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Troop News
2008
Recognition Dinner for Scoutmaster Bob De Contreras!
On Monday, March 23rd, 75 scouts, parents and adult leaders celebrated Bob
De Contreras's 3 1/2 years of service as Troop 216's Scoutmaster at the St.
Andrew's Catholic Church fellowship hall. The event opened with a color
guard comprised of several T216 Eagle Scouts and an invocation by Chaplain's
Aide Sam G. After a hearty barbeque/pot luck dinner, Mr. Chris Meyer
reviewed Mr. D's leadership history in Scouting and then asked Mr. Jerry
Jester, Crosswinds District Commissioner, to present Mr. D. with 2 new
awards. First was the Scoutmaster Key, which recognizes sustained
leadership and preparedness in the Scoutmaster position, and the second was
the Scoutmaster Award of Merit, which can only be recommended by the troop's
Senior Patrol Leader. As Mr. Jester commented, "this award is given by the
boys" and it represents "a track record of producing Eagle Scouts." Next,
our new Scoutmaster, Mr. Chuck Gay, presented Mr. D. with a current troop
photo which was framed and signed by many of the scouts and adult leaders.
A brass plate under the photo included Mr. D's personal motto, "It's all
about the boys." After the awards were presented, Mr. D. made a few
comments to reiterate how proud he is of the troop and its accomplishments.
At this point, it was time for "Mr. D stories" as numerous Scouts and adults
shared a variety of stories, memories and reflections of Mr. D and his
tenure as Scoutmaster. Once the stories came to a close, the Eagle Scout
color guard retired the colors.
Once again, thank you, Mr. D., for all of your service to our Scouts and we
look forward to seeing you on future (although less frequent!) campouts!
Also, a great big thank you to Mrs. Chris Brawn, our hospitality
chairperson, for organizing this event and once again ensuring that we ate
like kings and queens!!
Thank you Scoutmaster Bob De Contreras!
A
heartfelt thank you to Scoutmaster Bob De Contreras for more than 3
years of service as our leader! "Mr. D" stepped down as
Scoutmaster on February 10th and he is leaving behind some big shoes to
fill. Luckily for the troop, Mr. Chuck Gay has accepted the
challenge to succeed Mr. D as our new Scoutmaster.
During Mr. D's tenure as Troop 216 Scoutmaster
- We have experienced a new level of communication between leadership and parents.
- We have seen many scouts reached the rank of Eagle Scout
- More of our older scouts have stayed with the program due to the addition of more high adventure and Eagle-only activities
And of course, we've all come to anticipate Mr. D's famous Scoutmaster's Minute talks at each troop meeting!
Thank you Mr. D for your commitment to our troop, your undying support and your leadership.
Scout Connor Johnson receives gift from Make A Wish Foundation
Troop
216's own Connor Johnson was on the WRAL news (as well as in an article
in the 2/14/09 News & Observer) discussing the "Make A Wish"
present he received this week. As we all know, Connor has cancer,
non Hodgkin's lymphoma, and we've followed the successful fight of our
brave scout against the disease over the last couple of years.
The local "Make A Wish" foundation was able to grant Connor's
wish. He spent the day with the Carolina Hurricanes, first at the
RBC Center at practice and in the locker room, then coming home to a
new 'Canes "man cave" complete with autographed 'Canes gear, big screen
TV and gaming systems. Hey Connor, nice job schooling Cullen and
Williams in NHL 2K9!
Here's a link to the WRAL story and the News & Observer story.
And if you notice, Connor's wearing his Troop 216 t-shirt. Thanks
for the plug of the Boy Scouts, Connor! So the next time you see
Connor, make sure you ask him about the 'Canes to let him brag a little
about his big day.
Also, check out the article about Connor and St. Baldrick's Foundation
in the March/April 2009 issue of the Cary Living Magazine!
Scouting for Food Collection 2009
Thank
you to all scout families who participated in the 2009 Scouting for Food collection. Over
2,100 pounds of food were
collected from the MacGregor Downs neighborhoods, weighed and then
brought to
the Western Wake Crisis Ministry in Apex, NC.
