Bugler James Gillies was one of the youngest patriots to die in the Revolutionary War. He perished at age 14 near the location where the Scouts of Troop 600 (Oak Ridge, NC) meet Monday nights. Four times a year, the Troop bugler and the 14-year-old Scouts march to the site to read his story, place flags, and sound Taps so his memory never goes silent. Bob Buckley tells the story of Troop 600 as the stewards of the legacy of Bugler Boy Gillies.
Watch the video on YouTube.
The Northwest Observer followed Troop 600 (Oak Ridge, NC) on a February 2018 backpacking trip to tell the story of Eagle Scout Evan Pardue, then a 17-year-old sophomore at Lionheart Academy.
Carrying a full pack, Evan led the troop on the 13-mile Rock Castle Gorge Trail in southern Virginia, a hike that climbs more than 1,800 feet in its first four miles over rocky, root-covered ground. When the trail got tough, he leaned on a personal motto he had picked up on an earlier trek at Philmont Scout Ranch.
Evan is on the autism spectrum, and his early days in the troop weren’t always easy. His father, assistant Scoutmaster Ben Pardue, described the moment it clicked for Evan that being part of the group meant working with it. From there, he grew into a leader.
Scoutmaster Mike Matzinger calls the outdoors the troop’s “laboratory,” the place where Scouts put what they learn at weekly meetings into practice on monthly hikes and campouts. The article also traces Troop 600’s roots: parents formed the troop in 2006 after one asked Mike to welcome a boy with autism whom other troops had turned away, and including every Scout has been part of its identity ever since.
Read the full story at the Northwest Observer.