Two for the price of one

      Troop 50 scored on a double this week when Davis Tullier and Kyle Sullivan both passed their Eagle Scout Boards of Review. Both scouts are founding members of the troop and now join the nine other Eagle Scouts in the troop's Eagles' Nest. In addition to earning their Eagle rank, Kyle and Davis are graduating from Auburn High School this week. This makes a total of seven Troop 50 Eagles who are about to graduate from Auburn High. The future looks bright for our Eagles as they look towards college and other endeavors. We wish them well along their way.

Davis celebrates with his family following his board of review.

 

Kyle is joined by his parents in celebrating his Eagle rank.

     

      Davis and Kyle started Cub Scouts together in Pack 13 and earned their Arrow of Light as Webelos in Pack 29 before transitioning to Boy Scouts. They were both elected to membership in the Order of the Arrow at the same time and they helped to establish Troop 50 in 2012. They were members of one of the troop's first patrols, the Average Joe's, with Kyle serving as the first patrol leader. In the following term, Davis became the patrol leader and Kyle took on the job of his assistant. Considering their longtime friendship and parallel scouting careers, it is appropriate that they advance to Eagle together.

Kyle and Davis show off their famous bacon-wrapped Zebra Cakes
at the District Camporee in March 2013.

      Davis began work on his Eagle Service Project in the summer of 2014 at Pick Elementary School. Although Pick is a new school in the Auburn school system, the principal, Debbie Brooks and the P.E. coach, Chuck Cooper, were at Cary Woods when Davis was in elementary school. For his project, Davis constructed a trail leading from the parking lot down to the creek that runs between the school and North College Street. Beside the creek, he built an outdoor classroom consisting of a table and four benches. Teachers are now able to bring students out to the creek for lessons in biology and the environment. The project was the subject of the blog post "Trailblazing toward Eagle" with additional photos in our online photo gallery.

Davis' completed outdoor classroom in front of the creek. 

      Kyle's Eagle Service Project was also completed at Pick Elementary and, appropriately, was situated along the trail constructed by Davis. Kyle's project was recently highlighted in our blog post "The gift of music at Pick Elementary." He created an outdoor musical classroom for use by the third through fifth grade students at Pick. The area includes a xylophone made from PVC pipes, a washboard, chimes of galvanized pipes, drums made from buckets and trash cans, and cymbals using the trash can lids. Kyle told the Eagle Board that the school's secretary informed him that she can always hear students enjoying the instruments when she heads into the parking lot at midday. Photos of the project can be found in the online photo gallery.

The musical environment of Kyle's project. 

   
      Davis and Kyle take their place among the more than 2.37 million scouts who have earned the rank of Eagle since the award was created in 1912. Since then, only two percent of all Boy Scouts have earned the rank. Although the percentage of Eagles in recent years has risen to six percent of scouts in a given year, the attainment of the rank is still a rare achievement among the almost 900,000 registered scouts in the United States today. All of our Eagle Scouts should be commended for their hard work.

      It should be noted too that Eagles whose fathers are also Eagle Scouts is a rarity. Troop 50 is proud to now have three sets of father/son Eagles as Davis earns the rank. His father, Michael, earned his Eagle in 1989. It is a legacy of which both can be proud.

Father and son Eagle Scouts, Davis and Michael Tullier. 

 

Light my fire

Troop 50 continued its work toward Cooking Merit Badge, which is currently an elective merit badge but will become an Eagle-required merit badge in 2014. Members of the Average Joe's Patrol led the discussion of USDA's MyPlate nutritional guidelines, balanced nutrition, and healthy eating. Later in the meeting, patrols applied the principles of the discussion in creating their meals for the troop campout later this month.

Average Joe's Patrol members lead discussion of nutritious menu planning.

The troop then adjourned for some outdoor instruction that continued the theme of campsite cooking. Assistant Scoutmasters Jason Smith and Davis Baird offered demonstrations of lighting propane lanterns and stoves. Scoutmaster Baird demonstrated how to operate a liquid-fuel Coleman stove.

Assistant Scoutmaster Smith demonstrates lighting a propane lantern.

Assistant Scoutmaster Baird discusses propane stove-lighting techniques.

Scoutmaster Baird shares the dos and don'ts of operating liquid fuel stoves.

How Troop 50 spent its summer vacation

As our earlier blog post, Summertime Blues (not really), recounted, Troop 50 Scouts marked their summer vacation with trips to Camp Sequoyah in North Alabama, Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, N.M., and Lake Martin. The troop's Aug. 12 meeting gave Scouts a chance to share with each other how they spent their summer vacations with presentations full of photos and personal accounts of their summer camp and high-adventure trips.

