On Wednesday, March 26, the Boy Scouts of America held a ceremony banquet to recognize and honor a few members of the Pampa community and to share the impact the Boy Scouts continues to make to this day.
The ceremony banquet’s emcee, John Curry, an Eagle Scout, member of the council board and former Scout Master, gave a brief summary about the awards being presented and a little about himself before introducing the first speaker.
“Scouting has been a part of my entire life,” John said. “I joined the Cub Scouts at eight years old and I don’t think I’ve ever not been registered with the Boy Scouts of America.”
“Today we are gathered here to celebrate America’s largest character-building youth program that is now over 115 years old and its impact on our community and our country.”
“We are here to do four things today: present the James E. West award to an outstanding community partner and scouter, hear about the positive impacts of scouting in our area right now, present a Good Scout award to outstanding members of our community, and to pledge our financial support to our local scouting program.”
After giving a brief history of James E. West, who was the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America and an advocate for children’s rights, Luke Bailey presented the award in honor of Mark Buzzard to Mark’s son, Ross, and shared his experiences in Troop 414 when Mark was the Scout Master.
“Mark was a great role model and a great example of what I thought a man should be,” he said. “Something that I will always cherish and remember are the stories, history, and lessons that he taught. Mark loved any kind of history, so I was always very engaged when I was doing classes at the Presbyterian Church and I actually got my World History Merit Badge from Mark himself. The way he told history was always very rich and engaging and he also threw in a lot of civic lessons and about the great examples of how young men should aspire to be.”
“One of the things that I will forever be indebted to Mark for is that he also got my father involved in scouting so that was a special time for me and my dad that I got to share with him because of Mark, because of his involvement in scouting and bringing others in and it meant a lot to me.”
“When I think of Mark, one of the biggest joys I have is that when my son is of age, I know that I will do the same thing with him in scouting and that’s because of Mark.”
Ross accepted the award on his father’s behalf and spoke a few words about his father and the Boy Scouts.
“My favorite thing about my dad is he was always a man on the move. When you see an adult come in with a bunch of Scouts and see that kind of leadership, I always thought that was important. The best thing about it is you could see how important it was to him and so it becomes important to you.”
“I think about how John Curry, John Bailey and my dad handled all of that and just seeing them setting the example and always being on the move, that is what a man and what Scouts is all about.”
John Curry then introduced Colton Morrison who is the local Scouting Executive and Eagle Scout from the Golden Spread Council, who gave insight to how the Boy Scouts are doing in our area.
“Golden Spread Council had a fantastic year in 2024,” he said. “Some of the highlights: we had over 1,770 youth and 685 adult volunteers giving them the scouting experience; Boy Scouts earned 1,551 Merit Badges and 43 Eagle Scouts earn that rank; Scouts performed almost 14,000 hours of community service; we are very fortunate to have two camps within our Council, one over by Wheeler and the other south of Amarillo where we have events constantly going on; our Fall-themed Spookery was attended by 700 Cub Scouts, siblings, parents and friends; our annual Scouts Summer Camp was held at M.K. Brown; and our winter camp had over 130 Scouts attend. We hold many more things throughout the year such as day camps, fishing derbies, merit camps, pinewood derbies, and youth and adult leadership training.”
“Here in Pampa, scouting is alive and well and I enjoy seeing what they do here. Pack 423 is charted by First United Methodist Church and Troop 413 is chartered by St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. Both of those units have 44 youth and adults who are very active, good, trained leaders and they do many hours of community service here and elsewhere.”
“Pampa is very fortunate to have scouting and the Scouts are extremely fortunate to have people like you and the community of Pampa to support them.”
Colton introduced Scout Master Tim Johnson to speak about how he got started and the impact he has witnessed in the Scouts.
“I was in Scouts until about the 3rd grade and faded off into something else and never gave it another thought. But one day eleven years ago, my 1st grade boy came in with a sticker on his chest that said ‘Ask Me About Scouting’ and said, ‘dad, I want to go to Cub Scouts,’ and I said ‘let’s do this.’ My current Scouting partner had come up to me one night and asked me to help him with the den and I said sure. And almost twelve years later, I’m still here. I’ve been Cub Master, I’ve been Scout Master, and a Round Table Commissioner for the district. It is a great program and I wish I had stuck with it when I was younger, but I am proud and happy that I am able to help the youth.”
Tim told stories about a few Scouts overcoming their fears and personal anxieties and their successes through the program, and also about his own son and the impact its made on not only him, but their relationship as well.
“I don’t know how our relationship would be if I hadn’t gotten involved with the Scouting. Through some of the programs he’s done like the National Youth Leadership training, when you get him around his peers and the younger kids, he’s a leader and teaches them skills and takes them under his wing and does all these things for them, and that’s because of scouting. I couldn’t have taught him that.”
John then presented the Good Scout award to Doug and Sara Carmichael for showing great leadership, serving the community in many, many capacities, and being an example of what the Scouts are all about.
“Thank you all so much,” Doug said. “It’s just wonderful to have so many good friends here today and the highlight today is to be honored with Buzzard.”
“One of my biggest regrets in my life was not continuing my Scouting career and trying to obtain the Eagle Rank, but I appreciate the Scouting very much. Mr. Brown always appreciated scouting and in fact, that was something in his will: scouting was always something to be taken care of, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, from the M.K. Brown Foundation and I’m proud to be a part of that with Judge Lee Waters and Dr. Jay Johnson. It is a real pleasure to be able to help our community.”
The Carmichaels announced that they will be moving to South Carolina in the next few months, and they expressed that although they will be moving to be closer to their kids and grandkids, they will certainly miss the home and friends they’ve made here, and I can safely say that they too will be missed.
