History of Annandale
Boy Scout Troup 354
Presentation to the Annandale History
Club
May 2, 2011
Lloyd Walburn
Annandale Troop 354 website:
www.annandalebsa.org
Official Boy Scouts of America website:
www.scoutingbsa.org
Northern Star Council website: www.northernstarbsa.org
Stearns Scout Camp:
www.stearnsalumni.com
Boy Scouts Timeline
Boy Scout Newspaper Articles
List of Troop 354 Eagle
Scouts
Annandale Troop 354 was restarted in 1984 and is sponsored by the Annandale
Lions Club. Since then Greg Langley
(1984-87), Mike Medley (1988), Lloyd Walburn (1988-2003), Mike Hemminger
(2003-2008), and Jerry Carter (2008- present) have been scoutmasters.
Lloyd Walburn was Annandale Boy Scout
Troop 354 Scoutmaster for 15 years from 1988 to 2003.
In 2001 he received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest award for
scouting volunteers.
Lloyd and Roni Walburn became scout leaders when their son was in fifth grade
and in Webelos. The Cub Scout
program includes Tiger Cubs (first grade), Wolf Cubs (second grade), Bear Cubs
(third grade) and Webelos (fourth and fifth grades).
Although their son had been in scouting since Tiger Cubs, Lloyd and Roni
felt they didn’t know much about being leaders.
Greg Langely, one of the other leaders, was a great help to them, and
older scouts also helped train the fifth graders.
A Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal,
Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient,
Cheerful, Thrifty, Clean and Reverent.
Scout Oath (or Promise)
To do my duty to God and my country
And to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Motto:
Be prepared.
Scout Slogan:
Do a good turn daily.
Boy Scouts are ages 10 (completed fifth grade) to 18.
The Scout ranks are Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star,
Life and Eagle. The older boys sometimes drop out of scouts.
When they reach 15-16 years, there’s competition such as sports, cars,
jobs, and girls. If scouts are in a
sport such as hockey, they can come back when the season is over.
A program called High Adventure has been
successful in keeping boys in scouts until they are 18.
Annandale Troop 354 has a high percentage of Eagle Scouts.
Venturing is a program for boys and girls ages 14-20.
Eagle Scouts
When Lloyd became Scoutmaster in 1988, Troop 354 had one Eagle Scout.
By 2003, 29 boys earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
Today (May 2, 2011) there are 49 Eagle Scouts in Troop 354.
To achieve Eagle rank, the scout must earn 21 merit badges and complete a
service project that demonstrates to scout leaders their ability to lead,
organize and think on their feet.
The project must be completed before they turn 18.
It is up to the boys to come
up with their service projects and the funding, if needed, as well as adult
supervision. The program should be for a non-profit organization.
The scout has to get approval from a parents’ committee and from the
district. The project has to be
safe for the scout to do and take a minimum of 40 hours, although many projects
are in the 300-500 hour range.
Some of the organizations that have benefited from Eagle Scout service projects
are Lake Maria State Park, Camp Friendship, Camp Courage, Pioneer Park,
churches, cemeteries, and City of Annandale.
The projects have included building wood duck houses for Camp Friendship,
checking mobile homes and installing fire alarms for the Annandale Fire
Department, landscaping City Hall, restoring the beach at Camp Friendship,
restoring 50 bikes for Camp Courage North near Brainerd, painting approximately
120 fire hydrants, rebuilding volleyball courts at Camp Koinonia, installing a
guard railing at Fair Haven Mill, painting the
depot at Pioneer Park, restoring cemeteries at Southside and South Haven,
rebuilding and repainting signs, and restoring a trail at Pioneer Park.
The Eagle Scout candidate must write about the project including what was
planned and how it turned out.
As adults, many of Annandale Troop 354 Eagle Scouts have jobs that are related
to merit badges they earned in scouting.
Several of the former Troop 354 Eagle Scouts are engineers, some went
into the service, one is an Air Force pilot, and one is a priest.
Many remain involved in scouting as scoutmasters or adult leaders.
Note: Of the 294 U.S. astronauts,
more than 180 were involved in Scouting, and 40 were Eagle Scouts including Neil
Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
Gerald Ford earned the Eagle Scout award and is the only U.S. President
to have done so. John F. Kennedy
was the first Boy Scout to become President.
Boy Scout Camps
Camp Stearns is a 1,200 acre camp in Fair Haven Township near Annandale.
Winter camping is available and scouts can spend a night in a snow
shelter. On May 21, 2010, 10,000
scouts from Central Minnesota and the metro arrived at Stearns Scout Camp for a
three-day jamboree-style campout.
Annandale Troop 354 has two trailers and nine canoes and can run their own
Boundary Waters program. They also
canoe on the Mississippi and camp on an island near Clearwater.
Philmont Scout Ranch is in Northern New Mexico.
Troop 354 scouts spent 11 days in the wilderness hiking and tenting in
the mountains, using a map and compass to find their way.
For a service project they prepared a hiking trail.
Troop 354 made five trips to a High Adventure Base in Colorado where they
climbed 14,000 foot Mount Shavano and fished for trout at 10,000 feet.
Other High Adventure Bases are Northern
Tier at Ely, Minnesota, Florida Sea Base at Islamorada, Florida, and Summit
Bechtel Family Reserve at New River Gorge, West Virginia, which is now the site
for the National Scout Jamboree.
Tomahawk Scout Reservation encompasses 3,000 acres in northwestern Wisconsin.
Camp Many Point is a 2,400 acre camp in northwestern Minnesota.
It has been a tradition since the 1980s
for the older scouts in Troop 354 to bike 220 miles to Camp Many Point.
This trip takes four days.
Overnight camps are made at Camp Ripley near Little Falls, Pine River City Park,
and Park Rapids Tractor Club Campground.
Rum River Camp is a year round 160-acre camp near Anoka, Minnesota.
There is a yearly rendezvous at Camp Ripley with up to 12,000 people.
The scouts also camp in many of the county parks.
Troop Activities
Troop 354 participates in many community activities, including the following.
On Memorial Day, along with the Annandale Lions Club, Troop 354 has a pancake
breakfast. They hold a flag
retirement ceremony during the program.
They also help at the Annandale Lions “Breakfast with Santa” event.
Troop 354 Scouts bus tables and serve food for the Annandale Kiwanis Club
breakfast at the annual Annandale Business Expo.
They also help with teardown afterwards.
Troop 354 participates in the Annandale Fourth of July parade.
They have a pizza stand, help with some of the other Fourth of July
activities, and help city employees with park cleanup.
Troop 354 helps the Snowmobile Club with their annual Camp Friendship
fundraiser.
The Scouts have helped with the Halloween event at Pioneer Park.
Notes by Annandale History Club Secretary