Home.4 October 2001
Greetings to All.
Did you know that over half of the Pack 111 Webelos Scouts who "Crossed the Bridge" into Troop 111 during the annual Spring migrations 1989 - 1995 later graduated out as Eagle Scouts? It's True! Here are the results (so far) from 1989 (my first entry class) through 1995 (doesn't include Webelos Scouts from other Packs, or transfer Scouts from other Troops who were once Webelos):
1989
Eagle
1990
Eagle
Eagle
Jimmy Landry
Star
Bobby Lyons
Scout
Louis Martin
Scout
Chris Regan
Scout
Eagle
1991
Eagle
Richard Flynn
Scout
Steven Santelli
Scout
Eagle
Eagle
1992
Matt Dove
Life (with Troop 167)
Eagle
Eagle
1993
Eagle
Andrew Chudy
Life (with Troop 941, Honduras)
Greg Chudy
Life (with Troop 941, Honduras)
Eagle
David Jensen
Scout
Eagle
Eagle
Eagle
Thaddeus Wientzen
First Class
1994
Matt Capelli
Life
David Eskridge
Scout
Billy Ferrando
First Class
Eagle
Sam Wientzen
Scout
1995
Eagle
JT Belknap
Eagle (in Haddonsfield, NJ)
Charles B.
Life going on Eagle
Dan H.
Life going on Eagle
Stefan N.
Star going on Life
Eagle
Perhaps even more interestingly, the percentage of Eagles goes UP if we include Webelos Scouts who joined us directly from other Packs - Geoff Evans, Charles Johnson, Ryan Shanahan, Michael Strasburg, Steven Strasburg, and Chris Wolff, to name a few. This latter number will soon explode when the large current crop of 9th Graders (most of whom joined us from Pack 149) start completing their Eagles. For a list of all of Troop 111's Eagles, see: http://www.troop111.org/eagles.html
John K., the First Class Scout from Troop 838 (Dallas, Texas) who visited us on September 10th, has decided to join up. Welcome!
I also heard from Heidi Capelli. Matt (who departed the Troop last year as a Life Scout) is attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. His e-mail is Severian0@hotmail.com
Ari H., the young man I mentioned in a recent set of Weekly Notes (who was looking for an apartment, remember?) will be visiting us soon as a potential ASM. Stay tuned....
Due to the heroic efforts of many, Steven Strasburg turned in his Eagle Notebook at the crack of 18; we'll be arranging his Board of Review sometime in October. Down on the farm, Michael D. and Patrick P. earned Citizenship in the Community, Christopher B., Michael R., and Carl S. earned Citizenship in the Nation, and Luke B. and Max D. earned Citizenship in the World. Sam F. earned Backpacking, Camping, Hiking, and Wilderness Survival, and Neil S. earned Backpacking and Hiking. Jack B., Peter C., Michael D., and Alan R. all earned Railroading at the 2001 National Jamboree. And finally, Todd G. finished his Life Practical Exercise.
Congratulations to all the above Scouts!
On Friday, October 5th, I will be heading out to the Venture Hike-o-Ree in Front Royal to give a Slide Show on our recent Wyoming Trek; anyone who'd like to join me is welcome. On Sunday, October 7th, we'll make our last try at a Chesapeake Bay Fishing Trip. The annual Guns 'n Arrows Campout is October 12th - 14th, and the District Fall Camporee is October 19th - 21st; the latter event is primarily intended for those Scouts unable to make the GnA campout, and will depend on signups. The theme for the Camporee, BTW, is "Survivor!" games, and there are a large number of events, all of which sound pretty cool (see the 9/27 Weekly Notes II for additional details). Also on Saturday, October 20th, we'll have a 75 mile bike hike for Senior Scouts. On Saturday, October 27th, we have the Philmont 2003 telephone lottery, in which (once again) I will ask every possible member of the Troop to participate. On Sunday, October 28th, we will participate in our 14th Annual Marine Corps Marathon, once again at the Georgetown Water Point. Gonna be a dull month, huh?
