100 Years of Scouting Tag

In honor of 100 years of Scouting, this coins mission is to visit as many Boy Scout Troops as possible.

This particular patch holds significant honor in our household.  My stepsons pack (17) had to build their sled from scratch, as the previous years sled was damaged from a water leak.  The boys worked hard coming up with a design that would be impervious to water, structurally sound, and yet be light enough so they could manuever the sled, as their pack consisted of 4 boys.  (3" PVC pipe filled the bill).  They only had a few short weeks in which to complete the build, yet complete it they did. 

On the day of the Eskimo Run, disaster struck.  The night before the big event, one of the boys came down with strep throat, and was unable to join them.  Then, the morning of the Eskimo Run, the thermometer was showing 2 degrees above zero (by mid afternoon it had warmed up to a balmy 14 degrees!).

Well, the boys were a hardy bunch, and they set off to conquer the course, just the 3 of them.  They made their rounds, and as the day wore on, they had just 2 more stations to go to complete their run.  OH NO - those 2 stations were at the top of the hill.  They had 2 choices, they could follow the road, which was an easier slope but longer time, or they could charge up the hill and save precious time.  Boys being boys, they chose to charge the hill.  Half way up, they were slowed down by another pack that was having trouble negotiating a turn, and this was a pack with at least 10 boys.  Our boys decided they couldn't wait, so they went off to the side of the trail leading up the hill, and they made their own trail to the top.  Once at the top, they completed the 2nd to last station in record time, then took off at a dead run to their very last station.  They made it to the last station with literally 5 seconds to spare before time was called for the day, and they were able to complete the full circuit.

Now came the fun part - submit their score sheets for the run and wait for the results to be anounced.  The boys (and all the parents) waited for what seemed an eternity, and finally the results came out.  Pack 17 came in 6th place, this out of at least 21 teams at their age level, and all the other teams had 5 or more boys.

All of us parents froze our toes off this day, but in our eyes these boys took first place with the determination they showed from their heart and soul on this day...  GREAT JOB BOYS!!!!!!!!!