Celebrating two decades — or 20 years — since its establishment, one could think that “2” is a lucky number for Troop 2222.
Focusing on building character, leadership and even producing 78 Eagle Scouts since its inception, the troop celebrated its anniversary on Saturday at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
“So Troop 2 had gotten very big in 2005, and they decided to split the two troops — we have four ‘2s’ now. We’ve been together as that troop for 20 years. We’ve got about 35, 40 active Scouts in the troop right now, and they’re all aged from fifth grade up to 18 years old. We have about two or three times the nation average of Eagle Scouts that we generate in our troops,” Scoutmaster Brad Hartman said.
According to Hartman, there are 15 to 17 adult volunteers — one troop leader for every two kids.
“The troop members plan the outings, and we as the adults, take care of the driving, logistics and supervision. They actually put together the menu, and they cook the food. The adults get to eat first, then if we live, then the kids eat the food,” Hartman said.
The group partakes in a lot of outdoor activities, including going to Philmont in New Mexico every two to three years, which is a 12-day, 100-mile hike in New Mexico.
s“We’ve had our troops do major summer outings. We do educational stuff, as well. The kids learn about rocketry, chess, and they’ve done engineering projects. It’s not just the physical stuff, but the mental stuff as well,” said Assistant Scoutmaster Harold Holcomb. “Scouting is really neat because it has a great structure. It’svery encouraging and allows the kids to follow a path where everyone knows what the path is, so that way, there’s no questions. We know where you are, when you’re supposed to be there, how you’re supposed to be doing it.”
According to Assistant Scoutmaster Robert Francke, the troop is not only celebrating its accomplishments, but also the people who have grown up with it.
“One thing that we’re celebrating tonight is that our troop has a lot of Eagle Scouts. A lot of troops in the area celebrate their Eagle Scouts. This is the highest achievement in Scouting, but our troop does really well. Our Scouts rank, and it’s a difficult thing to become an Eagle Scout,” Francke said. “It’s neat to see the Scouts coming back and hearing about the troop and seeing the legacy continue.”
For the troop leaders, who often help chaperone their own kids’ involvement in Scouting, they take their roles seriously in helping the growth of the children in the community.
“Some of our kids started [Scouting] in kindergarten, and as they age up, we get to see them grow and build those leadership skills. And so when they’re young, coming into a troop, we see the older Scouts feeding into them. Then it’s really, really neat to see when that flips, where they become the veteran Scouts, the older Scouts that are now feeding into these younger Scouts,” said Nicole Reed, committee chair of Troop 2222. “I think, for me, that’s the most rewarding: when I finally get to see my Scout that’s now an Eagle Scout tending to the younger Scouts.”
While the Troop leaders reflected on the past 20 years, there is always growth and new challenges to come in the next 20.
“Now we’re adding new merit badges, like cyber security. We keep the core values of outdoor activities and skills and so on, but then we also evolve with other stuff in modern-day life that goes with these activities,” Hartman said.
“For the [older Scouts] to see these younger Scouts and getting to know them and seeing friends from a while back [is great]. It’s generational,” Francke added.
