Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

Hello T648,

What a wonderful evening we had Tuesday night at the Scottsdale Worship Center (and a big heart-felt thank you to our most gracious hosts).  We had recognition and awards going on all over the place.  First our own Mr. Traynor the younger was recognized with the Honor Medal, which is one of four lifesaving awards giving out by the BSA.  Since 1923 only 2,354 Honor Medals have been award to scouts, making it a very rare honor that was certainly deserved.  After such a fast start we settled into recognizing the advancement and we had a number of our newer scouts advance to Scout and Tenderfoot in short order, which is commendable and a wonderful thing to see.  Not to be outdone some of our older scouts were recognized for their continued move up the ladder to Second Class, First Class and Star.  No Life advancement but I would bet that we wil have some by the next COH.  And of course our Eagles are recognized at their own special COH and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will see that happen in the coming months.  The advancement recognition was follow up by the awarding of merit badges earned since the last COH and we had some 50 merit badges handed out to a very deserving and hard working group of scouts.  This large number isn’t all that unusual as the scouts really rack up ’em up during summer camp.  Years of Service was next on the agenda with a number of our scouts hitting the 4 year mark (and with Mr. Gingrich hitting it out of the park with 44 years). Finally, we turned our attention to recognizing Mr. Cole for his three years of tenure as Scoutmaster to Troop 648.  There were many kinds words bestowed upon Mr. Cole and a BSA axe mounted on a beautiful piece of mesquite wood that was put together by Mr. Gingrich presented to Mr. Cole as a thanks for a job well done!  The axe handle was signed by as many in the troop that we could round up and it was a beautiful piece that I’m sure will grace the walls of the Cole household!  And with that we wrapped up the evening with some tasty cake and good conversation.

As we turn out attention to the coming weeks we have the following nearterm items on the Troop 648 calendar.   We could certainly use a good turnout this Saturday morning for a scout service project that wil benefit Blessed Sacrament to beautify the rock garden north of the parking lot next to the parish house.  Meet on the north side of the church at 6:30 AM and expect to be wrapped up no later than 8:30 AM.  Mr. Jeorling will be slinging burritos for those who show up and there will be plenty of cool beverages although the temperature looks like it will be nice and cool.  Bring a rake and shovel and a pair of gloves and we’ll knock this beautifying project in short order.

The next troop outing will be the weekend of October 26/27 in the San Francico Peaks north of Flagstaff.  More details will be forthcoming from Will Turner and Mr. Dahlman but this will be a spectacular  hike through the pine trees of Northern Arizon.  It will be a bit nippy at night so plan on bringing your 20 degree bag for this one!

Thanks,

Mr. Turner