

Here are a few statistics of this blog. There have been over 1000 articles written. Most have been written by me, but I did allow a few troop alumni to write articles about their memories of being a Boy Scout. Hundreds of pictures have been shared with you. The blog has received nearly half a million page views, which I think is something to be proud of. This blog got me into podcasting both a video and an audio podcast for several years, and introduced me to other Scouting themed podcasters. Together we formed PTC Media, a network of Scouting themed podcasts.

I sometimes think I should take all these articles and form them into a book format, but when I think about all the work that would involve I forget about it and move onto something else. Maybe after I retire and find I need something to do with all that time I will have on my hands…

After I retired as the scoutmaster of Melrose Troop 68 at the end of 2011, I thought about changing the name of the blog, but I decided to keep it. It is where people have come to know me and I did not want to ruin that. I figure that after spending 35 years as a scoutmaster I maybe deserve the right to keep the name of this blog as it is. Even though I do not write as often as I used to, I still write most of my articles about Boy Scouting.

Will I be writing for another ten years? I have no idea. Probably, if I am still involved with Scouting. After all, it only takes an hour a week you know.

In my last post I wrote about the four displays that Troop 68 set up around town for this year’s Scouting Anniversary week. I have collected quite a bit of Scouting related stuff during the past 33 years so it is not very hard finding items and photos to fill four displays. In fact, I could probably do a couple more if we had more places to set them up.

All this got me thinking about how many years I have been setting up displays in town, so I opened the old photo books and did a little looking back. I discovered that our Scouting display was set up in February 1985 at the Melrose State Bank. It was a project done by Cubmaster Joe Timmins and myself who was the scoutmaster. It was a fairly large setup. It contained Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting memorabilia, enough to fill two small tables. We also included a tent and some camping gear. You were not going to miss this display when you entered the bank lobby.

I scanned some of the photos of this first display so I could share them with you. Our current displays are a little different these days (as you can see from my last post) and do not include any tents. The lobbies of the current establishments are not big enough to set up a campsite.

It is that time of year again. Next week the Boy Scouts of America will celebrate its birthday. For 104 years boys and young men have enjoyed participating it the exciting program Scouting offers. I was one of those boys in the 1970’s. I enjoyed the program so much that when I was 19 years old I rejoined my hometown troop as an assistant scoutmaster. Shortly after I reached the age of 21 the troop committee appointed me as the scoutmaster, a position I held for over 30 years. I currently serve as a committee member.

Our local weekly newspaper, the Melrose Beacon, has been a great supporter of Scouting for over 30 years. They have printed hundreds of articles I have submitted, along with hundreds of photos of the Scouts enjoying their program. They have recognized nearly every Eagle Scout of Troop 68 with his own article.

In today’s issue of the Melrose Beacon there is a two page spread recognizing Scouting in our community. Five photos are included of the Boy Scout having fun on outings and doing service in the community. I think the editors did a great job putting this together. (Click on the picture to see a larger version.)

The troop would like to thanks the Melrose Beacon for once again recognizing Boy Scout Troop 68 during Scouting Anniversary Week. We would also like to thank the sponsors of the spread: the Melrose VFW Club, Midwest Dental, Kraemer Lumber Co., Spaeth Sodding and Landscaping, Coborn’s Grocery, Freeport State Bank, Heartland Security, and Hennen Lumber Co.

Has your local newspaper done anything like this?

Our local newspaper, the Melrose Beacon, showed their support of the Scouting program last month by printing a full page ad to celebrate the Boy Scouts of America’s anniversary. The ad featured photos of Cub Scout Pack 68 and Boy Scout Troop 68. It also featured the Boy Scout Oath and a short description of the goals of the program. (Click on the picture for a larger view.) The newspaper has done a full page Scouting ad for anniversary week for a number of years now.

The Melrose Beacon has been a supporter of Scouting since the troop began in late 1979 when it published a note about organizing a Boy Scout troop in town. I became involved with the troop in May 1980 and soon began writing stories about troop events and submitting pictures from troop activities to the Beacon. The newspaper has always been great about printing these stories. In fact, I must have done a pretty good job of writing them because only once do I remember them editing a story.

The pack and troop would like to thank the following businesses and organizations for picking up the cost of this year’s ad: VFW post 7050 (the troop’s charter sponsor). Coborn’s Grocery Store, Spaeth Sodding and Landscaping, Heartland Security, Freeport State Bank, Kraemer Lumber Company, Melrose Dental Office, and Hennen Lumber Company. This ad would not have been possible without their financial support.

Does your local newspaper support your local Scouting program? Do they print articles and photos of your troop activities?

It is time to join Scoutmaster Steve and Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, Around The Scouting Campfire. In this episode they discuss city proclamations about the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th anniversary and Scouting For Food, some iTunes reviews, reasons you might be a Boy Scout, and gopher guts (the song).

Steve and Buttons thank PTC Media (http://www.ptcmedia.net) for allowing this program to be a part of the family of Scouting related podcasts. We would like to thank the Boy Scout Store (http://boyscoutstore.com) for sponsoring this show. Be sure to take a moment to check out their website. Finally, we would like to thank you, our listeners, for downloading Around The Scouting campfire.

Last week I wrote about the displays I planned to place around town for Scouting Week. Three of the four were set up. I have not got around to the fourth one yet. I thought you may enjoy seeing pictures of the exhibits so here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevejb68/sets/72157623361768222/

Let me know what you think about them.