SPL Andrew explains issues of elevation that the Philmont
contingent experienced climbing Baldy Mountain.

Following their presentations, Scouts tried their hands at tying woggles, which turned out for some to be more of an exercise of tying their hands at mastering the knot commonly used by Scouts as a neckerchief slide. Scouts picked from a variety of colored paracord to tie a woggle to use with their new troop neckerchiefs.

The finished woggle product.

At the end of the meeting, several of the troop's youth leaders received patches noting their leadership positions. Those presentations included William as troop quartermaster, Robert as troop guide, Davis as the Average Joes patrol leader, and Jake as the Anonymous Patrol assistant patrol leader.

New Troop Guide Robert (left) and Average Joes Patrol Leader Davis

Check out other photos from the troop meeting in our online photo album.

Regime Change

        Troop 50 underwent its first peaceful transition of power this evening as elections were held for senior patrol leader and the two patrol leaders. Fears of campaign finance irregularities or turmoil at the polls quickly proved unfounded and Andrew was elected as the new SPL. He then selected Vincent to serve as assistant SPL. Andrew previously served as the patrol leader of the Anonymous Patrol and Vincent was the troop guide.

The new regime

         
        Following the SPL election, the scouts turned to the task of electing new patrol leaders. In a close election, followed by a runoff, Davis was chosen to lead the Average Joes and Ethan to head the Anonymous Patrol. Each patrol then met to select their assistant leader. Kyle was selected as APL for the Average Joes and the outgoing SPL, Jake, was the choice to serve as Ethan's assistant in Anonymous.

Anonymous leadership

Just some Average Joes

        
        The inauguration of the newly elected leadership will take place at the Court of Honor on June 3rd. At that time, the new leaders will begin to implement the "hope and change" they promised in their campaign speeches. Scouts selected to act as quartermaster and troop guide will also be installed at the Court of Honor. While the winds of change sweep a new regime into office, the future appears bright with promise for the scouts of Troop 50. Congratulations to our new youth leadership!

  

Troop makes strong inaugural showing at district camporee

The 2013 Saugahatchee District Frank Horky Spring Camporee was Troop 50's first showing at a district event, and the troop didn't disappoint! The camporee, held March 15-17 at Chewacala State Park, featured Scout-skill night games Friday evening, a Saturday camporee-wide service project, and a Saturday-evening awards campfire.

Friday's activities kicked off around 9 p.m. and put Scouts' ability to master various Scout skills in the dark of night to the ultimate test. The events were based on the Siege of Mafeking of the Second Boer War of 1899-1900, which was a pivitol experience for Lord Robert Baden-Powell (then Col. Baden-Powell) and inspiration for shaping what later became the Boy Scouting movement he founded. Camporee events tested patrols' ability to work as a team and troubleshoot during a variety of events that included dexterity, knot-tying, map sketching, memory, first aid, by-sight measuring, stealthiness and covertness, fire building, and star-based navigation. Events ended around 1 a.m. Saturday, and no one complained about it being bedtime!

Vincent working on a
portion of the park's
mountain bike trail.

After a leisurely start (which included the now-infamous bacon-wrapped Zebra cakes of the Average Joes Patrol) and opening flag ceremony Saturday morning, Scouts from all troops attending joined together for a few hours of service to the state park. Scouts and leaders worked with park volunteers to shore up, fortify and rebuild sections of the state park's mountain bike trail. In total, the camporee resulted in nearly 150 service hours by district Scouts.

Saturday's campfire brought a number of surprises for the troop, the most pleasant of those being the number of awards from Friday night's competitions garnered by the Anonymous Patrol. Their accolades included two first-place finishes in the compass course ("Navigator's Nightmare") competition and locating the North Star without a compass ("Star Light, Star Bright") as well as a third-place finish for drawing a map from memory ("Map Sketch"). Later, we found out the Average Joes Patrol had several fourth, fifth and sixth place finishes in many of the events and among the 11 individual patrols competing in the events.

Anonymous Patrol members proudly displaying the
various competition awards they earned.

The troop took a moment to observe the day of worship Sunday morning with a Scouts' Own service before departing.

At its Patrol Leaders' Council meeting the following Monday, youth leaders praised the troop for its strong competitive showing, its overall ability to work as a team, and its success in how the patrols really formed and worked together as individual units during the weekend.

View more photos of the troop's camporee experience online in the online photo gallery.

Bacon-wrapped WHAT?!?!?!

