Monday, December 31, 2007

Day #5-Looe Key

Today we got to go out to Looe Key, one of the best reefs in the world. We saw hundreds of fish and coral. An awesome experience.

Our meals have been interesting to say the least. We are encouraged to mix and match. Lunch today consisted of pork & beans, rice, and Spam. Viet made up some pancakes with hot chocolate powder and Cheerios too. Both were actually good!

The guys helped with some service and helped pick up some trash around the beach. After supper, the staff treated us all to an "island madness" campfire party complete with death match crab races. The staff really make this trip High Adventure!


Snorkeling at Looe Key.


Don't look at it, just eat it!


Crazed Staff members!!!!!!

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Day #4-Explore

We had a really strong wind during the night that zapped our dining fly. We end up leaving it down because we are hardly in camp anyway.

Today is spent exploring Munson Island and learning about all of the history, plants, and animals. Snorkeling, rest, tree climbing, going through the mangrove maze, and shark fishing too. Ask Hogg about the one that got away!

Every evening we have a campfire and sit around and laugh until we cry. They call it "Key's Disease"and we have it bad.

The Key deer and vaca coons keep waking us up at night, but hey, it is their island too.


Learning about the past.


Munson Island is wonderful.


Tree Monkeys!

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Day #3-Deep Sea Fishing

Today was our deep sea fishing day. The water was a little choppy. We only had 1 sea sickness causality.

Everyone caught some fish. It was a blast. We had the dolphin fish with some mac and cheese for supper and it was yummy and I normally don't like fish.

The guys close the day with some night snorkeling.


Cut bait or fish?


Supper!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Day #2-Paddle Time?

A good nights sleep can fix anything. We get up around 7:00 am and have the flag raising and breakfast. We are issued our gear and go through swim checks. I get the first jelly fish sting!

Lunch and what is supposed to be a 2 hour paddle turns into a 4 hour zigzag to Munson Island.

Ours guys get settled in and enjoy catching crabs and critters to cook and eat.


Alexander helps stock up.


Island play time.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Day #1-Let's Go!

We meet at the First Presbyterian Church and leave at midnight and drive to Lexington. The Dairy Queen at Clay City is closed, so we grab a bite at a Waffle House in Lexington at 3:00 am.

We leave Lex. early and finally make it to Key West. Nice place! After a short tour and a quick bite, we head out to the Briton Environmental Center.

Check in is quick and easy and we meet our Mate, Sam McWilliams from Illinois. Strange guy, but most of the staff so far are. Reminds me of my Maine days.

After supper, we are treated to a campfire and a slide show to introduce us to all of the plants and critters we are about to encounter.

Being up 36 straight hours without sleep is tough, but it is worth it. We are here!


Hogg poses in Key West.


A good sign to finally see!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Headin' South


HoggMan, Baby Goff, Andy Smith, Viet Pham, and I, along with Benjamin Alexander and a couple of other Scouts are heading south to Sea Base. We are leaving Pikeville tonight at midnight! Flight out of Lexington at 5:20 am. Wahhhhh!
There is no electricity where we are going, so I'll come back and post pictures and stories of our great adventure later. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Monday, December 24, 2007

Wish List

Andy Smith - a real hair cut
Baby Goff - any kind of hair cut
Alex Hill - just a good hair cut

Billy Zoellers - enough hard drive space to rule the world
Don Combs - enough votes to rule the OA
Will Hogg - enough sense to come out of the rain

Michael Shepherd - a finalized Eagle Project
Aaron Shepherd - a finished Eagle Project
Viet Pham - a fantastic Eagle Board of Review

All Scouts and Scouters around the world - Good Scouting in 2008!

Friday, December 21, 2007

The BIG Meetin'

While we are heading to Florida next week, Don Combs, our Section Chief, will be going to Texas for the Big National O.A. Planning Meeting.

I've never been to one of those, but from what I have heard about the youth National and Regional officer positions and how tough it is to serve, my hat is off to all of those who want the jobs!

The Southern Region O.A. site will have updates.
http://www.southern.oa-bsa.org/

Good luck Don! WWW

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Road Trip

This time next week, we'll be on a plane heading to Key West, Florida. The weather there is supposed to be in the 70's. Ha, Ha!

This will be my first trip to Sea Base. Back when I was a Scout, most Councils would take a group to Philmont, but Sea Base, Sommers (Northern Tier), and Maine High Adventure were like new cult locations that would never make it. There used to be (LBL) Land Between the Lakes High Adventure Base over in western KY, but it failed.

I don't know which I'm more excited about? Christmas or Sea Base?

Oh OK, Sea Base!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Serious Hardware

We had a great Court of Honor last night. A bunch of Merit Badges and 5 Rank Advancements. Will Hogg received his Ordinary and Bronze Sea Scout award. Don racked up big time with the Ordinary, Quest award, Bronze award, Gold award, and Silver award. I know that sounds like a lot for one person, but believe me, I didn't let Don slide, and he has earned every one.


