Course director Scott Searcy announced the successful completion of the 2017 Boy Scouts of America Wood Badge training course in October at Camp Honokaia.
Scouting’s premier training course for adult Scout leaders had 27 participants and staff from Oahu and the Big Island. Participants were trained in the skills and methods of Scouting.
The leaders were broken up into patrols and to form a troop. The entire troop lived in the outdoors for a week, camping, cooking their own meals and practicing Scout skills.
Searcy was instrumental in bringing this intense training course back to the Big Island, which was last hosted here in 2007.
Staff member Allan Robbins designed and oversaw the construction and installation of the gateway at the entrance to Camp Honokaia.
Every participant and staff member had a part in the 26-foot-high Gateway, which incorporated nearly 1,000 feet of rope woven into three central arches.
The three arches represent the three promises of the Scout Oath: duty to God and country, other people and to self.
The gateway commemorates the legacy that these trained Scout leaders can leave in the lives of the youth of the Big Island, state and world.