Troop 120 Has Another New Eagle Scout (10/29)

Congratulations to Aaron Price, he passed his Eagle Scout Board of Review on October 18th. Aaron had an awesome project for his Eagle in that through his leadership and planning, the Humane Society received the largest donation of very needed pet supplies. The supplies collected included bedding, toys, and other pet care items. Aaron had a lot of help with his project from the troop and his family. Well done Aaron!

Troop 120 Has a New Eagle Scout (09/21)

CONGRATULATIONS, are in order for Troop #120's newest Eagle Scout , Andrew Harris. Andrew breezed thru his Eagle Board of review last night, he has been associated w/ the Troop since 1999 and has earned Firecrafter, been to the BWCAW twice, Ordeal member of the Order of the Arrow, served twice as Troop Senior Patrol Ldr., and completed COPE, just to list a few of his Scouting highlights. WELL DONE ANDREW, we're proud of you! !

Good Morning! No actually it is a great morning!! Back at the end of April, Troop #120 took on the challenge of raising $2,600 to build a home for a family in South America. At the beginning of May it looked like we would still be struggling to accomplish this goal even into 2008. Each week you scouts and parents would put a couple bucks and loose change into the collection jar, (a recyled pretzel jar,) and slowly the amount began to grow.

Several donations exceeding $100.00 helped to bump the total, and a couple of those gifts came from unexpected sources, like the Southport Business Owners Assoc., and an adult Boy Scout Volunteer, who has no real association with our Troop. All these gifts, large and small, were quite literally "penny's from heaven," and some of those that I will always remember will be the quarter or two given to me after a meeting where "the jar," did not make it to the meeting that night, with the serious instructions from those scou ts "to make sure this gets in the jar!" ( it reminds me of the Bible story about the woman who had little but gave "large,")

Well by now you know where this is going, after our car wash a couple of weeks ago, we were less than $200 bucks short of the goal, and like a good distance runner, you all reached down and ended up sprinting to the finnish. WELL DONE, you all are THE BEST !! Very shortly a representative from Food For The Poor will visit a meeting and accept our gift of $2,600. We are disignating the home to be built in Nicaraqua, since they have just been hit by Hurricane Dean and the need for housing is great and immediate. The government of Nicaraqua also has a matching fund, so there will be two families that will recieve new housing!

Over the years you all have given me many things to be proud about as you have lived up to the Scout Oath & Promise, but this gesture of service and genorosity will always be remembered as one of those that are real ly special to me, and I thank you for these wonderful memories! As always, and even more than usual, I am PROUD and PLEASED to be Scoutmaster of Troop #120 !! Craig Cairns (55)

This year, Troop 120, has partnered with humanitarian aid group "Food for the Poor" in an effort to help provide livable shelter for the poor in Central America and the Caribbean. You can read more about "Food for the Poor" by visiting their website at http://www.foodforthepoor.org . The troop is working on raising a total of $2600.00, this is the amount it costs FFTP to build a home in these impoverished nations. We will be earning 100% matching dollars in most cases. To give you and idea of the home we are building, consider this: Most of these homes are about 360 square feet, they have three rooms, a zinc coated tin roof, cement walls, wooden window frames, and a cooking area that is outside. Yet these meager features can mean life or death to the families in need of shelter. Please help us complete our house, we're about half way there and we need your support.

We are honored and very fortunate to have another Silver Beaver in our troop. The Silver Beaver is the highest award a adult volunteer can be given within the District and this year Craig Cairns has earned this award. Please give Craig a big "Way to Go!" and plan on attending the University of Scouting in January and watch as Craig is honored by the district.

On April 29th, Troop 120 once again participated in the annual "Southport Clean-Up Day". Here's a snippet from the "Spotlight Newspaper"

Duane Langreck organized the clean-up effort that drew 74 volunteers. Volunteers including southside Boy Scouts from Troop 120, Troop 39, Cub Scout Pack 120, Daisy Troops 1860, 1839 and Girl Scout Troop 203 as well as volunteers from Bethel Memorial Church and the Greater Southport Business Alliance.

"I'm the committee chair for Troop 120, and I started this as a Boy Scout project," Langreck said. "This is the third year, and we're getting more response."

The newly created Greater Southport Business Alliance (GSBA) offered southsiders the first Southport Street Fair last Saturday.

Hosted on the grounds of PBI Building Materials, attendees were greeted by Acropolis gyros, Gallagher's pizza, a bounce house, a golf putting game, art and crafts booths, a Suds Hot Rod and Muscle car show, Macho Mike of the Indianapolis Indians and sweets galore.

On Saturday April 15th, Troop 120 took to the AIR over Greenwood and northern Johnson County. May is aviation month, so Nick Jones stepped up and made arrangements with the Experimental Aircraft Association at Greenwood Municipal Airport to host the troop for a day of free flying. 24 boys and about a dozen troop adults were treated to airplanes rides in a total of four different aircraft, all courtesy of EAA Chapter 1534. Our contact at EAA was Roger Tomey and he did a fantastic job of taking care of all the arrangements at the airport. (click here for pictures)

Boy Scout Troop 120 of Southport has earned several national awards during 2005. In 2005, Troop 120 has performed 1045 boy/hours of community service. These service hours were spent working hard in the annual Scouting for Food program, Southport Clean Up Day, Christmas Caroling at local nursing homes, various Eagle Scout Community Projects, and ringing the bell for the Salvation Army for the 6th year in a row.

The scouts and scouters of Troop 120 have earned the Vitz-Norris Challenge award from the Crossorads of America Council for offering an oustanding program in 2005. To earn this award, Troop 120 qualified for the Boy Scouts of America Quality Unit Award, Gold National Camping award after logging 653 boy/nights at camp, and exceeded requirements for membership, financial stewardship, and rank advancement. Since 2001, Troop 120 has accumulated 3031 boy/nights of camping.

Boy Scout Troop 120 is also very proud to report that Committee Chairman, and former Scoutmaster, Duane Langreck of Southport has been awarded the Silver Beaver by the Pathfinder District of the Crossroads of America Council. Duane has been serving Southport youth for over two decades, and his contributions to the various scouting programs in the district have been many and varied. The Silver Beaver is the highest award the district can offer to an adult scouter.

Scoutmaster Craig Cairns would like to thank all of the scouts and scouters of Troop 120 for an excellent year, and is looking forward to even more fun and camping in the new year.

Boy Scout Troop 120 is sponsored by the Southport Heights Christian Church and has been serving youth in the Southport community for over 30 years. If you are interested in learning more about Southport Boy Scout Troop 120, you may visit our website at http://troop120.indylinux.org or by contacting Scoutmaster Craig Cairns at 317-887-2350.