July 1999

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Here are the birthdays for the month of July: Dan Aykroyd 1, Bob Wieck 2, Tom Cruise 3, Randy Reed 5, Sylvester Stallone 6, Garry Wood 7, Harrison Ford 13, Matthew Scott 14 , Rodney Scott 18, Robin Williams 21, Daryn Finney 22, Doug West 23, Michael Fiore 26, Bennett Wilson 27, John Blakley 29, Shaun Finley 31, Brandon Naylor 31, and Justin Smiley 31.

In a ceremony held at Camp Don Harrington on Friday, June 25th, the Order of the Arrow bestowed their highest honor on a member of Troop 80. Only two scouts in the Golden Spread Council received the award for 1999. Michael Slade (Eagle ‘96) became only the 8th person in the 50 years of Troop 80 history to be presented with the “Vigil” honor award. Those receiving the Vigil are selected and voted on by the other members of the local OA Lodge. The other past Troop 80 Vigil members of the Order of the Arrow are Matt Hite, Rodney Scott, Terry Slade, Jim Thompson, Ted Abrahamson, Charles Ritchie, and Jack Bryant. Michael will complete his induction ceremony at the Summer Ordeal at MK Brown on August 21st.

Last call for those Physicals. The Troop 80 Wilderness camp requires that you have a current physical on file with the troop or you won’t be allowed to attend and this includes you adults. This is a BSA policy. You can find out if you need a new one by contacting Matt Hite. All scouts and leaders need to turn one in before they will be allowed to attend. Don’t wait too long to see a doctor.

Rock and Roll in the wind and cold. 53 scouts and 35 dads and other adults with little or no sense, took a wild, white water raft ride for 9 miles down the cold Arkansas River near Vacation Village, Colorado. A panorama of 11 of the 14,000 peaks in the majestic Collegiate Mountains completed the view. A few hearty souls thought it would be fun to take a dip in the 40 degree snow melt water, but most just held on and shivered till the end.. For the first time, the troop stayed at Camp Packard, the BSA’s high adventure base. Paul Kiefer and company did a great job on the meals. The 80 +MPH wind knocked down the tents Saturday night, but they retreated to the dining hall. John Sallis, camp director, was a great host and we all look forward to going there again.

Troop 80 scouts are at the top of their class. Vikram Mittal was the Amarillo High Valedictorian and he plans to attend Columbia University to study engineering. Nick Emerine was the Salutatorian for Randall High. John Filipowicz is applying to the US Coast Guard Academy and Bobby Sabedra is applying for entrance to the US Air Force Academy. So who said our scouts weren’t too smart.

The dates are July 17 thru 24 and the cost is just $75.00 dollars. To go, you must have attended 50% of the camps and meetings, have earned a rank or 5 merit badges since last year, and new scouts must be at least a new Tenderfoot. On the way home, we’ll tour the “Old Town” Albuquerque and visit REI.. Parents are welcome to drive over and eat dinner with us at the Furr’s if they don’t try and take their scout away early. All Eagle Scouts are welcome to attend Wilderness camp. Don’t forget the great food that our 4-star chefs put on the table. It will be a fun camp for all.

This month we will meet Steve Tunnel. He joined Pack 6 and received his Arrow of Light in 1970. He earned his Eagle with Troop 80 in 1974 and he was a patrol leader under SPL Eric Wolfram. He is an Ordeal member of the OA. He has served as a Den Leader, Webelos Leader, and as a Cub Master. He is an ASM with Troop 80 and is the Winter Camp Rifle Range Master where he is an instructor for Hunter Education and Angler Education. He has also worked on staff at Webelos camp. In his spare time, he is on the Board of Directors for Campfire Boys and Girls where he is the Outdoor Activity Committee president.

If you accept the expectations of others, especially the negative ones, then you never will change the outcome. -- Michael Jordan

Arapaho 293 Mohican 255 Crow 254 Maya 165 Mohawk 158 Erie 127 Apache 125 Cree 46 Comanche 46 Aztec 10

Brown pork in a dab of oil. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Add 1-2 cups water. Cover and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour. If it is too thin, remove cover and continue to simmer until thickened.

Troop 80 is proud to announce that two of our scouts have completed their Boards of Review for the Eagle rank. Ryan Hyde and Tres Binkley will be presented with their awards at the next Court of Honor in September. Only 4% of all Scouts reach Eagle and Troop 80 is always well over the national average.

Scout mug and cup collection, including cups from various Scouting Regions is on loan from the Ted Abrahamson collection. And coming soon -- a display of international scouting Boy Scout shirts.

It started off the week with rain and it ended the same way. 32 scouts started off the week and 27 finished. A friendly water war with Troop 79 got out of hand when some Wheeler scouts got involved and a halt was called. James Spencer did a great job stepping into the acting Scout Master shoes for the week. Thanks to all the other leaders that took the time to come down and spend the night. They were Steve Tunnell, Sonny Scott, Blake Klein, Randy Reed, and Joel Finley. Without their help, our Troop would not have been able to go to advancement camp. Shelby Amos earned the most merit badges with 10 and Justin Grady was the “Scout of the Week”. Merit Badge totals are not available at printing, but we’ll have them for the August newsletter along with awards that were won by our scouts.

Several of our troop were area directors at the recent Webelos camps held at Camp Don over 3 weekends in June. Randy Reed, Steve Tunnell and crew ran the BB range and taught range safety. Terry Slade built a giant water slide in one of the ravines and launched bottle rockets. We hope that the presence of these leaders and our scouts at Webelos camp will help in our recruitment of Webelos into Troop 80.

As far as I can tell, there are at least 5 official BSA websites. Troop 80 has their own website that you can visit and Matt Hite is the “Webmaster”. Here are a couple you should check out:

Our end of summer campout will be at Camp Don on August 20 -22. The pool will be open and this should be a fun campout. We are inviting the Webelos and we’ll have a big Bar BQ dinner. We expect some of our Alumni to attend. T-shirts will be available to order and a special patch will be handed out for those that attend. The cost has not been set yet, but you should all plan to attend. Arrangements will be made for those planning to attend the OA Ordeal.

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A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him.

Psalm 17:8 states that God will keep us, "as the apple of His eye." THOUGHT: The worth of our lives come not in what we do or who we are but by WHOSE WE ARE!