Troop 1396 Scouting in Isolation, Volume 13

Scouts, Scouters, and Parents:

I hope this finds you well. We have enjoyed a number of great Patrol Leader Council (PLC) meetings as we develop plans for how we are going to eventually begin meeting in person. The PLC has elected to do a Troop-wide virtual meeting next week, mainly centered around camaraderie and games, giving our Scouts an opportunity to fellowship and check on one another. The Senior Patrol Leader will publish information about how to log in and what uniform to wear. This will be a password protected meeting and anyone who is not recognized as a member of the Troop or acting inappropriate will be disconnected from the meeting.

This week we have coordinated with our Chartered Organization Head to establish conditions to meet again. Agreed-upon conditions are no-earlier-than 30 June and when the Commonwealth goes into Phase 3. Of note, we do not have an indoor meeting place yet. Lake Ridge Middle is closed. St. Matthew's Lutheran is closed to any gatherings outside of Sunday services until August (to include restrooms). We could meet in the picnic area where we sell trees, but there is no available overhead cover if we get rain and the noise from Old Bridge Road makes communication difficult. We are looking at options. If you have one -- please let me know.

The Summer Camp survey results are in -- the majority want to go to the Bechtel Summit. ASM Sue Straka has published some information today and we will work on registration -- please let her know soonest if you plan to attend so she can make the right reservations. Target date is first week of August. I understand that some families are not ready to send their Scouts to summer camp this year. That is OK -- every family must make that decision. There are several summer camps that have virtual camp programs, e.g., Resica Falls and Goshen. If you plan to attend one of these, please let me know. If you need help finding a camp or information on how to register, please let me know as well.

For this week's Scoutmaster Minute, I am borrowing a recent blog from Scouting Magazine:

Boy Scout Bob Heft loved flags, and he loved politics.
So when his U.S. History teacher handed out a homework assignment in 1958, Bob had the perfect idea.
He would design something nobody had seen: a 50-star version of the American flag.
Bob, a high school junior and Boy Scout in Troop 113 of Lancaster, Ohio, had been reading the news and knew that Alaska was poised to become our nation's 49th state, with Hawaii soon behind.
So he cut out 50 stars from iron-on material and arranged them on some blue fabric. He sewed this new field of stars to his family's 48-star flag.
"I had never sewn in my life. I watched my mom sew, but I had never sewn. And since making the flag of our country, I've never sewn again."
Bob's teacher reacted with confusion.
"The teacher said, 'What's this thing on my desk?' And so I got up and I approached the desk and my knees were knocking the teacher said, 'why you got too many stars? You don't even know how many states we have.'"
The final grade: B-minus.
Not terrible, until you consider that Bob's friend picked up five leaves off the ground, taped them in a notebook and got an A.
Bob was upset, so the teacher offered what seemed like an impossible-to-achieve bit of consolation.
"If you don't like the grade, get it accepted in Washington," Bob remembers the teacher saying. "Then come back and see me. I might consider changing the grade."
Two years and 21 letters and 18 phone calls to the White House later, Bob received a call from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"Is this Robert G. Heft?"
"Yes, sir, but you can just call me Bob."
"I want to know the possibility of you coming to Washington, D.C., on July Fourth for the official adoption of the new flag."
On July 4, 1960, Bob Heft stood next to Eisenhower as the 50-star flag was raised over the U.S. Capitol.
And what about Bob's teacher?
"He said, 'I guess if it's good enough for Washington, it's good enough for me. I hereby change the grade to an A.'"
In the decades after, Bob inspired people young and old with his follow-your-dreams story. He was a seven-term mayor of Napoleon, Ohio. He spoke extensively — as many as 200 engagements a year — and visited the White House 14 times under nine presidents.
Bob Heft died in 2009, but his legacy survives every time we fly his 50-star creation.
And if the U.S. ever adds a 51st state — perhaps Puerto Rico?
Bob was prepared. Back in 1958 he designed a 51-star version that uses six rows of stars, alternating between rows of nine and eight.
BSA Vision Statement: The Boy Scouts of America will prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Scout Oath and Law.

