Good morning,
Many thanks to all who, with school out for summer, had an opportunity to sleep in on Saturday and didn’t. On a beautifully brilliant Phoenix morning, 49 Troop 648 scouts, scouters and family joined many hundreds of others in fanning out across 50,000+ graves at National Memorial Cemetery. The landscape was covered in a sea of flags waving in the breeze after an efficiently reverent 45 minutes of hole punching and flag planting. This year I had the honor of taking the picture of the older and younger Mr. Harness placing a flag on the grave of their father and grandfather, Colonel Harness. What a tremendous opportunity for all of us to pause in the midst of our busy, yet free lives, to give thanks for those who gave so much – and more often than not, their all.
We also had a number of our troop out in front of local WalMarts yesterday and today selling flag pins in the spirit of Memorial Day, and those young men were very successful! Please continue to wrap up your summer camp requirements with Mr. Benyi and Mr. Cole – all payments for those attending should be finalized, all merit badge requests submitted, and health forms obtained or doctor appointments scheduled. Camp is in only a few short weeks! In the meantime, we have tenderfoot skills session at 6PM followed by the troop meeting on Tuesday which will include swim check at the Andrews’ home, 2nd Class Native Animal identification at the zoo on the 4th, PLC coming up on the 7th, Rank Advancement Court of Honor on the 7th, our June canoe outing to Apache Lake on the 10th-12th, and Mr. Andrews’ Eagle project on the 18th. A brief word about the COH. This will replace our troop meeting at 7PM on 6/7/11 at the church. All family members are encouraged to attend to support the hard work the scouts have invested. It will be a relatively short and simple but sincere opportunity for us to award scout rank advancements the youth have earned this spring prior to their attending summer camp. A much more comprehensive court of honor including subsequent rank advancements, all merit badges and a troop potluck will occur late in the summer, after Camp Mataguay.
Hope you have all had a safe and happy Memorial Day!
Mr. Cole