The Average Joes have created an anything-but-average camp out delicacy. Move over bacon-wrapped filets, the Average Joes Patrol has developed the Bacon-wrapped Zebra Cake: A Little Debbie Zebra Cake wrapped in thick-sliced bacon. The patrol has dubbed their creation the "new chicken and waffles"! So, when you see it on the next episode of The Rachel Ray Show or deep-fried by Paula Dean, know that this porcine treat started first with Troop 50! Check out pics of their creation below, other photos from the weekend in our online photo album.

Did someone call a doctor?

Check out more photos from our
troop meeting/first-aid exercise
in our online photo album

The emphasis of our Feb. 25 meeting was first aid, which was great as the troop welcomed two soon-to-be Troop 50 members who will cross over from Pack 29. Our new Scouts also had the opportunity to witness senior Scouts in action from the best vantage point possible -- as "victims" during the exercise.

After the troop's traditional meeting opening, Scouts were presented with four first-aid scenarios that required patrols to work together in a true test of Scouting emergency preparedness. First aid challenges included some lifelike infirmities -- compliments of scoutmaster-turned-makeup-artist Andrew Baird:

• profusely bleeding palm laceration
• second-degree cooking burn
• wilderness snake bite
• forearm broken bone

The patrols demonstrated a good command for working as a team and mitigating these emergency situations. Thankfully, our "victims" all lived (without incurring any new injuries in the process!).

In addition to the first aid exercise, the Average Joes patrol flag reappeared at the troop meeting after a long absence. By the end of the meeting, it was display-ready having been mounted to its own patrol flagpole.

Take shelter!

Shelter-building

Troop 50 took shelter this past weekend at the Forest Ecology Preserve, where Scouts developed and put into practice the wilderness survival skills they learned during the past two troop meetings. As a result of their work, Scouts attending the campout earned the Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. This was also the troop’s inaugural campout, which gave them a chance to check out troop gear and begin working together in their patrols and as a troop-team.

Fire-building

After creating their shelters, which included a combination of natural and fabricated materials, the troop’s youth leadership led sessions on fire building, orienteering and signaling. Our two patrols competed in a map-reading and orienteering course, with the final bearing leading to a gravity-fed shower for each patrol's future use.

SPL Jake, Instructor Vincent and
Anonymous Patrol members
William, Andrew (patrol leader)
and Josh with their gravity shower prize.

On Sunday, the troop held a Scouts’ Own service, where Scouts and leaders focused on how being equipped is important, whether it is being equipped for Scouts, sports or their spiritual life. The troop then conducted a service project for the preserve – exercising Scouting’s “Leave No Trace” principles by removing the traces of blazed trails and improper fire pits created without the preserve’s consent.

Average Joe's Patrol members
Davis, Kyle (patrol leader) and
Robert with their gravity shower prize.

In its Patrol Leaders Council the following Monday evening, youth leaders praised the fun everyone had, noted the shelters held up well, and the compass course was a good time. They also thought rotating troop cooking and cleaning among patrols worked well and spread the load among everyone. They also agreed that more orienteering practice would be helpful.

Check out more photos from the campout in the troop's online photo album

I will (still) survive!

Troop 50 continued its plans for its upcoming wilderness survival campout. After the meeting opening, members of the Average Joe's Patrol presented members of the troop with suggestions for wilderness gear, clothing and hydration.

Patrols rotated between stations, where Scoutmaster Andrew Baird discussed the components of survival kits, and Assistant Scoutmaster Jason Smith demonstrated water-filtering techniques.

Finally, patrols started on the artistic creations that will come to be known as their patrol flags. We look forward to the grand unveiling of their original works of art, which will become visual identifiers of the troop's inaugural patrols.

Stay tuned for proof following this weekend's wilderness survival campout that Troop 50 did in fact survive the wild. We hear it's supposed to be just a tad cold!

Meet Kyle, patrol leader of the Average Joe's Patrol

My name is Kyle and I am the patrol leader of the Average Joe’s Patrol. I have been in Boy Scouts for three and a half years and before that I was in Cub Scouts. I am a Life Scout, member of the Order of the Arrow, and I served as assistant patrol leader in my previous troop. Outside of Scouts, I love to watch and play sports, especially football. I was a part of the only Auburn football team to go undefeated in its 7th, 8th and 9th grade years. Also, I have Auburn University football season tickets (War Eagle!).

The patrol leader is the elected leader of his patrol. He represents his patrol on the troop Patrol Leaders’ Council, works with the troop's senior patrol leader and other youth leaders, and appoints the patrol's assistant patrol leader.