By Mark Dudley

May 16-18 proved to be one of the best Scouting events the Heart of America Council (HOAC) has ever seen! Twelve thousand Scouts and Scouters took part in a weekend of fun and hands on activities at the Kansas Speedway. Our troop was delivered in the troop bus by Mr. Gramlich around 6:30 Friday night and after unloading and getting our gear in the newly acquired tents, we headed to the speedway to check out some of the activities. Prior to arrival, Mr. Hendren, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Blann (Taylor) and Garth Hendren went out early and set up camp.

Once inside, the troop split into three groups and headed off to events. After a brief setback involving the go-karts, the Scouts tried zip line, bike riding on the actual race track, go-karting and four-wheeling. The evening went by fast and we headed back to camp around 10:00. Mr. Hendren broke out a cracker barrel for all to enjoy and then off to the tents we went to prepare for the next day. Now this being a Scout overnight, sleep was a little late getting started. Between the speedway parking lot lights being on all night and Scouts very excited about the next day (I’m sure that is what they were talking about well after Taps), we were all rested when Revival sounded at 7:00 A.M.

Saturday proved to be a full day. Breakfast at 7:30, the activities (called Pit Stops) opened at 8:30, and we went at it hard all day. Some of my favorites included the “Smokey and the Bandit” movie replica truck, cars and Sheriff; the police, fire fighter and military displays; and just watching the young men in my group have some fun. Remote control helicopters seemed to be a hit as well as putting on complete Army battle gear. There were 13 Pit Stops that included 100 events/activities for the Scouts to try. The volunteers running the events did a great job in allowing hands on experiences for the Scouts. My group’s last event of the day included autographing the official BSA NASCAR with our signature and Troop 282. We went back to camp, regrouped and headed back to the track for dinner and the evening activities.

Saturday evening started with a parade of troop flags and I am proud to say Dillon and Mr. England did the troop proud as they were one of about half the units that abided by the rules and had on full Class A uniforms. After that, we watched three races of 15 laps each from the Petty Racing Experience. Having walked across the high bank of the track earlier in the day, I cannot imagine driving 160 MPH around the oval. It was a blast to watch. After that, all 12,000 of us headed across the track infield for the awards presentation and concert. I must say listening to Baden Powell’s granddaughter speak was a huge treat. She encouraged all the Scouts to recruit a friend to join. Troop 282 Scouts, I hope you were listening to her. Our Scouts seemed to like the retro 80’s band, Zero, that provided the show. After the concert, we headed back to camp for another cracker barrel and sleep. Yes, sleep, as the entire group was pretty worn out. I think Mr. England’s pedometer showed somewhere around 10 miles of walking for his group. I think I added about another 5 miles doing other trips.

Sunday morning included breakfast, church, packing up and heading home. You can again be proud of Troop 282 as all were in Class A at church and participated in the service with reverence and enthusiasm. We even had Devin participate in the collection of the offering. Mr. Norton had the bus at the race track and we loaded up and headed home around 10:30. I hope everyone had as good a time as I did.

I want to thank everyone who helped make this a huge success. While we missed Mr. Howell, I hope he realizes that the boy run troop he oversees handled themselves as true Scouts in his absence. Keep 2018 open as the HOAC is planning an encore event.

By Ashton England

The past few Mondays, scout troop 282 has been learning about the heritage of the Boy Scouting program. We have learned about important people to the program, events, and how time has changed Boy Scouts. The coolest part of it all was learning the history of our own troop through a video.

I know I learned many things that I didn’t know before. It was a fun month getting to learn about the past, and how many things still haven’t changed in scouting. This definitely was an interesting merit badge.

Even getting to see Mr. Dubill’s collection was amazing. He had things from the beginnings, and it was really cool to see how things like patches and uniforms have evolved. I enjoyed this past month, and I know other people did too.

By Scott Howell

Yes, the 2014 High Adventure Group has been seeing nothing but leaves, leaves and more leaves these past few weeks. The group has been cleaning up yards as a fundraiser to help lower the cost of their 2014 High Adventure Trip to Disney World. This group has cleaned up around 14 yards to date with three more waiting to be done. So if you would like to have your yard cleaned up let the group know.

The Group would like to invite any other scouts (and scout families) who would like to go on this great trip to come and join the yard clean up group. Every dollar the group earns reduces the out-of-pocket cost of the trip. Just imagine how wonderful it would be to have all the scouts participating in this wonderful high adventure trip with very little out-of-pocket costs for a trip that will include a roundtrip plan ride, five days of fun at Disney World, to interact with all the participants, learn team building skills while spending a week with the group, money management skills, the opportunity for each scout to earn three merit badges and the opportunity for all tribesmen to spread the word of Mic-O-Say to thousands of people.

By Scott Howell

The scouts and leaders had a great time in Hutchinson, Kansas over the weekend (March 14, 15 and 16) at the Kansas Cosmosphere. The scouts that went earned the Robotic Merit Badge and the leaders that went had a great time watching the scouts build and program their robots to perform a mission on Mars. Did I forget to tell everyone that we went to Mars.

The group got to see how the United States space program was born and how it has developed from orbiting the earth, going to the moon, to living on the international space station to now studying Mars. It was great.

(Go check out more pictures from the Kansas Cosmosphere in the 2014 Troop 282 Photo Collection.)

By Mr. Norton

Once again we transformed the Fellowship hall into a Fast Food Restaurant on Monday before Shrove Tuesday. IHOP would be envious of the way that we perform in preparation of and during our traditional fundraiser known as Pancake Day. By the time I arrived on Tuesday morning, Mr. Bennett was cooking sausage, Mr. Blann was mixing pancake batter, Mr. Howell was prepping the grill, Mrs. Howell was getting things lined out for to go orders, Mr. Leabo was getting the coffee ready, and Mr. Verman was at the door waiting on our first customer the Health Inspector. Once we were approved by the Health Inspector we were off to the races. And I mean off to the races. The few of us that were there completely understand the meaning of multitasking, because that is what we did. We worked together as a team and found out what it would be like to work in a Fast Food Restaurant. I think I can speak for all that were there that we were never as happy as when the Scouts started getting out of school and showing up to work. They saved the day, once again. All said and done we were done and cleaned up as if Pancake Day never occurred by 9pm. I would like to thank all of the parents, leaders, parishioners, and especially the Scouts that helped make this another successful Pancake Day in Troop 282 lore.

(Go check out more pictures from Pancake Day in the 2014 Troop 282 Photo Collection.)