Scout Camporee

Last weekend James and his scout troop spent Friday AND SATURDAY night at a camporee celebrating 100 years of scouting. The council put it on and did a great job with fun activities for the 2500 scouts in attendance. And the ward/wards/stakes got special permission and held a sacrament meeting for the roughly 400 L.D.S. scouts that were in attendance on Sunday morning. Elder Brimhall (our area authority seventy -- I think) presided and spoke at the meeting. It was a great experience for all of the boys and leaders.

James standing by a Black Hawk Helicopter that was flown in by the National Guard for the occasion.

(Note: 2500 scouts can do more to an 'unplugged' Black Hawk when allowed to crawl all over it than you -- or the National Guard -- might expect!)

James does a great job as scoutmaster and really enjoys working with the boys. He sees great potential in them and works to help them achieve it. He is also great (and getting better all the time -- thanks to plenty of practice) at "rolling with the punches" so to speak. Scoutmaster is not an easy calling, but James takes it all in stride and keeps at it.

We held a Court of Honor a week and a half ago and it was great to see all the progress the boys have made. Prior to the Court of Honor we held a night for Boards of Review where there were 10 boys involved! It was a long night, but great to see so much advancement. It is also so fun to see how much they change and truly grow up through their scouting years. We had Boards of Review from Tenderfoot up through a Bronze Eagle Palm. What a difference! Overall at the quarterly Court of Honor 42 Merit Badges and 17 Rank Advancements were awarded.