A Scoutmaster's Blog

I have been collecting the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments featuring Scout Leader Snoopy for quite a few years. Hallmark has been creating one for each Christmas holiday season for nearly two decades. I think I missed the first one or two but I have collected each one since 2007. In fact, once I discover a new one is for sale I usually post the news in this blog. In this video of My Scouting Collection I show all the Beagle Scout Snoopy ornaments in my collection along with a special Walt Disney ornament I found featuring Donald Duck and his nephews.

Do you collect these ornaments? Have you seen them in the stores? Which ones do you own?

This is the fifth video in the series and can be watch at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXQwSVrU23k

If you enjoy watching these videos please hit the LIKE button on the YouTube page and subscribe to the channel. Thank you for watching.

I have been collecting the Boy Scouts of America Scouting Village series since it began several years ago. I even have a lighted Scouting building set sold by Walmart a few years ago that fits pretty well with the B.S.A. pieces. I was a little disappointed last year when there were not any new village pieces sold by the Scout Shop. In fact, I wondered if the new yearly pieces had come to an end. Oh well, I would save money for other things if it had ended.

Well, I guess I was wrong. They are not done yet.

A new piece was added to the collection for 2017. (Yes, just one piece.) The item is the “Lighted Scouting Village Climbing Tower.” This means we can add a summer camp activity to our “summer camp village” of lodges and tents. The size of the tower is listed as 5″ x 5″ x 19 3/4″, which will make it the tallest piece of the set so far. Unfortunately, it is out of proportion to the the people pieces and tents released a few years ago so I will probably place the tower to the back of the layout to try to keep it looking a little more in perspective to the rest of the village.

I noticed the tower on the scoutstuff.com website a month ago but it was listed as not available until September 27. I called the local Scout Shop today to check if they had received any yet. They have not, but my name is on the list to purchase one when they do arrive. I guess I have to wait a little longer to add one to my collection.

The Lighted Climbing Tower can be seen and purchased at
http://www.scoutstuff.org/house-lighted-climbing-tower.html#.Wc58MDVrwdU

Do you plan to add a tower to your Scouting Village?

That time of year has arrived! Hallmark has released their holiday ornaments for 2017 and yes, there is another Beagle Scout Snoopy to add to the collection!

This year’s ornament features Snoopy, Woodstock, and friends folding the United States Flag. Written on the Hallmark website: Known as the Beagle Scouts in the long-running Peanuts® comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, troop leader Snoopy and his small yellow bird friends show their patriotism. Scout families will really “flock” to this Christmas ornament that shows the lovable characters in the middle of a flag-folding ceremony.

As you know, if you have been reading this blog over the years, I collect these ornaments. I think they have nicely captured bits of the Scouting program. I plan to pick up at least two of the ornaments, one for the tree, and one to store away. Maybe I will even buy another one or two to give as gifts.

One little extra note this year is that Hallmark will donate $1.00 to Toys For Tots for each of these ornaments purchased this year. A win-win situation!

It can be found online at  http://www.hallmark.com/ornaments/keepsake-ornaments/peanuts-snoopy-flag-folding-ceremony-ornament-1595QXI3295.html  or at your local Hallmark store.

I collect Scouting memorabilia. That includes a collection of coffee mugs. Sometimes I forget what I really have in the collection so I was a little surprised to discover something the other day.

I am a member of a few Scouting groups on Facebook, including a brand new group called Boy Scout Collectables. The group was created by a member of the Scout Patch Collectors page after a discussion started that a group was needed for things other than patches. The new group has grown slowly and has about 21 members as I write this. I have a feeling it will grow as the word gets out.

Since this is a new Facebook group I decided to share a few of the things I have collected with the members. I decided to take a picture of these coffee mugs since they had a cool Scouting caption and picture on one side. I was surprised to discover the Viking Council logo on the other side. Since the Viking Council of Minneapolis no longer exists I guess they have really become a bit more collectable.

