A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly....

The end of the school year goes hand in hand with the end of Boy Scouts activities for the summer, and their Court of Honor. Senior Patrol leader Trevor got to do the grilling honors before the ceremony. His friend Sydney, on the right, was here visiting from the states.

After everyone ate, the Scout Master Les deGraffenried (who was moving two days later to Mexico City, so his Scout shirt was already packed) presented the awards earned for the year. Les is the fun and games man and the boys love him.

Asst. Scout Master Matt Montavon is the backbone who follows through with the essentials, that Les forgets about, and the boys admire and emulate Matt.

I am the Boy Scout Advancement Chair and I basically am the "mother" of the troop: reminding everyone what requirements they need to finish to get rank advancements and merit badges, holding Boards of Reviews and filling out mounds of paperwork and ordering/preparing all the awards.

I was scurrying around before the ceremony making sure all the scouts' books had been signed (Les forgets to do this) and that their blue merit badge cards had his John Hancock as well-- since tracking Les down in Mexico will be tough.

I layed out all the awards alphabetically for Les, but he decided last minute it would be more fun to have the ceremony down by the pool. So the awards got messed up and one dropped off the table unnoticed when we carried them downstairs for the ceremony. Steve had to rush around and look for the missing award, which thankfully he found!

The scouts were very kind and gave me a framed photo of them as a "thank you."

Trevor called the unformal scout troop together for the Court of Honor.

The troop went skiing this year and everyone received the Snow Sports Merit Badge

Brendan also finished his Camping Merit Badge. Brendan recruited his friend Carlos, and he was proud to make Tenderfoot rank. He hopes to catch up to Brendan and Trevor's Life Rank.

They are a good group of boys this little international bunch from Spain, Mexico, Italy, Holland and America. We are a melting pot here as well.

Nice to know that young men all over the world can come together and learn the skills to be self-sufficent, tolerant individuals, willing to see the needs of others and serve any way they can.