Three years ago, Troop 25 of Emmaus, Pa., renovated its Scout room by adding a fresh coat of paint to the walls and replacing old cabinets with heavy-duty metal shelving to hold camping gear. The result gave the Scouts a cleaner, more organized space at the St. John’s United Church of Christ. One small cabinet housed awards and old records dating back to the 1930s. For a unit originally chartered in 1932, the troop committee believed those items should be on display. Two years later, phase two of the renovation project got underway by installing cabinets and countertops to create a troop museum. Some of the work was done during troop meetings, but most took place on the weekends as not to cut into program time. Still, Scouts volunteered on the weekend workdays to complete the project. Scouts stained all the wood used in the museum. They installed plywood with aluminum tracking to create doors for extra storage. If this is sounding like a project you want for your unit, Troop 25 Scoutmaster Andy Frobase says it should be a group effort. “Get the Scouts involved because not only will they learn a lot of history about the troop, but they will learn many different types of trades and skills throughout the process,” he says.
