It’s a quiet Sunday morning and I’ve had time to reflect on the day yesterday at the Sunshine Acres Children’s Home.   The latest Eagle Project for Mr. Yu was a thing of beauty and a testament to what can be done when some 50 motivated scouts, friends and adults come together for a good cause.  I encourage you to watch the “About Us” video on the Sunshine Acres website (http://sunshineacres.org) and know that one of your soon-to-be Eagles rallied his Troop in support of this organization! With stellar direction from some of our adult leaders who worked closely on the project from the design phase we ended up with impressive results.  I had no idea that the Sunshine Acres Children Home located at the 202 and Higley was such an expansive compound providing rich opportunities for those whose life circumstances are far from ideal.  The T648 folks started rolling around 8 AM to find that the Yu’s had things ready to go.  Two of the three teams hit the ground running and cleaned up and painted a swing set as well as some wrought iron patio furniture was in need of lots of TLC.  The third team was asked to build a new ramada and grill area next to an existing pavilion near the entrance of Sunshine Acres.  With some working on laying the concrete block for the grilling area the others turned their focus to erecting the ramada.  As is the case in projects of this size and scope it was that one missing “L” bracket that showed down progress.  But a quick trip to the hardware store remedied that and we were back in business.  In typical scout fashion, the project was moving along and then finished in a flurry with the pinnacle having everyone pitch in to lift the newly stained and assembled 12 x 12 topper trellis into place on top of the support structure.  Sort of looked like an old fashioned barn raising where everyone moves in unison as a well oiled machine!!  With a group photo and a quick clean up it was done!  The last vehicles rolled out of the parking lot at 1:30…. right on schedule.  Congratulations on a project well done and hats off to all that showed up to support.  I’m sure the Yu family is enjoying a well deserved rest and giving thanks this morning.
Tuesday’s troop meetings this month are  focused on the build up to Webelos Weekend, which will be Saturday, January 25 at McDowell Mountain Regional Park north of Fountain Hills.  I encourage all to drive out on Saturday for a few hours to see your scouts in action and watch as they lead the interested Webelo recruits around the camp and demonstrate various skills and troop activities.  It would be a testament to the possible recruits (and more importantly their parents) to see the support we have from all of the Troop 648 family so come out for a cup of coffee or hot cocoa during the day or better yet bring a chair and a warm jacket and join us around the camp fire Saturday night for a few hours with a darn good group of people!  The skits will make you laugh and in a world where you often hear disparaging things about this generation of youth I promise you’ll leave us with a smile and positive outlook on this group of up and coming leaders.
Have a great week everyone!
Mr. Turner