Scouty Claus always makes his presence known to us in December. This year he gave everybody a special Merit Badge. Badges like Outhouse Tipping, Toilet Clogging, Pyro Maniac, and Fart Lighting. I got the Ebsa Ebay Bidding Merit Badge. Do I really buy that many patches on Ebay?


My big announcement at the close was, that I am retiring as Scoutmaster of Troop 12.


I will continue as Assistant Scoutmaster, Crew Adviser, Ship Mate, Roundtable Commissioner, Chapter Adviser, and Van Driver. I ain't going any where. Just giving up the top job to one of the best Troops in the history of the BSA!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Award Time

We are doing our end of the year Court of Honor tonight with a new twist. Venture awards.

I concocted this new candle thing. It has bronze, gold, and silver candles to represent the 3 Venturing awards. There really aren't any ceremonies for Venturing, so we are making our own up.

Awards should be presented in a meaningful and significant setting. I just hope the candles don't fall off!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Chapter Party

We had our end of the year, Tomahaken Chapter Party today and it was a good one!

13 different O.A. members braved the cold and flying snow to celebrate another year of brotherhood and cheerful service. It really looks like that we may have a serious Dance Team in the making, thanks to Glen Felty and Doug Ramy. We recognized our youth officers for their fine work and then we did, what we do best. Eat!

The food this year would put most office parties to shame. Lil' BBQ wieners, hot wings, cheese, crackers, nuts, chips, pumpkin dip with ginger bread cookies, and of course a new tradition of deep fried twinkies. Yum, Yum. Thanks Glen and Juanita.

They guys played a couple rounds of the highly popular debate game "Murder". Don and Alex got killed a lot. Wonder why?

2008 will be an interesting year for our rag tag group. A new crop of young Arrowmen will take over the leadership roles. I'm guessing that they will do great.


Friday, December 14, 2007

Bookmarks

Please visit this very special collection of tools,
used by a master,
to build a better world.

Bookmarks for Dan O'Canna

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Gone Home












Dan O'Canna, one of the great Scouters, passed away this morning.


May the great Scoutmaster of all Scouts, be with his wife Maryanne, during this time of sadness.

Ireland 2008

International Scouting is like patch trading or badge swapping. Once you try it, you are hooked for life!

The boys down in Miami got it bad! They are heading up a group to go over to the Ireland Jamboree in 2008. http://www.jamboree2008.com/jamboree.html

We camped next to the Irish this past summer and they were a wonderful group. The event should be a blast. If we weren't going to Philmont, Sea Base, and Northern Tier this summer, we would be on the plane to Ireland!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Get Certified

If you go to http://olc.scouting.org/ , the BSA's Online Learning Center, you can learn some valuable stuff.

Available are the annual regulars like Youth Protection, Safe Swim Defense, and Safety Afloat, but you can learn about Troop or District Committees too. All of the trainings are excellent and worth the time!

I recently did the Venturing YPT and learned a great deal about teenagers.

Take the time, register, and take these classes at your leisure. When you are finished, you are undoubtedly certified and can print out a card to prove it.

Which makes us all a "certified card carrying _________". You fill in the blank!

Friday, December 7, 2007

Final In Phily


Boy Scouts Lose Philadelphia Lease in Gay-Rights Fight By Ian Urbina

PHILADELPHIA, — For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928.

Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.

But over the years the fight between the city and the Scouts was about more than this grandiose structure in Center City.

Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates. Boy Scout officials said it was about preserving their culture, protecting the right of private organizations to remain exclusive and defending traditions like requiring members to swear an oath of duty to God and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly homosexual.

This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.

“At the end of the day, you can not be in a city-owned facility being subsidized by the taxpayers and not have language in your lease that talks about nondiscrimination,” said City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke, who represents the district where the building is located. “Negotiations are over.”

Mr. Clarke said talks ended this week when the deadline passed for the local chapter to change its policy; on June 1 the group will be evicted.

“Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders,” said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts. “A belief in God is also mentioned in the Scout oath. We believe that those values are important. Tradition is important. Our mission is to instill those values in scouts and help them make good choices over their lifetimes.”

In 2000, the Supreme Court decided a case — Boy Scouts of America v. Dale — involving an openly gay scout from New Jersey who was barred from serving as troop leader. The court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that, as a private organization, the group had a First Amendment right to set its membership rules.

The issue became a local concern in Philadelphia in May 2003 when the national Boy Scouts held their annual meeting in the city. During the conference, a local scout challenged the organization’s policies by announcing on television that he was gay and that he was a devoted member of the organization. He was promptly dismissed by the local chapter, which is called the Cradle of Liberty Council.

Municipal officials drew the line at the Beaux Arts building because the city owns the half-acre of land where the building stands. The Boy Scouts erected the ornate building and since 1928 have leased the land from the city for a token sum of $1 a year. City officials said the market value for renting the building was about $200,000 a year, and they invited the Boy Scouts to remain as full-paying tenants.

Jeff Jubelirer, a spokesman for the local chapter, said it could not afford $200,000 a year in rent, and that such a price would require it to cut summer-camp funds for 800 needy children.

