Curtis' Beating....oh wait, Curtis' Beading

Clear back in September 2007 Curtis attended a Wood Badge training. I know that you are asking, what is Wood Badge? Wood Badge is Scouting's premier training course. Baden-Powell (the Father of Scouting) designed it so that Scouters could learn, in as practical a way possible, the skills and methods of Scouting. Curtis went up for 3 days on 2 different weekends and participated in this training. At the end of the training he had to come up with 5 different goals that he would do to help him to apply the things that he learned. These goals were known as his ticket. Curtis had 18 months after the training to complete his ticket, then he would receive a certificate, a small neckerchief, a leather slide, and two small wooden beads on a leather thong. Those who have been to Wood Badge call the presentation of their certificate as their Beading Ceremony (well at least all of those in his patrol did...). Leave it to Curtis to cut it close...he had until the end of March to finish, and he finished with about 5 weeks to go. There were 5 other people in his patrol and 4 of them finished before he did.

What were some of Curtis' goals? They were to: 1) Exercise 3-4 times a week for 6 months 2) Make sure that all of the boys in his troop were trained in their positions 3) Teach the scout committee about the troop mtg plan and the patrol method 4) Attend mtgs of 10 different units (besides his own) including Venture, Varsity, Cub Scout and other Boy Scout troops to learn more about scouting and how they run the program (6 of these had to be non-LDS troops) and 5) Create a knot board that had all of the knots and lashings needed to pass for 1st class, and collect other troop resources.

After finally finishing all of these, Curtis was awarded his beads. He had the option of receiving them at the monthly Round Table mtg that the district puts on, or at some other scouting event. Curtis decided that it would be fun to receive his award at a Court of Honor that our Ward did this past week. Curtis' troop guide, Jim, came to the Court of Honor to recognize him in his achievements. Jim dressed up as Baden-Powell and told the story of how scouting was started and why he created the Wood Badge training. All of the boys there loved it...Baden-Powell gave some history: he was born in 1857, the scouting program started in England in 1907 and started in the US in 1910. Before he had Curtis come to the front, he called the Wood Badge Court of Honor to order by putting an ax into a log that was in the front of the room (this was the part that the boys really liked). Anyway, after the history lesson, Bonnie (who was also in Curtis' patrol at Wood Badge) helped to present Curtis his neckerchief, leather slide, and two small wooden beads on a leather thong. Then Jim presented him with his certificate.

Curtis was pretty excited about accomplishing his ticket. He did not receive his Eagle Scout award, but feels like he is an Eagle Scout now because he was in the Eagle patrol up at Wood Badge and he successfully completed his ticket. Way to go Curtis!!