Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
A Little Troop 325 History
August 29, 2006 - COH
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Last month, I was sitting at my computer on a Tuesday afternoon, writing a Scoutmaster minute for that night's meeting. I planned on talking about the fact that we have a lot of guys in our troop going for Eagle soon, and that's great. But I wanted to point out that even though reaching Eagle is a great goal, that is not the goal of Scouting. Scouting's goals are to get outdoors, learn skills, have fun, and build character and become good citizens along the way.

I was literally in the middle of writing that minute when I received an email from out of the blue. I've shared this with some leaders already, but want to share it with everyone now. It read:

Hi Troop 325!
I just happened across your website and thought I'd write to say congratulations on your thriving troop!  I was a member of Troop 325 from 1978-1985 and when I left I thought the Troop was on it's way to the history books, so to speak, as we had only a dozen kids still active.  I just attended my 20 year high school reunion where I met up with some other former members of the troop and our memories of those days were every bit as fond (if not more so) as those from school itself!  Scouting was a HUGE part of my life growing up and it makes me really glad to see you're still going strong all these years later.   So many fantastic memories - Russian River trips, Camp Chawanakee at Shaver Lake, the World Jamboree in Calgary B.C., Pinnnacles treks, cross country skiing through Yosemite, this list goes on and on!  I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for keeping scouting alive and for all the hard (and often thankless) work you do to keep the troop going.  My own father was Scoutmaster from '82-'85, so I know how difficult it can be to keep everyone motivated, to get parent volunteers and to keep the kids on the right track.  The toughest job you'll ever love, right?!?  Anyhow, I just wanted to say hi and thanks!  Seeing and reading the things on your site just brought back even more great flashbacks from better-days-gone-by! 
Sincerely,
John Langford

I had a couple more email exchanges with him. He said that there was a Scoutmaster named Joe Rodgers back then who was an awesome leader and his departure from the troop was a great loss. An Eagle scout from another troop filled in for while, who John remembered as being instrumental with helping him earn the rabbit raising merit badge. Then John's father took over for a couple of years. Looking over the records, I see that after that there were four more Scoutmasters that held the job for about 2 years each, before George Denise took over in 1992, then myself in 2005.

I invited John to come to one of our meetings and tell us about the good old days. He said he just might take me up on that sometime. He said if he had a son he'd be here for sure. But he was blessed with a daughter who has taken him down different paths.

John is a Life scout, but seemed to enjoy his scouting experience as much or more than any Eagle scout. He seemed to be proving my point that becoming men of good character is our goal. It was great to hear from him and it makes e proud to be a part of this great troop..

Thanks for listening.