I invite you to join the Boy Scout Collectables group on Facebook and share your collection. It can be found at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/323868214332022/

Several years ago the Central Minnesota Council added a new incentive to the annual Friends Of Scouting (FOS) campaign. If you met a certain donation level you would receive a specially designed council shoulder patch (CSP). Each year would feature a different point of the Scout Law. Twelve points meant twelve patches that could be collected. Being the patch collector that I am, I was hooked from the very first year.

This year marks the ninth year of this promotion so the 2016 patch has Thrifty as its theme. The csp features a vintage Boy Scout at the bank, ready to add some money to his saving account. There is a “ghost” design on the left side of the patch of a squirrel ready to store his acorn for future use. Even the animal kingdom practices being thrifty.

This means there are only three years left of the Scout Law council shoulder patches. I wonder what the design of the next one, Brave, will look like.

Other incentives of this year’s Central Minnesota Council FOS drive included an electronics cleaning cloth, a Ripley Rendezvous water bottle or frisbee, and an Eagle Scout statuette.

It is that time of year. Time to think about Christmas! Well, the retail community wants us to think about Christmas and the holidays. After all, they have lots of things they would like to sell us and they seem to think they need the last three (sometimes four) months of the year to convince us of that. Buy your decorations! Plan your family meals! And make sure you get your Christmas shopping done early!

For the last few years the Boy Scouts of America has created its own Scouting Village Collection. It started with a Ranger’s Cabin, Trading Post, and Church and has expanded nicely over the last two years. A person can set up a very nice Christmas Scouting Village (summer camp) scene with the pieces, if you have them all. I combine the Scouting pieces with some accessories from the Department 56 Village to create a rather cool Scouting scene.

I was looking forward to see if they would continue offering new village pieces this year. Last time I walked into the local Scout shop a couple weeks ago the clerk pulled me off to the side to show me what would be coming out. Cool, I thought when she said there would be new pieces. Unfortunately, I was not thinking it was so cool after seeing what was offered.

First, there is the Resident Camp Tents “lighted house” piece. This one does not look too bad but I have a feeling it is going to look out of proportion when placed with BSA Wall Tent from two years ago. I may have to use this new item as a background piece to gain a bit of perspective to the village scene. I will find out after I spend $16.99 to buy it.

The second piece offered is the Philmont Trek Accessory. When I first saw the picture for this piece I thought it would make an excellent addition to the collection. After all, it featured three Scouts climbing to one of the mountainous peaks of Philmont Scout Ranch. When I saw the piece for the first time I lost my enthusiasm for it. It is very small, only 4″ high and 3″ long. I have a feeling its scale will look totally out of place with the rest of the collection. The cost is only $6.99 so it is not a big investment at least.

The third and final piece for this year is the Villa Philmonte Lighted House. It is a nice looking addition to the series. My main concern is the cost. The nice thing about the Scouting Village set is that the pieces were very affordable. Lighted pieces usually sold from $12 to maybe $20 each. The Villa Philmonte breaks this tradition is a big way. This piece sells for $49.99. Wow. Last year’s eight piece starter set was only $80, and that included four lighted buildings. Granted, this new piece is 13″ long and nearly 8″ high, making it one of the largest pieces of the collection, but I have a feeling the price is going to turn a lot of people off of collecting the set. I cannot help but remember that $50 used to be able to buy all the pieces for each year’s set. Looks like that price point will no longer be carried on.

I am not sure yet if I will buy this year’s collection or not. To tell the truth, I think it is the weakest of the four year’s sets so far. What do you think? Do you plan to purchase any or all of them?

