Well last night I lived a moment that many of you have experienced as dads. We had our first pinewood derby as Cub Scouts. It was a good time to remind my son that the Cub Scout motto is "Do Your Best" because his car was not tearing up the competition. I also reminded him that we get to do this 4 more years and next time we will learn from this experience. He was very close on all his runs but never pulled out a victory.
Vintage Boy Scout Memorabilia Up First
My wife was kinda giving me a hard time about my lack of pinewood derby expertise. She thinks she's married to a Boy Scout expert. However, I reminded her that all those years of being a leader was taking Scouts camping and this is my first time doing Cub Scouts since I was the one wearing the dark blue uniform. This coming Saturday we have Scouting for Food and not long after that our Blue & Gold Banquet.
With a little over two months to go
here is a link to the floor plan map for the Charlotte TOR. We have 100+ tables available. When I posted this on Facebook yesterday we sold 8 tables right away. Seems like a bachelor party has been rescheduled so a bunch of North Carolina guys are now making plans to attend. You can get a
copy of the flier if you need more information.
Order of the Arrow Auctions Live on eBay
Other news to share from the Charlotte TOR is not only do we have the Scout shop manager of the local council coming with two gratis tables reserved but this week I got confirmation that Catawba Lodge 459 will have a table there selling memorabilia. Brian Sweeney is on the council staff and he is going to handle that part of it. I'm really happy that the local folks are taking some ownership in the show because we are counting on that metro-Charlotte support.
Including all levels of Scouting at the host church for the TOR there are easily 100+ Scouts registered and active. I've been invited to a troop meeting the week before the show to do a talk on patch trading. (Thanks Kendall!) Our council banquet is also coming up in few weeks and we hope to have some fliers out there as well. So on this end we are pushing it hard.
Right now on eBay I've got just over 200 first time auctions running with the first wave ending Thursday night. This includes a lot of OA and some JSPs from the last twenty years.
Don't tell my spouse but I think one of my projects tomorrow will be renting a storage unit locally. My garage is getting so full of boxes that it's becoming impossible to try and walk through there. The downside of having stuff in storage is that I'll just warehouse it and never end up selling it but I've got to cut down on the Scout crap clutter. It's either that or have a Boy Scout yard sale one day! But then again that's why I'm renting so many tables at the Charlotte TOR so I can blow out some stuff cheap.
Yours in Scouting,
Jason Spangler Santeeswapper LLC
Make plans now to attend the return of a tradition that's been missing for too long - the Charlotte TOR. I'm helping organize the show as a fundraiser for Pack 33 at Sardis Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. We couldn't have a more supportive host. The church just celebrated 75 years of Scouting including sponsoring two troops and a pack. The show is being held in the 8,000+ square foot fellowship hall. We have ample parking and many amenities in this part of Charlotte.
