(A) November Roundtable - Thursday, November 13th , 8:00 - 9:30pm - Falls Church High School (Rt.50 and I-495) - Peter Stavish, our District Commissioner, will be unveiling and explaining the makeup of our new District. For those who are unfamiliar with the situation, we currently reside in Patawomeck District - an large swath of land from Arlington west to Centreville and Herndon/Reston, currently with over 10,000 Scouts. As you have heard from me before, we are the largest District in the Country - larger than many Councils (and still growing) - and the powers that be have decided to split us into 4 new Districts. Not an easy task, and critical to the future of Scouting in Northern Virginia. This Roundtable will let us know what's going on, and should be of interest to all ASM's and heavily involved Committee persons. In addition, however, the Roundtable gives continuous training in many aspects of Boy Scouting, and you're welcome to attend any one of them - not just this one. They're always held on the second Thursday of each month (except July), almost always at Falls Church High School, starting at 8:00 pm.
(B) Troop Committee Potpourri - Saturday, January 24th - Location TBA. This is a series of mini- courses on virtually every aspect and function of the Troop Committee. It is an excellent intro to the jobs and responsibilities of Troop Committee members and Assistant Scoutmasters, and would be a day well spent for all the Troop committee members who have recently signed up for some of our unfilled positions. For preliminary information, call Ron Levy at 560-0074. More information will be provided by Kim Smith in future "Troop Newsletters."
We polished off the month of September with what is becoming another annual event - our "Boy Scout Night" at the opening Cub Pack 111 meeting. This was the third year we started off the Cub and Webelos Scouts with a "bang." Activities included firebuilding, a log-sawing race, and tent setup and breakdown, each very popular with all the (hopefully) future Boy Scouts. Perhaps more importantly, this event effectively re-introduces the Troop to the Pack, and reminds everyone that Scouting doesn't end with the Arrow of Light. Participants (that is, assistants) included: Charles Br., Stefan No., John Pr., Michael Ro., Danny Sc., and Nick Ti.
In October, we first hit an old favorite
- the Venture Hike-o-Ree - but on a new date. This event, which is a
High Adventure/Philmont primer involving 14 different hikes in the
Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest, has
been held for seven straight years in November. This year, however,
because of its high and still growing popularity, it was split into two
events, one in late October and the other on the traditional
mid-November date. Since the Shenandoahs are usually well past their
foliage peak (and often frigidly cold) in November, we decided to go
for the early edition, so (naturally) it was cold and wet! Sigh. We
headed out Friday evening into drizzle growing to a fairly steady rain.
Surprisingly, however, we were one of the first crews to arrive, and
were therefore able to partially set up our tents and tarp under a
pavilion before moving out into the camping area - saving us a lot of
wet gear. Per suggestion of the Scouts, we also tried something new -
setting up our tents under the tarp. Yes, they fit (albeit just
barely), and we were completely dry all night long. And it was a long
and dreary night, too, with the rain falling `til about 3 am or so.
Saturday dawned completely foggy, but
otherwise dry, and we headed out for the trek. Our hike this year was
"Massanutten Mountain/North" - a moderately challenging 9 mile long
walk-in-the-woods along the Massanutten ridgeline, from High Peak to
Veach Gap. The hike is supposed to have great views both east and west,
but we kind of got cheated on that until late in the day - mostly,
nothing but a sea of white, although things cleared a little by about
2:00 pm or so. Of interest on the hike were the ruins of Elizabeth
furnace, a nineteenth century forge which supplied raw iron for the
Tredegar Cannon forges in Richmond during the Civil War. Also notable
was the remains of a fierce ground fire on the very top of the ridge,
which covered several hundred square yards. The fire burned off
virtually everything at ground level, but fortunately never jumped into
the trees (though it was hot enough to have killed several dozen of
them with ground level heat.) I haven't seen anything like this since I
was a Scout in Pennsylvania. We also got some nice foliage views,
although most of the mountain was still surprisingly quite green.
Nine and a half miles turned out to be more
than enough, however! The last stretch of the day was pretty brutal, with
a footsore group gingerly picking their way over a trail that was more a
rocky (and watery) streambed than hiking trail; it was particularly rough
on Ryan Sh., who aggravated a sprained ankle and limped his way through
the last 4 miles of the hike. But we all made it, got our T-shirts, and
immediately headed home for the Marine Corps Marathon. Despite the rain
and fog, still a decent weekend (and the Hike-o-Ree T-Shirt was a good
one, too!) Participants included: Matt Ca., Daniel Ho., Dan Hu., Jay Pe.,
Ryan Sh., and Chris Wo. And Thanks to Gordon Pe. and Rick Wo. for "sharing
the trail."
