The Scouting Century Foundation’s display of Sea Scout ship medallions and flag ship fleet patches won “Best of Show” at the recent 2009 Dallas Trade-o-ree. We caught up with the Foundation’s Executive Director Sam Fairchild to discuss and review for you the contents of this display. See the pod-cast below.

Sea Scouting is the oldest specialty program within the BSA. It started in 1913 and continues to this day. It has its own highly distinctive and coveted insignia and memorabilia. Some of its most distinctive badges are ship medallions, youth designed badges, for each Sea Scout unit. Also, starting in the early 1930s through the late 1940s there were national and then regional and local competitions for the best ships. The Foundation now holds what we believe to be the best collection in the country. Sam wanted us to be sure to note that Kelly Williams, President of the Krelman Co. originally built the collection and in the past year worked with the Foundation to move it to their holdings.

Here’s our interview with Sam.

 

 Scouting Century Foundation Award Winning Sea Scout display: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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At this year’s Calumet Council Memorial Day TOR, Bruce Richardson put on a display of his Region 7/Northern Wisconsin Canoe Base collection. It is probably the most complete collection of these. Bruce shared with us some of the history and why he has found this to be such a fun area to collect.

Bruce also maintains a wonderful web-site on Region 7 Canoe base but here you can hear him describe the history and background about this memorabilia.

 

 BSA Region 7 Canoe Base collecting with Bruce Richardson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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One of the neat aspects of the Calumet Council Memorial Day trade-o-ree is their display section. TOR organizers Jim Scherbarth and Swoop Dellamano arrange for special displays each year from area collectors. Bob Cylkowski provided a display of some of his Far East Council memorabilia. It is probably the most complete collection of these items in the country. I’ve seen some of these patches before but not all of them Further, Bob knows more about the history of these patches than most so we interviewed him so the rest of the hobby can have this information.

Bob also brought his Region 13 patch collection for display. Region 13 was never an official BSA designation for a region which makes it somewhat notorious in collecting circles. The symbol in the center showing “13″ on top of a group of “C”s translates into “Region 13 across the seven seas.” Pretty punny.

 

 Far East Council patches with Bob Cylkowski: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Most collectors don’t know that the early name for lodge 103 was Juniata, like the council name, and not Monaken. The lodge had this name from 1937 to 1941. One person who does know is Dr. Hal Yocum as Monaken was his home lodge. We recently connected with Dr. Yocum at the Dallas Trade-o-ree where he brought his 103 patch (one of six known) and discussed the variations and how Monaken later picked up the design. He brought one original Juniata patch with him and color copies of the other known specimen.

 

 Dr. Hal Yocum discusses the first issues from Juniata Lodge 103: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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As part of the ISCA sponsored trade-o-ree in Dallas this past month there were a series of educational sessions. Silver Buffalo recipient and long time collector Dr. Hal Yocum presented one on re-enactment of Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. We thought you might enjoy what Hal has learned over the years and recorded a part of his presentation.

Hal points out that many youth in the program today don’t know who BP was or would recognize him. For over twenty years now he has played BP at various Scout functions and Woodbadge training courses. Click on the video player below to start.

 

 Dr. Hal Yocum on Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Jared’s another one of the empressive young men I worked with at the 2007 National OA Conservation and Leadership Summit (NCLS). Jared’s an Eagle Scout and Silver Award recipient. He also served as Conference Vice Chief at the 2004 National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC). Jared’s from National Capital Area Council in Washington, D.C. and Amangamek Wipit Lodge 470.

I asked Jared to share some of his thoughts on the impact of Scouting on youth and what it was like to be in charge of a 100+ person staff serving over 7,000 NOAC attendees.

 

 Eagle Scout Jared Davis from Washington, D.C. [8:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I’ve conducted legacy interviews with some long-term Scouters but realized that we can also learn much from our younger members as they create their own legacy. Here is the first of my ‘youth’ legacy interviews.

I recently served on staff of the 2007 National OA Conservation and Leadership Summit held at Indiana University. The OA membership includes some of our best and brightest young men in the country. I had the pleasure of serving under Summit Vice Chief (SVC) Jake Wellman of Yah-tah-hey-si-kess lodge 66 out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jake shared some of his Scouting background both in Ini-to lodge 324 in Georgia and lodge 66 as well as his experiences serving on a National Leadership Seminar staff in Far East Council in Tokyo, Japan. I am struck by the incredible opportunities Scouting offers to young men and the impact that Scouting can have on developing tomorrow’s leaders. Even at his young age Jake got to see and experience another country and US Scouts living overseas.

 

 OA Summit Vice Chief Jake Wellman Interview [8:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Ken Davis is a long-time member of the OA National Committee from the Southern Region. He came onto the committee as the first Regional Chairman for the Southeast Region in 1974. He has a Ph.D. in history and was tapped to write a book on the history of the Order of the Arrow.

Now in its third edition, we caught up with Ken at the recent National OA Conservation and Leadership Summit. In the following video podcast Ken discusses how he came to write this book and some of the surprises he came across in doing his research for this book.

 

 Historian Ken Davis discusses his book The History of the OA [10:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We picked up some copies of his book that he graciously autographed and we now have on sale. Here’s a peek inside.

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

In part 4 here, Walter discusses meeting James West, Bill Hillcourt, and Baden-Powell.

 

 Scout Legacy Interview Walter Helmreich, part 4 [5:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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