“With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of children almost daily in this city, it’s ironic that this administration chose to destroy programming that services thousands of children in the city,” Mr. Jubelirer said. He added that the organization serves more than 69,000 young people, mostly from the inner city, and that its programming focuses on mentoring and after-school programs instead of camping trips.

But Stacey Sobel, executive director of Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, a gay-rights advocacy group based in Philadelphia, said: “Allowing the Boy Scouts to use this building rent free sends a message that the city approves of their policy. We are not looking to kick the Boy Scouts out. We just want them to play by the same rules as everyone else in the city.”

Ms. Sobel said the city required that any organization that rented property from it agree to nondiscriminatory language in its lease. The Boy Scouts skirted the requirement by never having had to sign a lease because they were given use of the building by city ordinance in the 1920s.

Local scout leaders said they tried hard to find a compromise between the city and their own national office, and in 2005 they seemed poised to agree on a policy statement adopted by the Boy Scouts in New York, which did not renounce the prohibition against gay members, but affirmed that “prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable.”

But last year, city officials wrote Cradle of Liberty Council officials to say that suggested policy statement could not be reconciled with Philadelphia’s antidiscrimination ordinance.

On May 31, the City Council voted 16-to-1 to authorize ending the lease, though Mr. Clarke and other Council members continued trying to negotiate a settlement. Those efforts ended this week, Mr. Clarke said, adding that he had shifted his energy toward trying to see if there was a way the city could reimburse the group for improvements it had made to the property over the years.

Boy Scout officials said they do not have a cost estimate for the improvements, but Mr. Jubelirer said it would exceed $5 million.

Flipping through an aged book of fund-raising encouragement for construction of the building — from dignitaries like Helen Keller, Babe Ruth and Winston Churchill — Chuck Eaton, director of field service for the local chapter, noted how the past contrasted with the present.

In front of the building, the wording on a statue of a boy standing sentinel also marks the passage of time. “The past is our heritage,” it reads. “The present our opportunity. The future our hope.”

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Image Is Everything

The Boy Scouts of America were recognized this week at the East Kentucky Miners vs Atlanta Krunk CBA basketball game in Pikeville. Interstate Natural Gas is recognizing different community organizations at every home game.

It was pretty cool to walk out to center court in uniform. The crowd of 1,000 + even cheered!

I believe that the image of Scouting is changing here in the "Hills". Several folks have commented to me that they "didn't realize that Boy Scouts did so many fun things" like whitewater, snow skiing, rappelling, and all of the really cool road trips like England, Sea Base, Northern Tier, and Philmont.

Some local opinions of Scouting may vary.

Here, we are the group that youth want to join and people want to support.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Too Much Haken?

I've been getting a lot of grief for "getting all of the awards" at the Winter Banquet Saturday. Our Chapter and members received 11 of the 19 honors awarded or bestowed. 58% is a bunch, but I'm sorry, I can't apologize (no pun intended).

We were the only ones active in 2005 at the end of the Todd, Todd, and Todd era. Heck, Don wasn't even going to run for Lodge Chief, but as fate would have it, he was thrust into it, and well, the rest is history in the making as he serves as our Section SR-6N Cheif and has even larger ambitions.

I was delighted to talk to Barby Newell and learn that she had 9 youth at the Banquet and things are starting to click in the Tecumseh Chapter. Cody Todd, from Gikino Ballet, had his guys there too with a book 15 inches thick full of OA info. They will be a big factor in 2008. Joel Medendorp has started a Dance Team in the Sheltowee Chapter and I expect great things from that group.

I've been told that if you look back over the history of Kawida Lodge, you will find that there has been a single strong group that has led. Right now, is our time. Nothing lasts forever, except the values learned through brotherhood, cheerfulness, and service.

Monday, December 3, 2007

2008 Vigil


As an adult leader, I am proud of my Scouts. I'm especially proud of them when they perform a flag ceremony, receive a rank advancement, but I am blown away when one of them receives the Vigil Honor! We had 3 called out for that honor Saturday night.

Andy, Billy, and Don all 3 transferred as Life Scouts when we started Troop 12. They could have easily gotten their Eagle and gone on and done other things, as some of their fellow Scouts did in old Troop 10. However, all 3 chose to stay in Scouting and have obviously excelled.

There will probably be 100+ Eagle Scouts awarded in our Council this year, and only 3 youth Vigil Honors. Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of my Scouts?

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Winter Banquet

Santa Claus was good to Kawida Lodge at last night's O.A. Winter Banquet. There was a big crowd and the food was the best ever!

The day started out early with Camp Promo, Staff Interviews, Leave No Trace, an impromptu Venturing meeting, Sea Base meeting, and finally the Banquet. A lot got done, but it all seems like a blur now. I just wish that we could have had more time to fellowship, but the show must go on and did it ever!

Our Tomahaken Chapter once again attained the status of Quality Chapter for the 3rd year in a row. That speaks volumes of what the leaders and Scouts from the "Hills" are doing to embody the values of the Order of the Arrow. Thanks guys!

The 2008 Lodge Officers were inducted and we have a big job ahead. 2007 was a good year.

Nothing But Great In 2008!