New Boy Scout troop making progress
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on September 14, 2004 1:58 PM
Goldsboro's new Boy Scout troop is making progress, says the district executive.
Torhunta District Executive Tom Millisor helped Troop 102, based at First African Baptist Church, become chartered in April.
The troop started up in May, and in its second month, it already had 10 members.
The members have their uniforms, and the troop is going through a check list of requirements.
The troop members are doing very well, said Millisor. They're working on their Tender Foot badges, which involves going on an overnight camping trip at Camp Tuscarora, probably in October, and learning first aid and knot-tying skills and other outdoor skills like identifying poison ivy and trees.
"They're working really hard," said Millisor. "The enthusiasm is great from both the church and the scout leaders, and that's how we gauge the success of a troop. These guys are out there, getting it done, doing a great job."
The troop's scout master, Taj Polack, and his assistant, Earl Lewis, are meeting this month with the Tuscarora Council to organize the troop's first fund-raising campaign. The troop's first project will be selling popcorn throughout September. Then, there will be car washes and other projects.
The first camping trip the scout masters have planned will be to the U.S.S. Yorktown. They'll spend one week on the ship, sleep where the sailors slept and sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet. They will have opportunities to earn merit badges there.
Polack said that if all of the members go on the trip, it will cost about $1,300. He told the Scouts that, up to this point, everything has been given to them. Now, he said, it's time to raise money. He has set a goal for the troop to raise $2,500 by the end of the year.
The church Layman's League is planning to buy the troop tickets to a Kinston Indians game.
The Scouts have organized a cleaning crew that washes the church buses every week. The scout masters said they hope to see the Scouts develop their own programs and take responsibility for achieving their goals.
The troop leaders are Alphonso Polite and his assistant, Terance Johnson, who is also chairman of the cleanup patrol. The scribe, who takes minutes of the meetings, is P.J. Brown Parrish.