Remember, it's only one hour a week

Last night we got to see so many friends. It was delightful. 

Stan has helped so many Scouts through the program, and our son benefitted so much from his leadership.

Sometimes you can't hear mom and dad when they are giving you sound advice, or mom and dad are getting a little emotional about your lack of getting the point to get things done. Stan is a calming influence, an excellent advisor, asks the right questions, can correct behavior that needs correcting without coming off like a jerk or monster. Kids have had an amazing leader. What a gift he's been to the troop. 

And the Scoutmaster said there is no official "retirement" ceremony in Scouting but they made one up for him and it was great.

One of the big sayings we used to always chuckle about is that when you volunteer for Scouting it is "only one hour a week." It is not. It's a lot more, especially for the committee and the scoutmasters. But when you get shoulder to shoulder in planning, and there is a good team that clicks, the possibilities are endless. I truly am happy I got to walk through that process with this group of people. Scouting benefitted Geoff, but it also benefited me.

Stan's wife Kathy and I are good friends, and we've thrown down some big cookouts and Eagle parties together. Also there was Debbie and Pattie, two other moms that I was always very close to. Pattie's daughter and Kathy & Stan's son got married last summer, that's how family this troop is. There were a few people missing that I would have loved to have seen there but it's okay. We're still all in touch (thank you Facebook!) and I know there have been babies and weddings and engagements and life happening. Some of these "boys" are 30 or pushing 30 at this point. And I love them all dearly.

We got the full Troop treatment - an amazing BBQ, with moms and dads running the show and Scouts serving. There's one boy that I was convinced about 6 years ago wouldn't make it past his first year and it is so good to see him still involved and his mom all up in it. Get him to Eagle, momma. You can do it.  

The Scoutmaster of the troop is a drop dead riot. He brings a sort of silly campiness combined with a seriousness about life, the universe, and everything to the picture. 

There are 45 boys in the troop. It is huge right now. And they are doing so much. And doing it so well. I thought during our tenure with the troop through 2017 we were doing an amazing job, but really, it is so wonderful to see how great they're doing. 

We had fun with the mingling and chatting and the "ceremony" began. 

They did rank advancement on the big board that Stan built many years ago.  I noticed a huge gap in between the first year Scouts and the Eagle section. I guess the new tradition is to wheel this out once a year instead of at every advancement ceremony, which I kind of didn't like. I think wheeling it out once a quarter and having the boys move up incrementally instead of 5 ranks or something at the end of the year is their new thing. 

Everyone gets to create a new thing. 

Another thing that happened is two Scouts who achieved Eagle during the pandemic were given their Eagle pins, but they didn't do a whole be ceremony like Geoff had (and many others). They looped it into this  advancement event. These two Scouts are in college now, so they were excited to come back, get their missing recognition, and have this moment of recognition. 

I will say that when Geoff was a very young Scout we went to a full blown Eagle Ceremony, and he said to me right then he wanted to be an Eagle. I actually laughed at him and said "oh, okay buddy." And then he did it. So. The kind of inspiration that a small Scout can get from seeing an Eagle ceremony is pretty big. The younger Scouts in the troop didn't seem to care or pay attention to this. I think that I understand why Troops don't do it, but, I mean, it's big. Really big. 

They also didn't do something that our Troop did for years. We had all the Eagles in attendance come up and stand with the new Eagle, and introduce themselves and what year they got their Eagle. 

Sometimes there were uncles, family friends, old folks, and freshly minted Eagles and seeing an such an array of people who achieved  this too makes the Eagle feel like they're part of that unique community. 

There's always an "Eagle Charge" where the Scout gets to pick someone to give them their orders for going forward in life, and usually the Scout picks who gives them that charge.This was just one of the Scoutmasters in the Troop. Not their pastor or a recent Eagle from the Troop. I'm sure he's a great guy, but it didn't feel special to me. So I felt that was missing.  Or at least, I missed it.

At the end of that, it was Stan's time. He was given his plaque for his "years of service" which was a riot because he couldn't remember when he started with Scouting. His oldest, Jason, was probably in first grade when Stan started volunteering, and Jason is now 31. Rather than do math, they went with the acknowledgement that it was years. 

We had more fun mingling, and I got a picture of the Eagles in attendance and Stan. I didn't realize until after that Tom, the Scoutmaster who got Geoff through his final years of Scouting, was not in the picture. He was there, but somehow I missed out on asking him to join. 

In addition to getting his Eagle rank yesterday, Shane, the one in uniform, also was celebrating his birthday. Everyone sang to him because his 3 sisters goaded him to stand up there with everyone surrounding. Shane is such a loving, dear heart. So I was happy to be here for this. 

Who knew? I thought we were just going up to celebrate Stan and there we were, doing the whole Scouting thing again. And I do miss it. I miss the friends, I miss the projects and the work. I miss the boys (and girls) involved. I miss them all.