Troop News Archive
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Scout
Adventures
Alex B. reports on
Camp Durant - Summer 2009
Assistant Shooting Sports Instructor
Alex
B. worked at Camp Durant as an Assistant Shooting Sports
Instructor. He was paired with an older staff member (Mark Bittinger)
and together instructed two sessions of archery in the morning and
two sessions of Rifle in the afternoon. Alex worked for six full
weeks plus two staff-development weekends in the spring; one week was a
staff training week with no campers. There were five full weeks of
campers, including one week with Cub Scouts, Webelos, and Boy Scouts
all in the same week. Every Monday, the Shooting Sports area held a
scoutmaster Turkey Shoot, where scoutmasters competed in came around
and shot archery, rifle, and shotgun. Tuesday and Thursday, we held
Open Shoots for any scouts who came down. There was a campfire every
Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday night. Sunday and Wednesday campfires
featured skits from the staff, Wednesday featured an OA tapout
ceremony, and Friday featured skits from the different camper troops
and awards from the different staff areas. The Shooting sports team did
not perform any skits except for one special skit for the Cub scouts
due to our extra busy schedule with open shoots or competitions every
day. On Fridays, scouts made up any missed work from earlier in the
week, and then came to the rifle range for the NRA Postal Shoot. They
shot a special target from the prone position, which we then mailed to
the NRA for scoring. Friday afternoon was filled up with the Tomahawk
Race, where scouts from each troop ran around camp to the different
areas and competed in a specific task in each area. Rifle and Archery
were the last two legs of the race, so we were not finished until
around 4:00 to 5:00pm.
Northern Tier July 12 - 21, 2009
Reported by Alex G.
This
summer, 4 scouts and 2 adult leaders went to Northern Tier, a Boy
Scouts National High Adventure camp based in Ely, MInnesota.
Northern Tier is based in the boundary waters on the
American-Canadian bborder. Our group left on July 12th and returned on
July 21st. We spent a total of seven days and six nights on the
water and two nights at the base. It rained for five days
straight while we were on the water, but we did have two days of
glorious sunshine.
On the
12th, we flew up to Duluth, Minnestoa and spent the night in a resotr,
named Giant Ridge, that caters to Boy Scouts. The following
morning we visited Soudan mines for a tour. We were taken half a
mile underground to the 27th level of the iron ore mine. We got
to see how the mine operated and how ore was moved from inside the mine
to the outside. After our tour we got back inour van and were
driven into Ely. Once in Ely we were taken to the Spirit of the
Wilderness shop where we were given a fishing seminar. Later, we
went to the base itself. At Northern Tier, we met our gide,
Brian, and were given a brief history lesson on the northern traders
that used paddle the boundary waters. Finally, we were taken to
get our gear. We spent the night in one of the cabins privided by
the base. On the morning of the fourteenth, we gathered our gear,
got our food fo rthe trip, and checked out our canoes. Then we
launched.
Each day we
paddled between four and six hours for about ten miles a day. Our
days usually went like this: At 5:30 we woke up and packed up our
stuff. Then we ate breakfast and finished packing up. We
left the camp site around 8:00 and paddled until around noon.
Next we ate lunch and set up camp. After camp was set up we
had free time. We fished, swam (to retrieve lost lures),
scratched mosquito bites, and some of us read. We ate dinner around
5:00 and went in our tents to play cards until around 8:00, in fear of
having all our blood sucked out of ous from the swarms of mosquitoes.
On the 20th
we got off the water, returned all of our gear, and finally got a
shower. Our group went to a rendezvous campfire with other
Scout groups who were out on the waters. We again spent a night
in a cabin provided by the base and on the morning of the 21st we
returned home with lots of fun memories.
 
World
Jamboree 2007
After
attending the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Summer 2005, Mark K.
became interested in attending the World Scout Jamboree in Summer 2007.
The
World Scout Jamboree is a gathering of scouts from all the 180
countries in the world that have a scouting program. This summer was
the 100th anniversary of scouting, and for that the World Jamboree was
held in Chelmsford, Essex, England at Hylands Park. North Carolina sent
a troop of 36 boys and 4 leaders from 3 councils. We arrived 3 days
before the start of the Jamboree and we toured Windsor and London. We
arrived at the Jamboree site on July 27th and within a few hours we
turned our small patch of grass into a campsite for 40 people with all
our stuff and places to cook and eat, along with 40,000 other Scouts!
The Jamboree's focus was to promote tolerance and friendship between
scouts from across the world. Every day there were activities planned
including 3 offsite days where we did water activities, high adventure
activities, and a service project.
We all met people from other countries and learned about other
cultures. It was very cool to be able to see scouts from places like
Israel and Pakistan getting along, and leaving behind the struggles of
the world to make friends not judgments. The World Scout Jamboree was
truly an amazing experience
that showed the power of friendship and how something so simple can
bring the whole world together.
The
next World Scout Jamboree will be held in Sweden in the summer of
2011, and the next National Scout Jamboree will be Summer of 2010. If
you have any questions, or have any interest in attending
a
Jamboree, either National or World, please contact me or visit the
Websites:
www.worldjamboreetroop219.org
and follow the links
www.worldjamboree.net;
Mark
K.
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