Licking District Trailmarkers Aug 2004

Our Scouting year, like the school year, starts in September, which really means August if you want to stay on top of your game – and not end up behind all year long!

We have some great planning and training events coming up in the next few months; don’t miss these opportunities to not just keep up, but get ahead.

* * * * * * *

Fall Program Kickoff
Newark Public Library Mtg. Room
Tues., Aug. 17 – 5 to 7 pm

This event, for all Cubmasters, Scoutmasters, and unit program chairs, includes Popcorn Sale info, leadership training updates, and a chance to meet people with programs from all over Licking County who want to help your Scouts succeed.

The Membership team, led by Bill Acklin, will offer a training break with a sample “model boy talk” for those going into elementary classrooms and community groups to offer Scouting through an invitation to a School Night for Scouting.

Also included are activity options from Buckeye Lake, Flint Ridge & Newark Earthworks State Memorials, Licking Park District to Dawes Arboretum and the Ohio Nature Education folks. At the Kickoff you can reach in one place people from one end of our district to the other. . .plus talk to almost any of our district leadership as the fall program year gets started.

Drop by, have some coffee or pop, and tour the tables, ask questions, and best yet get some answers, whether on charters, youth religious awards, or how to tie a one-handed bowline. See you there!

* * * * * * *

Popcorn Kernels On Call!

Tressa Kroll, our long-serving District Kernel (Colonel? Commander?), has been joined by an assistant kernel, Mary Rose Lewis of Pack 75. They will offer a Unit Popcorn Kernel training at the next Roundtable from 6:15 to 7:15, before the RT starts.

“Show & Deliver” popcorn has to be ordered by Sept. 20 (info also available at the Fall Program Kickoff), with pick-up Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon.

The Council Wide Popcorn Sale is officially Oct. 1 to 29, with publicity support for your unit sales in media all over central Ohio. It’s a great fundraiser for your Scouting program and helps the entire council support our camps and activities!

* * * * * * *

Membership Recruitment Schedule

“School Night” training was moved earlier to Aug. 3 from the 10th due to the later date of the Hartford Fair (starting Aug. 8 this year!), still at the Alltel Building, with pizza at 6 and training from 6:30 to 8 pm.

August 24 - September 2 -- Boy Talk “Warm Up—Information” fliers sent to boys’ home from school in their beginning of the school year packets.

August 24 - September 9 -- Boy Talks and School Night rallies to be held

September 2 & 11 -- Packs turn in new boy’s applications and new leader’s applications (turn-in night locations TBA)

* * * * * * *
Cub Day Camp & Scout long-term Camp report

Almost 300 Cub Scouts went to Camp Falling Rock in June for Cub Day Camp. There was plenty of water for the creek walks, and enough sunshine to help make the program a success for packs all over Licking District and some from beyond.

If troop and crews have reports of their time at any long-term camp this summer, please send info to disciple@voyager.net, and we’ll share that next month (remember the Scouter deadline is the first Thursday of each month). Some digital photos may be usable as well!

* * * * * * *
Encouraging Scouting News From Iraq
(full story at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38761)

On the shores of the Tigris River sits 40 acres of prime real estate which recently was home to a compound used by Saddam Hussein's secret police. . .Now, a retired U.S. Navy commander is leading the charge to turn the remnants of the police camp into a first-class camp and training facility for Boy Scouts in Iraq, and have Scouting flourish once again in the region.
Chip Beck, a former Scout himself and father of one, accepted the Pentagon's call to serve in Iraq as a civilian advisor with the Coalition Provisional Authority, and found in Baghdad a large number of fellow workers who also happened to be involved with Scouting.
"Scouting is perceived with tremendous excitement and receptivity, because it's been here for 50 years. It's got its own Iraqi face to it," Beck said . . . "We in America sometimes tend to think that the Boy Scouts of America [is] the only Scouting organization in the world, when in fact it is one of 217.
The Boy Scouts originally were established in Iraq in 1954, but suffered repression with Hussein in power.
"Under Saddam, he had restricted their independence and movement. They couldn't travel outside the country to go to other jamborees, and international Scouts couldn't come here," Beck said. "Saddam didn't control the Scouts the way he wanted to. He started his own youth movement which was really corrupt."
But Beck says older Scout leaders, men in their 50s and 60s who had been trained with international Scout standards, kept their honor and dignity in the wake of deterioration caused by Saddam.
"They came through it kind of battered and tattered, I'd say, but with their head held high. Now we're trying to get 80 young leaders under the age of 35 – 40 men, 40 women from all over the country – to go to Cairo and be trained in a two-week professional Scouting leadership and program-management course. They're all excited about this!"
Beck says there's been no resistance to his effort, as he works with the Iraqi Center for Reconciliation, which includes leaders from the region's diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
"All of them agree that Scouting is good for their young people, their communities, themselves, the country. It promotes what I call universal values. It doesn't have to be American or British or Jordanian or South African or anybody's beliefs. It's something every decent person in the world can agree on. These are the values of right and wrong."
Beck is hoping to raise some $4.5 million dollars to rebuild the damaged secret-police camp as the national headquarters of the Iraqi Scouts.
And while he admits there is still violence afoot throughout the nation, he's optimistic it can be quelled.
"We can do it. There's more people out here in Iraq that want to see their own society succeed and need our help than there are those who want to destroy, but those with guns can also make a loud statement. It's the quiet ones that need to do the work more effectively."
(Editor's note: Those wishing to donate to the Iraqi Scouting effort can make checks out to: World Friendship Fund, PO Box 152079, Irving, Texas 75015 Include the notation "Iraqi Scouting" in the memo.)

* * * * * * *
President Reagan, born the year after Scouting began in the US, was never a member of BSA as a youth, but as a leader there was never any doubt of his support for the ideals we shared. At the Reagan Library during the initial public procession past the flag-draped casket, even CNN couldn’t be cynical about a whole Scout troop, standing and saluting.
Quoted from the New York Times of 8 June 2004:
“Also filing by his coffin on Tuesday were members of Boy Scout Troop 316 of Santa Clarita. Nick Jarvis, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout, said that he admired Mr. Reagan based on what he had read and heard about him.
"He had the courage to step up and lead us as a nation," Mr. Jarvis said. "All this makes me feel that my vote counts if we elect the right people to office."”
* * * * * *