Troop 159 Historian's Report April 2005 -August 2005

It’s been 4 months since our last Court of Honor.  During that time Troop 159 has been extremely busy.

In May we had an Adopt a Highway.  We completed the trash pick-up in record time of 45 minutes because so many scouts and scouters showed up.  On May 22^nd Brian Carbaugh had his Eagle Court of Honor at Messiah Lutheran Church.  This was attended by his family and friends as well as Mr.Warlick, Mr. Koontz, Mr. Long, Mr. Hayner, Justin L., and me, Dustin H..  On May 28^th we placed flags on veterans’ graves and on May 30^th some scouts and scouters attended a Memorial Day service in Simpsonville.

We had a go-away party for Mr. Colvin who left for Iraq.  We want to always remember him and keep him in our prayers.

The camping trip on June 3^rd was a back packing trip at the Chattooga river.  On June 12^th-18^th we went to Summer Camp at Camp Old Indian.  32 scouts attended; 57 merit badges were completed and 49 partial merit badges.  We had a lot of rain the first night, but after that the weather cleared up and ended up as always hot and humid the rest of the week.  A special thanks to Mr. Newsom, Mr. Keeton, and Mr. Clack for spending the whole week with us.  June 25^th was the date of Shaun O’s eagle project, which was at the Church of God Home for Children in Simpsonville.  This lasted from 8:30-4:30 p.m.  On June 29^th we celebrated Justin Lochels eagle ceremony at our troop meeting.  The Lochels now have 8 eagle scouts in their family.  This was due in large part to his Justin’s grandfather’s strong belief in the benefits of being an eagle scout.

July was our biggest month since this was the month of the 2005 Boy Scout Jamboree. The troop had 4 scouts go with the contingency troop for the entire time .There were many things to do at the jamboree merit badge midway for those scouts that attended with the contingency.  The rest of the troop visited for 2 days and also visited two civil war battle fields one in Fredricksburg and one in Spotsylvania.  The visiting troop members were able to participate in some events and trade patches.  The most enjoyable site to visit seemed to be the Army and the Army National Guard exhibits.  President Bush spoke at the closing ceremony to approximately 75,000 scouts, scouters, and visitors.  The fireworks display at the end was great.

August was the slowest month with school starting and the recent Jamboree trip as well as other events this summer, it was a well-deserved.  There were a couple of things to mention.  The High Adventurers spent the evening of Friday, August 19^th at Rocks and Ropes.  And as always we had our monthly campout.  The campout was this past weekend, August 26-28, at Holmes State park in N.C.