Zion Episcopal Church

April 2010 marked the fifth anniversary of Boy Scout Troop 6 at Zion and Darrin Hardy’s fifth anniversary as Scoutmaster.

At a Court of Honor ceremony on Thursday, April 29th, Darrin officially retired from his role of guiding boys through one of Scouting’s finest programs.

The troop started rather small back in 2005. The overriding goal was to ensure the leaders built a program that would attract young men and keep them so that they could deliver the promise of scouting to them.

They were indeed successful.

They had several specific goals:

• They wanted the troop to have an active camping program. At month’s end, they had racked up over 120 individual camping nights.
• They wanted the troop to have an active hiking program. At month’s end, they had completed over 100 miles of hiking.
• They wanted the troop to have a majority of the scouts attend summer camp. Over the past 5 years, they have had 90% or greater attend summer camp.
• They wanted the troop to travel to different locations. They have been to 3 outside councils for summer camps.
• They wanted the scouts to earn many awards and merit badges. To date, they have awarded nearly 1000 merit badges and other awards earned by over 60 scouts.
• They wanted to help a scout earn the rank of Eagle. There have been 5, including one from Zion, Darrin’s son JP Hardy.
• They wanted the troop to earn the quality unit award. They have earned it every year this troop has been in existence.
• They wanted the troop to participate in council and district events. They are known as one of the strongest troops around.
• They wanted the troop to lead a district/council event. The Fall Camporee of 2009, led by Troop 6’s young men, has gone down as one of the best.

In all, Darrin served 1,855 days as Scoutmaster.

Although he is retiring from the troop, he will still be involved in Scouting and with our youth, including continuing to be the Crew Advisor of Zion’s Venture Crew 6. He will be serving as the Scoutmaster of one of three contingents of 36 boys each from Shenandoah Area Council attending the 100th Anniversary National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill this summer.

He has also been selected to be a Crew Leader for a group of boys headed to Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico for a trek next year. As well, he is the new Shenandoah Area Council Boy Scout Training Coordinator.

He is still doing what he loves, simply moving his ministry to other areas.