Introduction

I'm going to be using this blog as a place to vent and to bemoan and hopefully to encourage other Scouters.

I'm an avid Scouter and have been for most of my life.  I have a toddler whom I adore and I can't wait for him to begin his Scouting career.  I fell in with my current troop about 5 years ago.  They were having a yard sale and I stopped to buy a desk.  I started talking to one of the moms and when I realized that this was a Scouting event I suddenly realized I wanted to get back into the program.  A few weeks later, I was attending meetings.  I didn't become an Assistant Scoutmaster until about 2.5 years ago.  Since then I've been helping regularly and now help with Webelos.

I believe that Scouting is an extremely important organization and something that must continue to grow.  I grew up without my dad around.  My parents divorced when I was about 6 or 7 and when I was about 10 my dad moved to the East coast and I moved to Tennessee.  I saw him once or twice a year after that.  It was a lonely time for me.  I missed my dad and really craved an adult male role model.  This came in the form of my Scoutmasters.  There are 4 that I remember very well.  The chief among them is Mr. Watts.  Mr. Watts was my best friend Jack's dad and really the closest thing I had to a dad too.  If my mom and I needed anything, he'd be there.  He is a great Scouter and taught me and the other boys many things.  I am so very thankful that he's in my life.

Through the leadership and support of Mr. Watts and the other Scoutmasters, I made it to Eagle (just barely, I had my court of honor a month before I turned 18).  This was the biggest accomplishment of my life until the completion of my Master's degree.  It took a lot of work and effort to complete and was an accumulation of several years' work.  That day in September 1999 I joined an incredible brotherhood.  The brotherhood of eagles.