Wednesday, August 29, 2007

100 Years of Scouting/ Wood Badge NE-1-259

Greetings to all!
I
thought I would forward this to all of you great folks in Great
Northern... I know that there are some awfully talented patch designers
in our District. How proud would we all be if this were to put our
little District on the National map.
I'm just
back from a staff development weekend at Hidden Valley. We are
preparing for a FANTASTIC Wood Badge course. I wanted to give you all a
'heads-up'; there are a couple of slots still available. PLEASE if
anyone is at all interested, now is the time. This is going to be a
wonderful course... the Staff is so PUMPED-UP!!! This is the first time
in a l-o-n-g time that this Council has had all of the Patrols
represented... the word is out... this is a course not to be missed.
If this
years course is just not in the cards for you, please get your name in
for next year... they already have 9 slots full. As this is a Jambo
year I wouldn't be surprised to see next years course full before the
1st of the year.
-WARNING- taking this course will change your life!
If you are not ready for a, positive, life altering experience... PLEASE don't even think of signing up for this course.
A
word to the wise... for those folks that have had the good sense to
already be on the course roster... START FASTING NOW... there is a
professional chef on Staff, in the kitchen. this year... you will not
be hungry. I now have a clear understanding of why there is elastic in
the waistband of our uniform pants!
All the best!
Andy C


Powered by ScribeFire.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

LET'S GET THIS PROGRAM ROLLING!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys it's time to jump in with both feet!

Our Program Kick-off is going to be at Echo Lake on the 30th.


5:30 pm Committee Meeting/ Swimming
6:30 pm Dinner
A Troop/ Parents Meeting will follow dinner (bring a notebook and pen).



Following the meeting we will have a Patrol dessert challenge.


Remember a Scout is PREPARED... make sure you are for this OUTING (think the ten essentials).


We will provide the materials for dessert. You need to be prepared to find it, hunt it down, cook it and eat it.


We should be out of the Park by 7:30- 8pm

This will be a family event, we'll have a pot-luck cookout, handout calendars for the year and generally have a GREAT time.


This will be a meeting that you don't want to miss.



Bring a friend to check out Scouting.

You guys are the best advertising that Scouting has... if you enjoy
Scouting share it with a friend. I'm fairly certain that most of you
have friends that are not in Scouting. If you get a buddy to sign-up I
will have a special incentive for you (more than just the good feeling
that you'll get by sharing this with a pal).



See you all on Thursday!



Mr. C


Powered by ScribeFire.

Scouting and religion

Monday, August 13, 2007

World Jamboree



Camping way out: Ohio boys mingle with global scouts
Camping way out: Ohio boys mingle with global scouts

By By SHELLEY EMLING

Cox News Service

Sunday, August 12, 2007

CHELMSFORD, England — Larry De Pasquale, Jr., a 15-year-old Boy Scout from Xenia had arrived at the World Scout Jamboree only 24 hours earlier and already he'd finagled his first dinner invitation to another campsite.
Extras
Latest headlines

* Bailey positive after painless session in 'pen, begins rehab
* Giles, Peavy put hurtin' on Reds
* BTN likely to be cast off as quick as ESPNU
* Wealth of depth with linebackers should keep defense formidable
* Bodden excited about defense

RSS feedsGet latest headlines via RSS feeds

A Scout leader, Charles Goodwin, head of general surgery at Children's Medical Center in Dayton, broke out in laughter.

"Is there a girl involved?" said Goodwin, called "Doc" by the Scouts.

De Pasquale, a freshman at Xenia High School, assured him there wasn't. But the look on the teenager's face was less convincing.

De Pasquale is among 40,000 Scouts and troop leaders from more than 160 countries attending the 21st World Scout Jamboree this week at Hylands Park, east of London.

Although much of what the 33 Ohio Scouts are encountering is familiar — there are plenty of tents and beef stew and camp songs — there is also the less familiar: girls.

Almost half the 14- to 18-year-old Scouts here are female. Unlike in the United States, most countries have co-ed Scout troops.

"There's been a cultural explosion in my address book," said Michael DeFleice, a 16—year—old from Cleveland. "I've already collected more than 10 phone numbers."

"And a few of them are from girls," he added.

The jamboree coincides with the 100th anniversary last Wednesday of the launch of the Scout movement by British war hero Robert Baden-Powell in 1907.

There are 3,000 or so American Scouts attending the biggest event in the history of scouting. The 12-day jamboree — which ran through Aug. 8 - featured Scouts from countries as far-flung as Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea and Kazakhstan, Angola and Argentina.

