Transitions

All things change. 

For me, April 1st marked the end of a significant chapter of my life. For the previous four-and-a-half years, I was privileged to have the honor of serving our great Troop 451 as Committee Chair. In that role, I was blessed to work with many dedicated volunteers whose commitment of time and effort, doubtless, exceeded my own.

To mention just a few such great folks, of the many wonderful volunteers who served our Scouts while I was Committee Chair, Shannon Anderson continued to serve as our treasurer for the first half of my tenure and her excellent efforts ensured that the troop maintained the enviable financial foundation she worked so hard to establish earlier. Cynthia Arroyo Richards then stepped up and continued the tradition of professionalism and sound financial management. Stephanie Stapp Tyson took on the role of Advancement Chair before I became Committee Chair and continued that throughout almost all my term, carefully training her replacement before stepping aside. I cannot be more grateful for their enormous efforts on behalf of our Scouts. Thank you!

We were fortunate to have had a great series of Eagle Coordinators during my time. After serving our troop in that role for many years, the late Tom Moore passed the reins to Patrick Martin, who later passed them to Dennis Goodrich. The fact that Troop 451 has had 130+ Scouts earn their Eagle rank in our 22 years of existence is, in no small part, owing to the good efforts of these dedicated Scouters. Thank you all, too!

Our great Troop cannot exist without Scouts to serve and the substantial success we have enjoyed recruiting new Scouts these past two years owes much to the efforts of so many. Roger Branson first made leading these efforts his service to Troop 451 and laid the foundation for the future success we have seen. Our hard-working Assistant Scout Masters, especially Chris Samson and Eric Bussey shouldered much of the load this last Fall. For all these efforts, I am most grateful. Their hard work, and that of so many others, has enabled me to step down, assured that our Troop will continue its fine tradition of offering a first-rate Scouting program to our youth. Thank you so much.

Two exceptional Troop Quartermasters made being Committee Chair much easier than it might have been. Kevin Lee not only spearheaded the replacement of our beloved Big Red with a new, safer incarnation, he also took on the task of establishing the Troop 451 watercraft program. This has added a new dimension to our vigorous outdoor program and he brought it in under the modest budget our Troop Committee dedicated to that program. What a fine job, sir!! On top of that, he ably discharged the less-dramatic duties, overseeing the replacement of so much of our aging camping equipment, including the acquisition of new, effective stoves for the patrols. Thank you. Patrick Halbach stepped up when Kevin took over as Camping Coordinator and is ably filling those large shoes. So much of the success our troop has enjoyed while I have been Committee Chair is owing to their good efforts.

I cannot begin to mention everyone by name; there have been too many great volunteers I have worked with, virtually every one of whom discharged their task promptly and with professionalism.

I cannot end, however, without especially recognizing my colleague and partner whose selfless dedication to our Scouts is the heart of our success. It has been my great pleasure to work in support of our exemplary Scout Master, Steve Kral.

Steve’s dedication to Scouting principles and practices ensured that Troop 451 offered an outstanding, authentic Scouting program to our youth, maintaining our long tradition of leading our district in essentially every measure of troop excellence. Every year of my tenure, Troop 451 continued its streak of earning top unit honors in the Journey to Excellence program.

Steve maintained and recruited a great staff of Assistant Scout Masters and I thank Steve and each of them for making our troop better through their service.

There is always some sadness that accompanies the losses we face with any change but this is tempered by knowing I pass the torch into the eager hands of Mark Lampe, our new Committee Chair.

It has been a special pleasure and source of pride for me to have served as your Committee Chair these past few years and I intend to remain an active, contributing member of our Troop 451 ‘family’, albeit in a somewhat less-prominent role.

Thank you all.