Yours in Scouting Service,
Doug Henry
Scoutmaster, Troop 1396
Chartered by St. Matthew's Lutheran Church

Troop 1396 Scouting in Isolation, Volume 12

Scouts, Scouters and Parents:

I hope this email finds you well and in good health.  I am sending this a day later than normal because last night we held a very productive Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) to discuss our Troop program, the current and projected state of Virginia's plan on reopening, and summer camp.  Summary of decisions and updates are as follow:

The PLC elected to continue to connect virtually for at least two more weeks.  We have put a tentative mark on the calendar of 30 June to resume in-person Troop meetings and we are working with our chartering organization, St. Matthew's Lutheran, for location options.  Over the next two weeks, the PLC will continue to meet virtually to gauge what we can do given the Commonwealth's recovery phase and local COVID-19 infection rates.  In the meantime, some patrols have connected virtually and other patrol leaders are seeking to reach out to patrol members to meet and check on status of members and families.  We reviewed the latest guidance from the Governor that transitions Virginia to Phase 2 on 12 June.

As you are aware, our first choice (Resica Falls) and back-up (Goshen) option for summer camp are closed by their respective councils.  Now, our third choice, T. Brady Saunders, has been closed by its council.  Ms. Sue Straka is currently reaching out to The Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia (~five hours away) to see if it can accommodate us.  Please be on the lookout for an email with a short on-line survey that should come out tomorrow.  We will use this to gauge interest in options for summer camp or some other form of extended camping, as we know that some families are electing to forgo summer camp this year.  Please respond quickly so we have an accurate number of interested Scouts and adults to reserve an accurate campground size.  Note that if we go to summer camp, we are targeting late July/early August before school starts back up.

Scoutmaster Minute:

Theodore was a sickly boy.  His health conditions were to plague him throughout his childhood.  He suffered poor eyesight and asthma and other ailments including headaches, fevers, stomach pains, and intestinal groaning. By far his worst malady was asthma, with attacks so bad as to nearly suffocate him.  Some lasted for weeks.  Having been born in 1858, his asthma was not very well understood, and doctors possessed no medicine to aid in opening the air passages.  In an attempt to relieve the child, his parents tried many commonly used remedies of the day.  The stimulants nicotine and caffeine were believed to help open the air passages so his parents would have Theodore puff on a cigar or drink the strongest coffee one could get down.  The coffee often made Theodore vomit.  Usually his father, Theodore, Sr., would carry his young son around just trying to comfort the child and to force air into his lungs.  His lungs were so weak that Theodore had to have his parents blow out his candle at night.  His father recognized Theodore's strength of character and strongly encouraged him to develop his body through exercise, building an exercise room for him and his siblings on the family porch.  His father famously remarked, "Theodore, you have the mind but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should.  You must make your body.  It is hard drudgery to make one's body, but I know you will do it."  Theodore rose to the challenge of his father and from that point on began a regimen of strenuous exercise that he would follow for the rest of his life.  Theodore loved the outdoors and nature.  During one family outing in the Swiss and Austrian Alps, his father noted Theodore's remarked lung improvement after arduous mountain hikes.  Theodore would continue to take on exercise, adopting weight lifting, gymnastics, wrestling, horseback riding, hiking, climbing, swimming, and rowing.

 

This fitness would serve him well in later life when he served as New York City's Police Commissioner, and later leading the charge of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment up Kettle Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War -- action that earned Theodore the Medal of Honor.

 

Most know Teddy Roosevelt as our 26^th President.  What many do not know about is his involvement with the Boy Scout movement.  Starting in America a year after his presidency, Roosevelt was an ardent booster of the organization.  He served on the committee of Troop 39 in Oyster Bay, New York, and was the first council commissioner of Nassau County Council.  As a former president, he was elected honorary vice president of the Boy Scouts of America.  Roosevelt was the first and only man designated as Chief Scout Citizen. Roosevelt once remarked: 

"More and more I have grown to believe in the Boy Scout movement. I regard it as one of the movements most full of promise for the future here in America. The Boy Scout movement is distinctly an asset to our country for the development of efficiency, virility, and good citizenship. It is essential that its leaders be men of strong, wholesome character; of unmistakable devotion to our country, its customs and ideals, as well as in soul and by law citizens thereof, whose wholehearted loyalty is given to this nation, and to this nation alone." 

