I’ve been a Scout since the day I turned 6. So, I spent more than half of my life as a Scout.

I am currently a Star Scout working towards my Life Scout rank. I’ve been a scout for 8 years and I love everything about scouting.

This summer we are getting ready for the biggest adventure of our life, a 10 day 65+ mile hiking trip at Philmont in New Mexico with my Troop. This is going to be an amazing experience that we will remember the rest of our lives. We will have the opportunity to hike, go horse back riding, and in general survive in the wild, carry and make our own food and even see wonderful sights. We will have 8 scouts and two adult leaders going on this trip and we really can’t wait to go.

Well, of course a trip like this costs money. We’ve been working on fundraising for the last year. We have a great fundraiser that we do all year round, park cars when there are concerts downtown. We’ve also been selling first aid kits for the last few months. We made a lot of money, but we also paid for all of our camp outs we do during the year. I also paid for my summer camp, but for this trip I still need to raise more money. Basically we do a lot of scouting all year.

The full trip will cost around $2,000. I already have $344 and I am working on raising the rest. And here is where I need your help.

In the past I got a lot of you to help me fund school projects, renovations, new school buses and more. This time I would like to find out if you have any yard work, envelope stuffing, office work, moving, etc. that I can do for money if you are in the Clearwater area. If you just simply want to make a donation that is fine too. In exchange I will write you a letter about my experience, send you a photo of our hike and send you a special hand made gift.

Philmont Scout Ranch is the Boy Scouts of America’s largest National High Adventure Base. Born in 1938 as Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout Camp, Philmont has become a bustling center for high adventure and training. It covers 140,177 acres of rugged mountain wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains in northeastern New Mexico. Philmont has a unique history of ancient Native Americans who chipped petroglyphs into canyon walls, Spanish conquistadors, who explored the Southwest long before the first colonists arrived on the Atlantic coast, the rugged breed of mountain man such as Kit Carson, who blazed trails across this land, the great land barons like Lucien Maxwell who built ranches along the Santa Fe Trail and miners, loggers and cowboys. All left their mark on Philmont.

Philmont Scout Ranch operates 35 staffed camps and 55 trail camps across the rugged terrain that ranges in elevation from 6,500 to 12,441 feet. More than 1 million Scouts, Venturers, and Advisors have experienced the adventure of Philmont since its first camping season in 1939. Most activities take place during the summer, but Philmont also offers programs during the offseason such as Autumn and Winter Adventure. Throughout its existence, conscientious attention to low-impact camping techniques and diligent wildlife and forestry conservation work has helped maintain Philmont’s wilderness.

In addition to providing an unforgettable adventure in backpacking across miles of rugged, rocky trails, Philmont Scout Ranch offers programs that feature the best of the Old West—horseback riding, burrow packing, gold panning, chuckwagon dinners, and interpretive history—with exciting challenges for today such as rock climbing, mountain biking, and sport shooting. It’s an unbeatable recipe for fast-paced fun in the outdoors.