TROOP 570 HISTORY - WE ARE 60!
Chartered in 1964, for 60 years Omaha Troop 570 has been built on “Leadership by Example”. From the adult leadership to the scouts themselves, leadership is taught and carried out by excellent examples of scouting in the finest Boy Scout tradition. Our meetings, camp outs and High Adventures are planned by the scouts under the supervision of the adult leadership. Our Boy-Run Troop has provided programs and activities from camping, hiking, survival skills, and canoe trips all planned out by the boys. We prepare the young boy for leadership responsibilities in his scouting life and in life skill roles for the rest of his life.
Four of our adult leaders have earned the “Silver Beaver Award”, one of Scouting's highest honors for volunteerism. Robert “Bob” Brown, Raymond Ramirez, James Leary, and our current Scoutmaster Mr. James Nelson, have all earned this award. This award is given out by the Boy Scouts of America to recognize registered Scouters of exceptional character who have provided distinguished service within a council.
A popular camping trip from 1983 through 2005 was our annual canoe trip down the Cedar River in Central Nebraska. It was always scheduled the week after school ended. We started out camping in the Prairie near the sand hills and followed the Cedar River all day ending up in Spaulding Nebraska. The Town leaders let the troop camp in the city park, opened up the swimming pool for our scouts and after dinner kept open all the ice cream shops, hamburger and malt shops and movie theater for the troop. The scouts loved the freedom of exploring Main Street of a small town, and best of all they didn't have to return to the camp until 11pm. The next day we canoed a few more miles before we packed up and drove home. The memories of this annual trip are still talked about when our alumni get together.
Fundraising in the early days consisted of paper drives and can drives. Large truck trailers were filled with newspapers and recycling companies actually paid the troop for the papers. Pickup truck loads of aluminum cans were driven to recycling companies and cans were sold for 25 cent a pound. The recycling market eventually changed and is now handled by the city. Fund raising today consist of popcorn sales and free will donations from our winter service project, Scouting 4 Trees.
A mid-summer family event consisted of a family picnic at Thomas lake along the Elkhorn River near Ashland Ne. The troop provided the meat and the cooks, the families provided the potluck salads. Swimming and canoeing and fishing were the family events.
From 1964 to today, the troop has always planned for and attended summer camp at Camp Cedars near Fremont Ne. The camp has always been a great week for our scouts, and today the camp has evolved in to one of the top Boy Scout Summer camps in America.
Our High Adventures are varied and fun. We have canoed the Boundary Waters, Hiked the Silver arrow Trail in South Dakota, from Wind Cave, past Mount Rushmore to Sheridan lake, a total of 50 miles. Canoed the white water rapids of the Colorado River near Colorado Springs, Canoed the white water rapids of the Ocoee River in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. Hiked the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico on four different occasions; We attended Jamboree at The Summit Bechtel Scout Reserve in West Virginia; and we hiked Medicine Bow Peak in the Snowy Range Mountains of Wyoming and white water rafted the Poudre River of Colorado.
Most recently, in June of 2024, the Troop returned from a High Adventure trip to West Virginia and Virginia, which included hiking the Appalachian Trail, white water rafting West Virginia's New River, and visiting many Historical venues.
Closer to home, bicycle trips down the Wabash Trace in western Iowa were popular events for the scouts.
In 2011 our troop was awarded the “Ready and Prepared” award. This award is an Emergency Preparedness award that sets standards for all of our events, meetings and camp outs. Our troop is the only Boy Scout Troop in our Council that has been awarded this honor. It was presented at a special meeting attended by a member of the Omaha City Council. We wear this badge proudly on our uniforms.
Since 1964, fifty five (55) scouts from Troop 570 have reached the pinnacle of their scouting career and made the rank of Eagle Scout. Our most recent Eagle Scout coming in September of 2023. He is a legacy as his Father became an Eagle Scout in April of 1990. In fact, our last two Eagle Scouts are legacies.
Additionally, Troop 570 has long contributed to the community through countless Eagle Scout projects and Troop service projects.
In October, we celebrated our 60th anniversary! And we continue to look forward to helping the community, helping our church partners, and helping our scouts to develop into community leaders!