 

For many years after his death in 1919, several thousand Scouts and leaders in the New York area made annual pilgrimages to his grave in Oyster Bay. 

 

No human is without flaws and we are all born with both natural strengths and unique challenges.  Teddy Roosevelt's example shows us that we should not let our disabilities serve as stumbling blocks or excuses to achieve greatness.

 

I will keep myself physically strong.

Yours in Scouting Service,

Doug Henry

Scoutmaster, Troop 1396

Troop 1396 Scouting in Isolation Volume 11

Scouts, Scouters, and Parents:

 

We are still working on summer camp options.  We received some clarity yesterday and we will discuss options this Thursday during the Troop Committee Meeting.  We hope to have a path forward soon.  Next Tuesday, our Senior Patrol Leader, Nico Morgan, will host a Patrol Leaders Council.  Part of this discussion is an examination what we can do under Phase 1 restrictions and when we can anticipate beginning to meet together in person.  Note that our Cyber Chip Instructor, Gavin Kegler, will be working with some of the patrols to organize sessions for Scouts to present cyber awareness topics.

 

As of last month, I have served as Scoutmaster for three years (this term).  Three years ago I offered examples in a Scoutmaster Minute of the commonality of religious text regarding withholding judgment on others, as none of us are blameless.  Would it surprise you to know that there is also congruency across religions concerning treatment of others like we want be treated?  In light of the news, I have been thinking a lot about compassion, kindness, and this Golden Rule.  This leads me to this week's Scoutmaster Minute:

 

I would argue that is a paramount rule to live by:  Treat others like you would want to be treated.  I learned this first from my mother.  My pastor and Sunday-school teacher taught me this as well.  My Scout leaders reiterated this Golden Rule in our meetings and our outings.  It can be found in the scriptures of many religions.  Here are some examples:

 

Judaism:  

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk.  Love your neighbor as yourself:  I am the LORD. -- Leviticus 19:18

and, 

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow:  this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn. -- Shabbath folio:31a, Babylonian Talmud

as well as:

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt:  I the Lord am your God. -- Leviticus 19:34

 

Christianity:

Do to others what you want them to do to you.  This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets. -- Matthew 7:12

and,

And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. -- Luke 6:31

as well as:

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. -- Galatians 5:14

 

Islam:

A Bedouin came to the prophet, grabbed the stirrup of his camel and said:  O the messenger of God! Teach me something to go to heaven with it.  Prophet said: "As you would have people do to you, do to them; and what you dislike to be done to you, don't do to them.  Now let the stirrup go!" [This maxim is enough for you; go and act in accordance with it!]" -- Kitab al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 146

and, 

None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself. -- An-Nawawi's Forty Hadith 13 (p. 56)

 

Hinduism:

One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one's own self.  This, in brief, is the rule of dharma.  Other behavior is due to selfish desires. -- Brihaspati, Mahabharata 13.114.8

 

Buddhism:

Comparing oneself to others in such terms as "Just as I am so are they, just as they are so am I," he should neither kill nor cause others to kill. -- Sutta Nipata 705

and, 

One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter. -- Dhammapada 10 

as well as:

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. -- Udanavarga 5:18

 

These are merely some examples and not by any means a comprehensive list.  Their messages are similar, if not the same:  Don't do to another what you would not want him or her to do to you.  

This message is just as pertinent today as the day these scriptures were written.  Too often we see examples of people trying to justify denying others of the same basic rights they want for themselves because of the color of another's skin, the way someone worships, one's ethnicity or nationality, another's affinity, or the way someone thinks.   What a great world it would be if all members of our human race stopped looking for the ways our differences can divide us and started celebrating the commonality of the human condition.  

Imagine if we all adopted a selfless attitude where we truly wanted for others what we want for ourselves; this is the antithesis of a cycle of vengeance that is happening today in may nations, regions, and municipalities across our globe.  In the tradition of your religion, I encourage you to extend prayer beyond asking for blessings for your family and friends, but also for those who have (or you perceive have) done you wrong.  Love unconditionally with the hopes that it proves contagious.

A Scout is Reverent.  A Scout is Kind.

Yours in Scouting,

Doug Henry

Scoutmaster, Troop 1396

Chartered to St. Matthew's Lutheran Church

Lake Ridge, VA

doug.henry@troop1396.org