Next up was the 22nd Annual
Marine Corps Marathon - also marking our 10th Anniversary of
participation. This one started off a bit on the dicey side, however, as
the civilian volunteer coordinator went about 9 rounds with me concerning
where we would be located. She didn't want to give us the Georgetown Water
Station, but rather preferred to scatter us here and there over half the
course. Not a workable (or desirable) scenario for us, and I finally ended
up giving her an exasperated "take-it-or-leave-it" offer on our assistance
- well, they took it, and from then on I dealt only with Marines, and
things rapidly returned to normal. Anyway, about 50 members of Troops 111
and 149 showed up the morning of the race, and after the usual hurry up
and wait standing around session, got going on setting up about 25,000
cups of water. Unusually, the Marines essentially gave us the entire water
section, while they handled the "XLR8" section; we only had a half dozen
marines for "local color." A nice vote of confidence on our abilities. Of
course, 10 years experience and the fact that we bring a lot of setup gear
does tend to inspire. It also didn't hurt that the Sergeants and
Lieutenants running the show all knew that the Georgetown Water station
was the only one that didn't run out of cups in 1996 (due to our
insistence that they get 20,000 more cups about an hour before the race
started. At all the subsequent water points, many of the later runners
were forced to retrieve cups from the gutters to get something to drink -
not the Marathon's finest moment. Well, it certainly wasn't a problem
this year - they had at least 30,000 spare cups awaiting duty!)
After cup set-up, just about everyone
headed into Georgetown for the now famous Bagel Bakery Breakfast - where
else can you get those delicious chocolate covered blueberry-onion bagels
with the garlic sprinklies? Simultaneously, however, the rains that were
due after 12 noon arrived - gee, Thanks! - and things rapidly got pretty
chilly. Great racing weather, but not so hot for fans or worker-bees. By
9:00, the bagel fest was over and we were all on hand to greet and cheer
on the first "fast-walkers," who had started at 6:30 (I think.) Next up
were the wheelchair racers - only about a dozen this year, but all moving
at real speed. The actual race got started about 20 minutes late due to a
spectator's heart attack at the starting line (he later died), so the
first runner didn't arrive until almost 9:40 (it was the guy who
eventually won), with another guy in hot pursuit about 150 yards behind
him. The Mexican contingent was next - about 4 or 5 guys all running
together - then things rapidly built up to the usual human stampede,
20,000 strong, with the rain pounding down. At the peak, the runners
filled 4 full lanes of M-Street, wall-to-wall. Of course, we were working
as hard as possible, handing out all our prepared water, plus another
5,000 cups or so filled on the fly.
Overall water consumption was way down due
to the weather conditions, but we gauged it just about right, with only a
thousand cups or so leftover by the end of the race. The XLR8 didn't fare
so well, however; the Marines were only given enough to make about 10,000
cups worth, and that was history within 20 - 25 minutes, after which they
also just handed out water - another item for the "after-action report," I
suspect. By 10:45, we were down to a trickle of "tail-end-charlies," and
we started in on the massive cleanup - breaking down all the tables,
collecting all the gear, and sweeping up about 40,000 flattened cups
scattered from 34th Street to Wisconsin Avenue.
The Marines were suitably impressed with our
efforts, and gave us extensive thanks for all our help. Another good year
- and T-Shirts and Patches all around! The T-Shirts are really good this
year - a very thick, gray cotton; probably the highest quality T-Shirt
we've ever gotten. Hey, your Tax Dollars at Work! Plus - Two T-Shirts in
one weekend for everyone who also did the Hike-o-Ree! Participants
included: Matt Ca., Kenny Ev., Matt Go., Daniel Ho., Ryan Hu., Dan and Tim
Hu., Neal Ke., Brendan Ma., Daniel Or., John Pr., Johnny Ro., Ryan Sh.,
Steven St., Dan and Nick Ti., and Eric Wo. Also Oliver Fr., a friend of
Neal Ke. Thanks to Tim Ar., David Ca., Joy Go., Jim Ho., John Ke., Lisa
Ro., David Sh., Jim and Kim Sm., Tom Ti., and the 20 participating members
of Troop 149, for sharing the wet, the cold, the bagels, and the
excitement....
Heading into November, we immediately hit
another 10th Anniversary - Scouting for Food, with a few new
twists. First, in addition to our traditional area around St. Agnes and
Waverly Hills, we returned to the Livingston Heights area that we last
hit about 5 or 6 years ago (this is the area bounded by Old Dominion,
Yorktown, George Mason and Lee Highway.) Next, we added two new
collections to our food drive - used American Flags for retirement,
plus used daypacks for donation to Arlington County schoolchildren.
Kind of killing three collection birds with one stone. On Saturday # 1
(a very dreary and rainy November 1st), we had 10 separate
groups distribute over 1500 bags and flyers to every house in our two
areas. I'm not sure, but I think this is the largest number of houses
we've ever hit in one drive, by about two hundred or so.
Our usual reminder signs went up on Thursday
and Friday, outlining both areas. On Saturday # 2 (another wet and dreary
November 8th), we did the great food roundup of 1997,
collecting a grand total of 2,530 pounds of food, plus a few old American
Flags and used Daypacks. Not our best year, but not bad considering the
weather and the fact that we were once again handling a new area. Thanks
to one and all - Scouts and Drivers - who participated.
- Dr. Bob
Home.11 November 1997