At the recent Kickoff Picnic/Court of Honor, we (finally) honored our longest-serving Scoutmaster, Hanson Lee, for his years of service to the Troop and the Community. From 1990 to 2017, Mr Lee held the position of Scoutmaster, overseeing a group of boys that some years, numbered as low as 10, while in other years, was as high as 43! In all, well over 200 Scouts have spent time in the Troop with Mr Lee as Scoutmaster, and 50 of them them have earned the rank of Eagle Scout!
Troop Committee Chair Michael Nowosatko presented Mr Lee with a clock for his years of service as Scoutmaster. We also took the opportunity to present him with a customized "Scoutmaster" patch, with the word "Emeritus" embroidered at the bottom. Whether he chooses to wear that patch, or a stock Assistant Scoutmaster patch will be up to him, but that shoulder has been without a patch for too long.
I won't try to list all of the ways Mr Lee has contributed to the community outside of his position in the Troop, but the ones that come to mind to me include Order of the Arrow (OA) Chapter Advisor, National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) Course Director and Scoutmaster, Advisor for Venture Crew 1888, and he's already scheduled to head up next August's Wood Badge Course.
This was yet another exciting and fun campout this year. Though we did arrive on Saturday instead of Friday, our work speed and quality of our lean-tos were as good as ever. And despite a couple of our lean-tos collapsing because of heavy winds, we still had a good night's rest and had a good, filling breakfast the next morning to make it back home. All in all, our campout was fun, exciting and relaxing all at once. We hope to see you at the next campout!