EASTON: What support is all about

To Bev Twillman, in reply to your unsolicited email:

I am an active member of the Boy Scouts of America and have been for many years. I currently serve on the local Old Missions District as Advancement Chairman and oversee the Eagle Board of review. I am also a strong financial supporter of Scouting and have assisted on many fundraising campaigns and "Friends of Scouting" events. Along with that I have attended Camp Easton many times with my sons both as Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and proud to say they are now Eagle Scouts.

I tell you this because I also know that the core group of strong true supporters of the local program is very small and they are called upon often both in terms of financial support and down in the trenches doing the hands on day-to-day dirty work. I feel pretty strong in my assessment that you are not one of those people. If you have been at a Friends of Scouting event and made a sizeable donation, or if you have manned a shovel, rake, paint brush or hammer in the maintaining of any of our camps forgive me, I did not see you there.

As for Camp Easton, it is without a doubt the premier Boy Scout Camp bar none in our area. However it is also very old and tired, and the efforts to raise money have been in place for a lot longer than you have been here and a mere fraction has been raised. I am a little ambivalent to the whole prospect of moving Camp Easton or leaving it where it is but knowing what it takes to run all our Scouting programs and knowing the state of disrepair Camp Easton is in I am willing to trust the Scout Executive Board in making the right decision. A decision that should be made by true core Scouters who have been here for us all along, no underlying motives or agendas other than that of what is in the best interest of the Boy Scouts for the current generation and the next 80 years.

Please Beverly Twillman, remove me from your "Camp Easton Forever" email list as I have no interest in helping you to satisfy your own personal goals and doing it under the false pretenses of helping out the Boy Scouts Of America.

MIKE AAGESEN

Coeur d'Alene