On Dec. 19, the Middlefield Boy Scouts, Troop 33, celebrated their fall Court of Honor. This year we celebrated our bottle and can recycling program by awarding, for the second year in a row, the Harry Swanson Recycling Golden Bottle to David Bedding for his outstanding efforts at recycling. Kyle and Kevin Onofreo were awarded second place. Since our program began in 1993, we have recycled 1,906,382 cans and bottles! All of the scouts are to be commended for their effort in making this program successful, but special thanks are sent out to the Swanson family and the Sibley family for continuing to organize this important fund raising and recycling program.

In addition to these awards, numerous Merit Badges were distributed to t he scouts. Many of these were completed during summer camp. David Bedding received the Cooking, Shotgun, Environmental Science and Citizenship in the Nation badges. Brian Blake completed Swimming, Nature, Mammal Studies, Oceanography and Canoeing. Andrew Carter finished Camping, Communications, Environmental Science and Fishing. Thomas D'Orvilliers was awarded Oceanography, Orienteering, Rifle, Small Boat Sailing, Woodcarving, Dog Care, Emergency Preparedness and Citizenship in the Nation. Sam Gossner was given Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the Community, Communications, Woodcarving, Basketry, Sculpture and Woodwork. Jayson Gribko completed Environmental Science and Basketry. Justin Hall received Citizenship in the Nation, Wilderness Survival, Leatherwork and Cooking. Ben Hamilton finished Communications, Environmental Science, Citizenship in the Nation, Emergency Preparedness and Rifle. Doug Hanley received nine badges!! They included Citizenship in the Nation, Swimming, Oceanography, Mammal Studies, Nature, Woodwork, Art, Leatherwork and Cooking. Ben Majewicz received Environmental Science, Cooking and Weather. Kevin Onofreo finished Oceanography, Citizenship in the Nation, Cooking, Art, Woodwork, Leatherwork, Nature and Mammal Studies. Kyle Onofreo was awarded Oceanography, Citizenship in the Nation, Environmental Science, Weather, Shotgun and Fishing. Stephen Quinn received Environmental Science, Woodwork, and Fishing. And Tyler Sibley completed Emergency Preparedness, Citizenship in the Nation, Environmental Science, Reptile/Amphibian study, Shotgun, and Oceanography. Fitch Spencer finished Swimming, Wilderness Survival, Cooking, Snowsports and Oceanography. Henry Willis got Weather, Fishing, Environmental Science. David Wolak worked hard on Citizenship in the Nation, Citizenship in the Community, Environmental Science, Camping, Weather, Woodwork, Oceanography and American Heritage. And John Wolak did Citizenship in the Community, and Communications. As you can see, we have very active scouts who worked extremely hard over the summer! Many of these badges were Eagle required badges.

At the Court of Honor we also distributed rank advancements to Brian Blake and Fitch Spence, who became Tenderfoots, Kevin Onofreo who became Second Class, Doug Hanley who became First Class. Receiving the rank of S tar Scout were David Bedding and Thomas D'Orvilliers. David Wolak, John Wolak, Andrew Carter, Tyler Sibley and Ben Hamilton all advanced to Life Scouts.

And finally, Andrew Carter, Jayson Gribko, Ben Hamilton, Kyle Onofreo and Stephen Quinn all received the Snorkeling activity patch and the Duty to God emblem which they completed while enjoying a week at Florida Sea Base!

After all this hard work, we finished off the night with Make Your Own Ice Cream Sundaes! We thank Denise Carter for organizing this, and we thank all our Scout leaders without whose time and help we could not have achieved all this!