Cameron's Eagle Ceremony

We held Cameron's Eagle Ceremony yesterday afternoon and there were only two minor glitches. I think that's incredible because we didn't rehearse beforehand. About a week ago, I gave the major players a copy of the script with their parts highlighted but we didn't do a run-through before the real thing.

I think the reason it went off so well without the rehearsal is because Cameron is the twelfth Eagle Scout from our troop; four ceremonies held in the past eighteen months. I guess you could say that they've rehearsed four times for Cameron's!



Not quite sure why the boys are looking so grim. Richelle must have caught them just at the wrong moment. Something I never thought of until the Scoutmaster mentioned it was that Nick and Cameron are the only brother Eagle Scouts in the troop. That got us to thinking about how many brothers are Eagles in our district and came up with only three other families. The rank of Eagle is elite anyway so having two in one family is pretty special.



Mike and I with Cameron getting ready for the presentation of the mother's and father's pins and of Cameron's Eagle pin. Cameron has just taken the Oath of Eagle.



The Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster with nine of the twelve Eagle Scouts from the troop. Nick is second from left in front row, Cameron is third from right in back.

Our troop tends to have boys earn Eagle in bunches. One earned his in 2002, two earned theirs in 2003, three in 2006, one in 2007, and two in 2008. To finish the roll call, there was one in 1999, one in 1997, and one in 1995. It'll be a couple of years before we have another one but there are three boys in reach of Eagle in that time frame.

I have more pictures coming and I'll post them when I get them.

Teamwork pays off

Back in September, Richelle joined a FIRST Lego League team and I was catapulted into becoming a coach through no desire of my own.

Well, our team of five girls worked hard on learning enough about computers to run the programing software, researching a climate-related problem in our area and the solutions used to combat it, finding another area in the world with the same problem and what their solution is and coming up with a way to present their information to others. The final part of the project was to come up with an innovative solution but they didn't get that part done. They also problem-solved how to earn the most points off the board by completing pre-set missions with the Lego robot they had programmed.

They also learned about teamwork, stress management, working on their own with only guidance from adults, time management, and understanding gracious professionalism and friendly competition.

Saturday was our qualifying tournament. There were supposed to be thirteen teams competing from Klammath Falls area, Coos Bay area, Roseburg area, and the Eugene area and one from as far away as Bly but because of the inclement weather there were only eight.

The teams are scored in four areas: teamwork, technical, the project, and the missions. The scores are tallied and trophies awarded at the end of the competition but no one except the judges and Tournament Director know what the scores are. This is to foster the idea of Friendly Competition and Gracious Professionalism.

There are several categories for trophies. Champion's Award, a Champion's Runner-Up Award, Young Team Award, Rookie Team Award, and Honorable Mention Award. The first three awards advance to the State Championships in January. A team wins only one trophy regardless of the score. For example, if a rookie team scores the highest overall, they only get the Champion's Award; the Rookie Award goes to the next-highest scoring rookie team.

Our team won the Young Team Award. The girls were so shocked and excited! Their smiles stretched from one side of their faces to the other and it was great to see them enjoy the fruits of all their hard work.

On to the State Championships January 17 and 18!

High Achievement

ANNOUNCING
the
EAGLE SCOUT COURT OF HONOR
for
CAMERON MILLER

Sunday, 21 December 2008
2:oopm

at the

SUTHERLIN COMMUNITY CENTER
SUTHERLIN, OREGON

Cameron officially achieved the rank of Eagle Scout on April 29, 2008 but it's taken this long for us to pull the ceremony together. You can read about and see his project in the May archives.