Residential Camp Tents: http://www.scoutstuff.org/house-lighted-camp-tents.html#.ViWrzdY-AUE
Villa Philmonte Lighted House: http://www.scoutstuff.org/house-light-villa-philmonte.html#.ViWr0NY-AUE

I arrived at the Central Minnesota Council office early for Tuesday night’s roundtable so I spent some time checking out the Scout Shop. There was only a couple of us looking around when the clerk asked me if she could help me find anything, like books, awards, Christmas items…

The mention of Christmas items caught my attention immediately. Just last week I had checked the scoutstuff.com website to see if there were any new pieces for the Scouting Village that had began two years ago. I was anxious to see if this village would be continued and what this year’s pieces would be. Unfortunately, I found nothing on the website. So when the Scout Shop clerk mentioned Christmas items I had to ask about the Scouting Village.

She replied that they had received the new pieces that very afternoon and have not had a chance to get them on the shelves yet. Awesome, I thought. I asked if I could see them and followed her into the storage room where she opened the carton. I believe I was the first Scouting volunteer in my council to see the new pieces, and this year’s building grabbed my attention.

The newest building in the series is the Lighted Dining Hall. I thought is was well designed and quite colorful, but a little small in scale for a dining hall. Only one troop would fit in here, I thought. Oh well, it is a village building piece and they are not in the same scale as the people or even other buildings. It is still a pretty cool looking piece and I am anxious to add it to my set up this year. The website states (Yes, it can now be bought online), “A welcome addition to the holiday Scouting Village, this piece enhances any collection. Porcelain rendering of a BSA camp dining hall is beautifully detailed—complete with outdoor picnic tables!”

The next piece that I noticed was the “Tree Sales” Figurine. I like this piece because it reminds me of the years that Boy Scout Troop 68 sold Christmas Trees as a fundraiser. The website says, “Premium-quality accessory adds character and dimension to your Lighted Scouting Village scenes. Polyresin tree figurine features a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Leader hard at work on a Christmas tree sales lot.” I have to agree the the figures do add quite a bit to the Scouting Village scene.

The third and final piece of this year’s collection is the “Popcorn Tree” Figurine. This piece features a Boy Scout and Cub Scout decorating a Christmas Tree. The site says, “There’s nothing more iconic to BSA than popcorn! This polyresin figurine features a Cub Scout and Boy Scout decorating a tree with popcorn garland and ornaments.” I thought this could be a great gift for the unit’s “popcorn kernel”, the chairperson of the popcorn fundraiser.

I bought all three pieces right then. I was not going to wait and have the same thing happen to me that happened two years ago when I waited too long to buy them and missed out on getting the Trading Post. (I still do not have one.) I look forward to late November when I set up my new expanded village. I think this will be the last year I will be able to use that piece of plywood I use for the base.

I was not the only person who bought the set that evening. Within ten minutes of my purchase another set was bought and the Scout Shop was out of the Lighted Dining Halls. Since I am a roundtable commissioner I also took time during the meeting to give a quick shout out for this year’s Scouting Village.

Have you been collecting the buildings and figurines? What do you think of this year’s additions?
http://www.scoutstuff.org/house-lightd-dining-hall.html
http://www.scoutstuff.org/figure-villg-tree-sales.html
http://www.scoutstuff.org/figure-villg-popcorn-tree.html

The season is a’ coming. Soon, sons and daughters will be buying greeting cards to give or to send to their mothers and fathers as the months of May and June come near. Hallmark sales will once again go through the roof.

I was a little surprised when I visited the Scout Shop this week before the Scenic District roundtable. I noticed they had Scouting themed Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards. I did not pick one up to look at it closely because I was running out of time but I thought it would be a nice touch for families that are really into the Scouting program.

I do have to admit though that it was not the cards that caught my attention. In fact, I looked right pass them the first time. What caught my gaze were the patches that were laying on the counter in front of the cards. They were special Mother’s Day and Father’s Day patches. By the card and get the patch for free, a different one for each parent.

I thought the front of the Father’s Day patch was pretty cool. It shows dad opening his shirt like Superman, revealing the Scout logo on his tee shirt instead of the Superman S.

Almost makes me wish I was a father so I could receive one in June.