"We have a group of Scouts from Belgium next door," said David Hoy, a 17-year-old from Dayton. "Macedonia is just over there. And so are the German Scouts. They have the black tents that are very distinct."

In order to meet their neighbors, the Ohio Scouts make popcorn every night to share with others from different countries.

"I brought a whole bag — which probably weighed 50 pounds — of popcorn and seasoning with me from Ohio," said Goodwin, who's been a Scoutmaster for 22 years.

While the American Scouts dress in traditional khaki attire, Scouts from other parts of the world wear sombreros and Stetsons, bandanas and blazers. Scottish Scouts sport kilts, while Danish Scouts wear sky-blue T-shirts that read "Return of the Vikings."

What they all have in common are their neckerchiefs and the "woggles" designed to secure them — and a strong desire to get to know Scouts from other countries.

"We're walking around a lot and looking at the different uniforms," said Murry Chelette Jr., 14, a freshman at Centerville High School. "Some of the Scouts' uniforms look just like normal people's clothes."

"They don't look like our uniforms at all," he said.

David Milam, 14, also a freshman at Centerville High School, said he's been a Scout for three years and that the best part has always been camping outdoors.

"I especially like the food because when you cook over a fire it gives the food a different taste," he said.

Unfortunately for Milam, cooking on open fires was banned at the jamboree — due to health and safety regulations — and so cooking has been done on gas stoves under careful supervision.

But there will be plenty for Milam to focus on this week besides food.

After the jamboree ends, the Ohio Scouts will go on to tour London with visits to Windsor Castle, the Tower of London, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, and the British Museum.

Britain's Prince William opened the event. Although he didn't make a speech, William, 25, who is second in line to the throne and who has never been a Scout, toured the camp site and mingled politely with the Scouts, accepting dozens of neckerchiefs as gifts.

The international jamboree happens once every four years and this year's theme is "One World, One Promise."

The jamboree features traditional adventures such as days of water sports, community service, and outdoor challenges such as rock climbing, as well as everything from evening discos to workshops on climate change.

Goodwin said he was glad the boys were making friends.

"It doesn't hurt to have international connections," he said.

If nothing else, the jamboree offered the Scouts a valuable lesson in logistics.

On 574 acres of parkland, a virtual city has been erected for the jamboree, complete with a tented church, mosque, temples, synagogue, a hospital, grocery stores, Internet kiosks, and restaurants such as the Czech Lion, which advertised Czech beer, Czech lemonades, and Czech specialties.

Lighting, plumbing, and flagpoles all have been installed.

And then there are the food provisions.

Over 12 days, organizers expect the Scouts to consume 60 tons of apples while boiling 800,000 eggs.

"Just imagine that we started with an empty piece of ground and we built it up for three weeks and then it will all be torn down again so that there's not a trace left," said Virgil Reed, a Cincinnati resident and one of the Boy Scouts of America's national contingent of volunteers.

The sheer magnitude of the jamboree — eight years in the making — is a sure sign of scouting's resurgence around the world in the last few years. Today there are 28 million Scouts with about 1 million Boy Scouts in the United States.

In recent years, Scout troops have tried to make scouting more relevant. Instead of picking up proficiency badges for tying knots or making fires, Scouts today can earn badges for more "modern" skills such as skateboarding and public relations.

The efforts have paid off. This week's jamboree is 2,000 times bigger than the original camping excursion for 20 boys organized on Brownsea Island, England, by Baden-Powell in 1907.

Baden-Powell, a celebrated silver-mustachioed British general, founded the scouting movement in an effort to boost boys' physical and mental stamina.

Thanks to his help in securing the first real British triumph in the Boer War in Africa, Baden-Powell was a hero among the British public at the turn of the century.

A colorful character, he warned that boys of a certain age were in danger of succumbing to "girlitis" and he implored Scouts to be the epitome of Edwardian-style manliness.

His book "Scouting for Boys" remains the fourth best-selling book of all time behind the Bible, the Quran and Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book.

Baden-Powell, who helped his sister, Agnes, establish the Girl Guides — precursor to the Girl Scouts — in 1910, died in 1941 at the age of 83.

Bill Cockcroft, director of the jamboree, said Scouts are still united by the core values set out by Baden-Powell, such as honesty and respect.

"This event gives us a unique opportunity to demonstrate the ongoing unity of scouting," he said. "Most importantly, it's a place to develop international friendships that can last a lifetime."


Powered by ScribeFire.

World Jamboree

Sounds like an interesting event.


Powered by ScribeFire.