On Monday, July 9th, 18 members of the Troop headed over to theRegal Ballston Common Theatres to kick off the Summer of Fun activities with a movie: "Cats and Dogs." A (tentative) list of the participants include: Zachary A, Charles B, Matthew C, Drew D, Ray D, Michael D, David G, Dan H, Will K, Ryan K, James N, Alan R, Brian R, Thomas S, Charles S, Carl S, and Patrick W (and friend Jimmy K). Thanks to Heidi Brennan for organizing this event. [This is the last of the Summer of Fun Writeups.]
On Thursday, September 13th, 5 members of the Troop headed over to Westover Baptist Church (next to Swanson) to present the colors at the District Roundtable. This was our second go-round on this duty, the first being September of 1998. There were over 50 District Scouters in attendance. SPL Stefan N. called the room to order and ran the opening Flag Ceremony, with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks (a fairly intense moment.) The flags were handled by John P. (American), Luke B. (VA), and Max D. (Troop). After we split into a Cub Scout Group and a Boy Scout group, Stefan gave a quick historical introduction to the Troop, and the Scouts departed with Rob B. ASM Rich S. stuck around for the Boy Scout Roundtable, and gave the closing Scoutmaster's Minute, talking about the courage of the passengers on Flight 93 (the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania) who attacked their hijackers when they found out (through cell phones) what had happened at the World Trade Center. [The general thought is that (since it's very unclear whether the fighters that were 12 minutes late to the Pentagon would have been allowed to shoot this jet down), these citizens likely saved the Capitol or the White House, so true heroes all.] Nice job done by our contingent. Thanks!
On Friday, Setember 14th, we headed down to Sandbridge, VA (south of VA Beach) for our first "campout" of the new year. "Campout" is a *relative* term, as the camping was done at Ted and Ann G.'s Beach home! This one got a rocky start, however, as an unexpected Nor'easter mandated cancellation of one of the two scheduled programs - headboat fishing for blues and stripers. The wind was expected to kick the water up to 10 to 20 foot seas, which would be absolutely no fun aboard a headboat (and none of the boats in VA Beach were inclined to try anyway). Most of the fishermen signed up for the trip cancelled out, but some went ahead and switched to Option II, a 25 mile bike trek around VA Beach.
We left in great weather here, down 95 South to Ashland (and dinner at McDonalds). The sight of many American flags on vehicles of all sorts, on the sides of the road, and also on the overpasses, was an inspiration for the entire trip. Crossing the causeways on I-64 East towards VA Beach, we were all sobered by the site of heavy waves to either side, 4 to 6 feet high (this in a sheltered inlet!) Not surprisingly, there was also a strong wind blowing in Sandbridge, and we were all grateful for the shelter of the Ted and Ann's house - camping at First Landing State Park (our traditional campground in the area) would have been tough. After setting up, we enjoyed an upstairs (The Last Starfighter) and downstairs (Red Dawn) movies, then racked out. The wind shook the house all night long.
Saturday dawned overcast, but slowly cleared; as predicted, there was still plenty of wind, though. After breakfast (and prepping our lunches and snacks), we headed up to the Virginia Marine Science Museum to get our rental bikes for the former fishermen/now bikers - "Atlantic Coast Cruisers," which were single speed, high handlebar, wide tire bikes with the old style brake system. "Quaint." They're specifically designed for the boardwalk and roads around VA Beach, but it did take some time getting used to again. Helmets for all and we were off, first up the Boardwalk Bike Trail, into the wind (tough pedalling, even tougher keeping up with the original crew of bikers who had their mountain bikes from home!) Yes, they actually have a specific bike trail along the entire boardwalk, very nice. The lifeguard stations were all red-flagged for the day - no swimming in the (very impressive) surf! In our only casualty for the day, Mike C. had to drop out due to knee problems. Later, he traded his ACC bike for son Matthew's, which had suddenly gone flat. At the end of the Boardwalk Bike Trail, we cut left onto the Cape Henry trail, a very pleasant hiker/biker trail winding through the woods of the Cape Henry and First Landing State Parks. We enjoyed escaping the wind, and also enjoyed riding through an area that was semi-flooded from wind-blown water.
