Good morning,
With Memorial Day fast approaching, I want to again make you aware of a T648 event that young Mr. McFetters is coordinating. Phoenix is home to a National Memorial Cemetery off the 101 freeway at Pinnacle Peak and Cave Creek Roads. This site contains over 49,500 veteran gravesites. Every year on the Saturday before Memorial Day, the Grand Canyon Council of BSA supports an event in which participants arrive between 0630 and 0645 to honor our veterans. This year, as in past years we have attended, there will be many hundreds of scouts, scout leaders and families gathered in the cool air for a brief ceremony, reflection, and work. After a brief ceremony, at 0705 hole punchers and bundles of American flags will be distributed, and the crowd will fan out. I’ve often felt that from 30,000 feet, the event must look like an ant farm or a bee hive with the swarm intent upon covering every inch of their workplace without rushing, but respectful, relentless efficiency. Boy scouts, scouters, cub scouts, girl scouts, little sisters, parents and grandparents – from Eagles to Brownies, the whole cemetery is filled with workers. By 0755, every grave will have two feet worth of American Flag waving smartly in the wind, in time for our national anthem and taps to be played at 0800. Every year that I have participated, it gives me chills to see the sea of waving red white and blue, and as I depart, I give thanks for the millions who have fought to keep us free. Please stay tuned for further details, and if you are in town this weekend, I hope that you will be able to participate.
Additionally, I’d like to provide a few random thoughts on additional upcoming items of note.  Our troop is the proud owner of a trailer full of canoes, and our June outing will be a canoe outing at Roosevelt Lake on the weekend of the 8th-10th . In preparation for that event, we will be having the May 29th meeting offsite at a troop member’s backyard pool to practice swamping and righting a canoe. For those needing swim checks for the outing, we will actually hold those at the lake itself on the morning of the 9th. Please note we also have a parent / committee meeting on the 5th, and a Court of Honor on the 19th – so keep working on advancement! For those of you working on the Citizenship Merit Badges, Mr. Harness will be checking on you and answering questions while Mr. Clapp is out of town for the next few weeks – Thanks Mr. Harness! For those of you who received a leadership survey, please turn it in tomorrow night at the troop meeting.
Hope to see you there! By the way – less than 7 weeks until summer camp! Have you gotten your medical done or scheduled yet?
Mr. Cole