A letter from Ken Waltsgott

Date: Archive

To: SM Osterbur, I was surfing last night and found Troop 40 on the Internet.

This is great. My name is Ken Waltsgott Sr. Past Scoutmaster of Troop 40 and Past President of Prarielands Council. It was a pleasure to read about all the activities planned for the Troop. I was particularly happy to see that the name of the news letter has not changed. Still The Bugle. Congrads to Steve Hartman for earning the Silver Beaver Award, he is a very worthy recipient. So what is happening with me, well one thing you can't get out of your blood once you "Catch the Spirit" is Scouting.

As some of the old timers may recall, we moved to Birmingham Alabama about five years ago. Since that time I have been involved with the Birmingham Area Council, and I have been the District Chairman of the Great Shelby District. Birmingham Al is a community of about 1,200,000. and the Council has over 65,000 registered scouts. By comparison the Shelby District which I serve is as large as Prarielands Council. Both is area and number of scouts served. Some things never change though. We are having budget cuts from the United Way just like in Champaign, Leaders are hard to find, from the positive side, we have a never ending flow of youth that want to be in scouting. My four year term as District Chairman, (That was only suppose to be two years), is up this April.

I am looking for a Troop to get involved with right now. We have one right out the front of our subdivision at the Baptist Church, they seem pretty active but not like Troop 40. I will be looking for you on the Internet from now on, just wanted to say Hello, and how proud I was to see all of the hard work that you put into your Web Site.

Keep up the good work, keep Scouting Strong.

Sincerely,

Ken Waltsgott

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