Closing a Scouting Experience
In the autumn of 2005 I was cruising the web and came across a site that was looking for editors. One of the editors they needed was for their Boy Scout site. Having spent a lot of time in Scouting, I applied. When I got home that night and told my wife, she thought it was a cool idea and asked where the site was. I had no idea. A couple of weeks later I received an email asking me what were the first ten articles that I would write and asked me to submit the first one for review. A short time after that I received notification that I was indeed the Boy Scout editor for BellaOnLine- the Voice of Women on the Web.
It is now January of 2012 and I have been the Boy Scout editor for six years. I could not have anticipated the interesting people I would meet and the good times this position would bring to me. A couple of the most surprising were:
- Writing about Camp Aliquipa (I never could remember if there were one or two “p’s”) where I went to summer camp as a Scout. I heard from a number of people who also went to camp there and some who went to camp the same time I did. The camp ground is now an RV park and I heard from one of the people working there. She had a lot of questions about the old buildings and what they were used for. We talked about the camp grounds now. Lots of good memories. One of the guys I met also worked as a volunteer at the last national jamboree and he was kind enough to get a patch for me. I owe Rich a special thanks for that.
- I also met Alvin because he and I had attended the 1960 Golden Jamboree in Colorado Springs together. We discussed shared memories. I also discovered that his son was an author and had written two books about Eagle Scouts- Legacy of Honor and Spirit of Adventure- Eagle Scouts and the Making of America's Future. He also wrote a book about the first 100 years of Naval Aviation which was exciting for me since I spent some time there. My squadron, the Jolly Rogers, is prominently featured in the book. All three books are good reading for Scouts and Scouters.
Several articles got a lot of attention or a considerable number of page visits. The one with the most visits is “The Sun Rises in the East- Right?” I met a Greek photographer, Anthony Ayiomamitis, who overlaid three pictures of the sun taken at the same place on the vernal equinox, the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. From these pictures we can clearly see that the sun rises in an easterly direction but it only rises at due east twice a year. Very cool images and I thank Anthony for allowing me to use his photo.
There is a time for all seasons and it seems that this season is coming to an end. I appreciate all the input and information. I have probably learned more for my readers than they have learned from me. It has been a wonderful journey. For those of you who went to Camp Aliquippa and would like a patch from our camp, I will be happy to send you one. Please send an email with your address and I’ll get it out. I’ll end with the closing we used at our troop because it is, I hope, a motto that we can all live by. “On my honor, I will do my best…”
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