50th Anniversary Celebration

[eagle90]

Our Troop is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year, and we are planning a reunion style banquet at the end of February. We have a banquet hall reserved, and invitations are going out this week to over 200 former Scouts and Scouters we have located. We are really looking forward to a great evening!

 

Now I need some help and ideas. Now that we have everyone there, WHAT DO WE DO? We need some suggestions for program activities for the evening. We plan to honor the oldest member, one who traveled the farthest, one with the most kids, etc. And we are contemplating a slide presentation of events thru the years.

 

Any suggestions you may have would be helpful. We are having a planning meeting on Wednesday.

I'm sure we will get some good suggestions with all the normal expertise we have on the forum!

 

Thanks in advance

 

DALE

(This message has been edited by eagle90)(This message has been edited by eagle90)

[andrewcanoe]

I would think it would be appropriate to do the everyone stand up and sit down as 5,10,15,20,... years in scouting are called out. You could even give some sort of prize (gag or otherwise) to the "winner"

 

You might also want to have all alumni that are current or past scout leaders for other troops stand up and be recognized.

[WAKWIB]

Congrats on your 5oth!!

Maybe some of the current Scouts could teach and lead a couple of "campfire songs". Especially some that most would find very humourous. And/Or showcase some other talents of your Scouts.

 

Dedicate a "time capsule" in which all who want to can submit something to be included. It is to remain sealed until your 75th Anniversary.

 

(This message has been edited by WAKWIB)

[purcelce]

Have your PLC in on this (I'm sure that you do). That way the Scouts can have some fun things and share ownership in the banquet.

 

Have a youth MC.

 

Have a display of the current Scouts "What we do now" type thing.

 

Have this "military tradition". Get a cake and have the youngest and oldest Troop member "ceremoniously" cut the cake with a Scout knife together.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

[Glenn]

We just celebrated our 50th year last year and also had dinner. Some of the events we did that went over well were:

 

1. Honored all Eagle Scouts from the Troop. Had them come up and selected boys read from some Eagle tribute as they lit candles.

 

2. Honored all previous Scout masters. Similar to above.

 

3. Gave out the 50th patch to all registers Scouts and Scouters.

 

4. Our Scout Executive came and gave a 5 minute speech.

 

5. We invited our Sponsoring organization's representative (COR) to attend and thanked them also.

 

6. Had a table set up that anyone could display their paraphernalia. I was concerned about someone misplacing something (or even someone stealing - uggh! not scouts). But we had no problems.

 

7. One suggestion I could highly recommend is to allow more time to socialize. We only allowed for 30 minutes prior to dinner and this was definitely not enough time. The reunion type atmosphere encouraged the previous scouts and scouters to reminisce.

 

One suggestion that we overruled was to allow each previous Eagle in attendance to give a short talk about what Scouting was like for them. There was some concern that some non-supportive talk might be given. I don't know the reason, but an older scouter strongly advised against it.

 

Good luck.

 

P.S. I also asked this question last year (actually, I might have asked in Nov/Dec 2002). Perhaps there are some other answers in that thread if you can find it.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Ask each past SM to relate three favorite stories about their time in the Troop. Make sure to tell them to keep it short. Have the Historian cover the stories with a video camera. Tell the SM's that the Troop Historian would like to tape the longer versions and other stories after the meeting and/or at a different date, if there are several leaders. If a leader has driven a considerable distance, then their stories might have priority after the meeting. Arrange with the others to get an oral history on tape later. Many times current leaders know these guys but dont want to intrude and dont arrange to take the time to get the history recorded.

 

Troop history has a way of being current, shallow, and without the enrichment that time offers. This is an opportunity to gather several well developed stories that might, at the minimum, be used for an evening story time. There are lots of ways to use Troop history. Most people don't realize that while you are in the present, it doesn't seem so important or if it is important, nobody is there to record it. Later, the experiences lie dormant and always disappear.

Fuzzy Bear

 

[eagle90]

Thanks for the great suggestions so far!

 

Any more ideas?