Brand new Troop

A little over a year ago, we became fed up with the direction that our old Troop was heading and started looking for a new Troop. The Pack that my son was in never had a Troop affiliated with it.....Until March 2012. I had gotten an email and a phone call from a gentleman who was looking to start up an old Troop and wondered if we would be interested in joining. I asked if we could have an "interview" of sorts, and he quickly said sure. That was a great sign. We met with them in January 2012 and I grilled them with questions. The first thing that got me was that he is an Eagle Scout. He's a few years older than I am, but wow what a guy. He's a Scouts Scout. Well, 2 months later, we chartered, I took a new job so that I could become an ACTIVE Scouter. We started with 6 boys. A little over a year now, and we have 15 active boys. In case you didn't realize, program matters! If you give the kids something to work with, they will come! This is my field of dreams. Rich and I have become great friends, we think alike, and we have the same values in Scouting. We completed almost 300 service hours last year. We camped every month, including taking 5 boys to summercamp! 23 Rank advancements. 27 Merit Badges. We don't need no stinking badges....Sorry, i just couldn't pass that one up. And the best part is, this is a boy led Troop, with adults and parents in full support of the program. Our committee seems to be strong and still growing. Our fundraising will be getting us a trailer in the next couple of months. We do things old school. No floor, canvas tents. Remember patrol boxes? I'm not talking about plastic tubs, I'm talking homemade built out of wood patrol boxes. You wouldn't believe all the people that come to our campsite during a camporee. We've done 4 of them now, and every time there are dozens of people who are amazed. This is something that I am very proud of and I hope this is something that I can bring both of my boys up in and continue on for years to come.