Sometimes Life Gives You Gifts

Let me remind you of my crappy day about a week ago.  There have been some new developments.  On Sunday, I was pulled aside and asked to be the Unit Advancement Chair.  (And I am still the 11 year old scout leader, which is very good because I like doing it).   What is that you ask?


The unit advancement chair is appointed by the committee chairman to ensure that the unit has at least monthly boards of review, quarterly courts of honor, and that the unit has goals of helping each Scout advance a rank each year and for new Scouts to reach First Class rank during their first year. The advancement chair is also responsible for record keeping and submitting advancement reports. (Taken from Merit badge.org) 


I was thrilled with the assignment because I am good at lists, tracking info, etc.  I take great pride in doing such and it is perfect use of one of my big strengths.  I had a short talk with the Scout Master just after I was asked to do this assignment and he casually said, "It is really great for your 11 year old scouts to earn their 1st aid merit badge before Scout camp this summer."  I don't know why this threw me, but it did.  Ever since Sunday, I have been thinking about this merit badge.  I downloaded the requirements.  I talked to our Merit Badge counselor for First Aid and discovered we really need to teach them correct CPR.  Dentist husband is certified and the counselor told me my husband could teach it to the boys, but, that I indeed needed to rent a CPR device--one of those practice mannequins.  Again, I don't know why this, of all things has shook me, but it seemed like a huge deal to me.

So, today, I finally decided I needed to go to the scout office and just face every aspect of scouts that is on my mind.  I started at the Advancement desk.  The nice lady confirmed to me that yes, there is a problem with the system and they are aware of it.  Nothing has been lost but it will take a few weeks for everything to be restored.  There is nothing for me to do but wait.  She then trained me on how to do the advancement records correctly, both on the computer and hard copy form.

I then asked about First Aid training for scouts.  She gave me all of the information I needed (confirming that my husband can teach it to the boys) and said, "Just call the fire department and you can rent a mannequin from them."

So, I went to the grocery store, feeling much lighter about everything and guess what, after years of grocery shopping and never seeing a fireman in sight, a ran into three fireman in the dairy section.  They gave me the name and number of the person to contact for a CPR mannequin.  I didn't even have to look anything up!  It was a gift.

Another gift or maybe just one of those weird cosmic things but I have been on a Rudyard Kipling phase lately (see this post) and recently picked up a biography about him.  Guess what I learned?  Lord Robert Boden-Powell, founder of the scouting movement and good friend to Kipling,  incorporated names and ideals from The Jungle Books and Kim (both written by Kipling) into much of the literature and philosophy of Boy Scouts.  So my life is all blending together in some strange but satisfying cosmic gel.