Greetings from Arlington, VA

[Hal_Crawford 15]

Like Packhound, I have been lurking for a while, I've weighed in a couple of times but I haven't introduced myself. I am an ASM for a troop in Arlington, VA, just across the river from our nation's capital. Arlington is the smallest county in the US and is home to the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery and 208,000 citizens.

 

I grew up for the most part in Arlington as an Army brat. Went through Cubs and made it to 2nd class before we moved overseas. I missed scouts but sort of got over it as I was a teenager living on a beach in Rio. After college I bounced around from place to place, Atlanta, Long Island, Nebraska and back here to Arlington. I am a Virginia Cavalier and a Georgia Bulldog.

 

My son went through scouts here in Arlington and I went along for the ride, MC and then CM for the same pack that I had been in and Boy Scout CC and now ASM. Not my old troop as it went the way of the Dodo sometime in the seventies, too many troops not enough boys. Son earned Eagle and is grown and on his own. I'm still having fun in scouting.

 

Our troop was founded in 1945 and though it was once so large it split in two it now has about 18 boys in two patrols. Our scouts are pretty active. We have a couple with special needs and some real super-scouts. We camp or have some sort of outing (nearly) every month and a week at Goshen Scout Reservation every summer. This year we took a crew of 6 on a trek at Lenhok'sin High Adventure and it was really a hit. We have so much interest that we may field two crews next year. Our Eagle honor roll is closing in on one hundred and we are only on our forth SM. He's starting to talk about stepping down so I might become #5. They say it's only one night a week and one weekend a month but I think it might actually be more. Ya think?

 

In the last few weeks looking at this forum I have found a lot of good thoughts about program and advancement. Our district RTs work in very much the same way with discussions of best practices around a given topic. I don't get to go often enough as they are on the same night as our unit meets so this forum is particularly useful to me.

 

It's nice to meet you and I hope I can make some helpful contributions in the future.

 

YIS,

Hal

[gwd-scouter 11]

Hello Hal, and welcome to the forum. I grew up in the DC area (Potomac Maryland). I remember hearing about Goshen Scout Camp from my brothers. I was a Girl Scout and envied (well, hated really) my brothers for all the cool things they got to do in Boy Scouts.

 

Remember, that one hour a week is one hour...per Scout!

 

 

[Hal_Crawford 15]

Oh now I get it! One hour per week per scout.

 

Goshen is even better now. Climbing tower, COPE course. It is truly a gem. For those who don't know it is the NCAC council camp located near Lexington, VA. There are actually 5 resident camps around Lake Meeriweather: Bowman, Olmstead and Marriott are for boy scouts and Ross and PMI are for Cubs. In addition there is Camp Baird, the Lenhok'sin High Adventure base camp.

 

LHA is a 5 day trek in and around the reservation. There are various "outposts" with themes like "mountain man", climbing and "civil war". It has been described as a "mini-Philmont" but I cannot attest to the veracity of that description as I have not yet been to Philmont. In these economic times when scouts' families might not be able to afford the trip west it is a viable alternative. I understand that they will be offering longer treks next year.