Recently I was visiting my old scout Troop. As you may or may not know, I have been a part of several Scout Troops, but this one was special. You see, it was at Troop 196 which met at St. Luke’s church in Culpeper, VA that I first crossed over into Boy Scouts from Cub Scouts and it there that I went to my first Boy Scout Camping trip and encountered my first Scoutmaster.
Mr. Charlie “Crow” Robson. He was heard cackling and laughing about
something all the time and having fun doing what he did. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago,
and on the day he died his final phone call was about scouting and being
prepared for an upcoming trip before he went into surgery.
You know, we spend a lot of time learning about how
to “leave no trace” on our camping trips.
We try to take extra care to leave things as we found them. But no matter how hard we try; WE DO leave a
trace. Either by a broken twig, matted
down grass, or even just a footstep.
When we are camping, we concentrate on the physical
traces we leave behind. But every day,
we are leaving another kind of trace.
Maybe it is a mental/emotional trace.
Maybe it is a spiritual trace.
But everywhere we go, everyone one we meet, and everything we do; we
leave a trace. If you tell you brother
to “Shut Up” that can leave an ugly trace, if you rag on someone because they
don’t want to join scouts, that can leave a bad trace that may take a long time
to heal. If we thank our mother for
being a great mom, well that will leave a good trace.
We may only interact with a stranger for a couple of
seconds or with our friends for a couple of hours, but no matter how long it
is, we leave a trace of our passing. It’s
up to us to leave a trace that makes the world a better place.
Mr. Robson left a trace on my heart, even though I
knew him for a very short time. I only
wish I could have seen him once more after I got my Eagle to tell him “Thank
You” for having a part in my life. So, I
tell you that no matter what we do, we WILL leave a trace. Let’s do our best to make it a GOOD TRACE!
Signed,
Scoutmaster Davan
-Dedicated
to my First Scoutmaster, Charlie Robson Troop 196-
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