We stopped for lunch at the First Landing State Park Visitor's Center, and enjoyed a massive pine cone fight. The survivors (everyone) headed down to the beach at First Landing, where we ended up parking our bikes in the same campsite we stayed at 2 years ago, and headed down to the shore. Even though this was part of the lower bay, there was still lots of wind and heavy surf, with 6 freighters anchored off-shore. Ted and I were the first in the water, and eventually all joined us for about a 45 minutes long swim. The water was warm, but the wind half-froze any exposed skin. But still in all, pretty neat. Once we all got changed, we headed back to the visitor center, with Atom and Ted dropping out to fix a flat on Atom's bike. After some debate, we continued on to the Cape Henry loop trail again, so the Scouts could enjoy biking the flooded trail sections a second time; Ted and Atom rejoined us just as we finished the loop.
Back to the Boardwalk, much easier biking with the wind. About halfway down, we stopped for a group ice cream at Dairy Queen. Then back to the Museum to drop off the rental bikes (left them chained to rails around the parking lot), and returned to Sandbridge, dropping off the helmets on the way. At house, the street beginning to flood from heavy waves breaking over the sea wall, and the back bay behind the house was nearly completely blown out. The Scouts voted against Putt-Putt golf in favor of an extended basketball game (in which the all-time shot blocker was the wind!) After dinner, Matt G., Jim C., Mike C., and I walked up to view the surf; just awesome, with occasional spray bursts up to 40 feet high - well over the roofs of the beachfront houses. We also visited the spot where that young boy was killed by a shark last month (about 5 blocks away); sobering how random that attack was - looked like any other stretch of beach, anywhere along 20 miles of VA Beach shoreline. The seas here were between 6 and 10 feet, and breaking violently. As darkness drove us all back inside, we enjoyed another movie night: The Mummy upstairs, and Clueless downstairs; it was obviously a weekend for truly corny movies.
On Sunday morning, we rose at an uncharacteristically late 7am, dressed in uniforms, and haded off to Mass at St. John the Baptist's. The homily was (as expected) on terrorism, and was pretty well done (however, my other cheek remains unturned). Back to the house for an excellent breakfast and "whole house" cleanup. We left for Arlington around 11am, stopping for lunch in Newport News. It was amazing how quickly the weather changed once we got away from the shore area - very nice, sunny, almost no wind. Traffic was surprisingly light the whole way back, and we arrived just before 4pm. After a quick cleanup, it was sayonara. Good weekend!
Participants included: Luke B., Matthew C., Peter C., Michael D., David G., Todd G., Matt G., Dan H., William L., Nathan P., and Neil S., and Adults Mike C., Jim C., Ann and Ted G., ASM Atom S., and yours truly. Congratulations to Todd G., who as noted above completed his Life Practical with this event. Thanks to Ted and Ann (and Keith) G. for (once again) sharing their wonderful home in Sandbridge - it saved (and made) the weekend.
On Friday, September 21st, we held our annual "Scout Skills" night for the Cubs and Webelos in our own Pack 111. This has turned into the traditional first Meeting of each year for the Pack, and is certainly one of their more popular nights. This year, we ran three stations: Cross-cut saw races, tent set-up, and a firebuilding practical. Charles B., David G., Mickey M., and Jimmy S. handled the cross-cut saw races, Michael C., Drew D., and Dale R. supervised the tent set-up and take-down, and John K., Thomas S., and Carl S. stood guard over the ever-popular firebuilding practical. Thanks also to John K., Sr., for overseeing the firebuilding. No one got hurt, everyone had a good time, what's not to like?
- Dr. Bob, Scoutmaster
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