To mark the 100th year of scouting locally, the Buffalo Trail Council of Boy Scouts of America is having a town hall luncheon featuring some well-known Eagle Scouts.
Reps. Tom Craddick and Eagle Scouts Brooks Landgraf, as well as Sen. Kevin Sparks are scheduled to participate in the town hall luncheon at 11:30 a.m. March 26 at the Odessa Country Club. CBS 7 anchor Jay Hendricks will lead the convening.
You must have an invitation to sit at sponsor tables, buy a table or individual ticket to attend.
Craddick was a Distinguished Eagle Scout with Troop 84 St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Midland; Rep. Brooks Landgraf was an Eagle Scout with Troop 77, Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, Odessa; and Sen. Kevin Sparks was an Eagle Scout with Troop 232, First Baptist Church, Midland.
The Buffalo Trail Council turned 100 years old Nov. 1, 2023. This is a celebration not only of past accomplishments of scouting, but the next 100 years of creating tomorrow’s leaders in the Permian Basin.
“We knew that they were all Eagle Scouts and our council and I thought what better way than to have them here as guests in a town hall to talk about how scouting changed their lives and ask them some questions and then give a report on scouting last year and how we did locally and what our future plans are to these donors and community leaders,” Field Director Brad Connel said.
They are inviting the superintendents from Odessa and Midland, career and technology officials, assistant superintendents, mayors, city officials and judges.
“There will be some special guests there — the police chief (and) fire chief will all be invited … just to promote scouting and have a great kickoff to our next 100 years and move forward from there,” Connel said.
Connel said he returned to Boy Scouts as a professional in 2022 to help rebuild the council because COVID hit it hard.
“COVID did a number on us. We had 96 units, I believe, before COVID and 36 after. The reason for that is we have to charter annually … They weren’t meeting for over a year and so a lot of them didn’t re-charter. There were some that were very strong that did, but there were some that just quit meeting. … It’s totally a rebuilding process and starting units back up that went away. We’ve got a strong basis, a strong support here,” Connel said.
He added that the council served 3,000 youngsters in 18 counties before COVID and now there are 703. It has been the same for councils across the nation mainly because they didn’t re-charter because of COVID.
Part of the way Connel has rebuilt is holding rallies, which he said helped make the units stronger.
“We grew 16 percent. This year, we were the No. 1 growth council in Texas serving our 18 counties. We grew 4.61 percent, almost right at 5 percent, and I think we were No. 4 overall in the country. It was very slow growth this year for us, but … we kind of got things back up and running … I think you’ll see a lot more growth here in the next couple of years as we recruit more volunteers. It’s a very volunteer-driven organization so getting more volunteers and getting our fundraising back up to normal are the main goals,” Connel said.
He emphasized that scouting has not changed and kids today need scouting more than they ever have in the 100-year history of the local council.
“The key to it all is that the program hasn’t changed. We’re serving youth from kindergarten through age 20 — male and female. We have great charter partners and they decide the programs they want to have at their organizations and they approve their adult leaders. It’s very charter organization driven and it’s very volunteer driven,” Connel said.
All the funds raised stays local to support the local council, which is under the Boy Scouts of America umbrella.
“Any of the fundraising we do here helps us with operating and providing the programs to our local leaders,” he added.
Connel said he was an Eagle Scout in Blackwell. He volunteered for scouts in 1999 after he moved to Midland and became a professional there. There was nowhere to move up in the local organization, so he got an oilfield job and came back in August 2022.
“I was a volunteer all those years I was gone for my son’s Cub Scout pack,” Connel said.
To reserve a table or seat, call the Boy Scout office at 432-570-7601 or email [email protected]
