Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back. If you happen to be around Marymount park or Pageant Field last weekend, you may have noticed a little activity. Like over a thousand Scouts camped out at Pageant Field and then traversing the entire city. That was for the President's trail camporee for 2026, sponsored by the Quincy Friends of Scouting. So Ray and Diane T. Birge are here from the Friends to tell us all about it. Welcome.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Good morning.
Great to see you. Joe.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Both T. Burges in the house.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Team T Burge.
Happy to be here.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Great to have you both. Diane, nice to meet. Meet you.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: Appreciate it.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: First time. Although I know you've been involved in the Friends for a long time.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: I like hiding in the background.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: The silent strength. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: The force.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
As I recall, it was, like, two years ago.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: It was exactly two years ago. Yeah. Columbus Day weekend two years ago is when we did it our first time. And there was such positive feedback and a demand that we let the wounds heal, recover, get some rest, get some lessons learned.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Lessons learned. And say, what do you say? Want to do it again? And we both said yes.
And fortunately, 127 of our dearest friends also said yes.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: To volunteer and. Takes a lot of people. Takes a village.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: It does. It takes an army.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: So what is a camporee?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: A camporee is a collection of Scouting units. Typically, troops that get together could be just sort of metro Quincy or Eastern Mass.
Or it could be regional. In this case, it's New England. I think once you get beyond a region, once you get nationwide, then it becomes a jamboree.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: And so that typically was held at Fort A.P. hill down in the D.C. area for the longest time, and now it's held at the Summit in West Virginia. The Boy Scouts of America, now Scouting America, purchased 10,000 acres there.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Really?
[00:01:43] Speaker B: And so every four years, they have a nationwide jamboree, and there are international Jamborees or World Jamborees.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Is that right?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: That happen as well.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Okay. Does Quincy Friends of Scouting participate in the jamboree?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: We do not.
Do not. Individual troops would. Or what are called contingent troops. And I've served on six staffs with that. So really, that's. I think part of the strength of this camper is Diane and I have been doing this for 25 years, and we've taken the experiences of world Jamborees, national jamborees, local camporees. There's also something called Mass Jam, which is all of the Massachusetts troops are invited every four or five years.
So we've taken the best and the worst lesson Learned in those and really applied them to the President's Trail.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: It's got a unique Quincy twist to it.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: It does. It does.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: That was the whole idea, right?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Like I said, over what, like 1200 scouts.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Correct. In this case, we had 1200 sleeping on the field. We had another 100, 120 day visitors on Sunday, and then we had 127 staff. So all in. It was about 1500 people on the field. Yeah, it was really exciting. Yeah. We get a lot of feedback from people that were driving on Quincy Shore Drive and looked back across and went, what is that? What is all that?
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Right, right. It's an encampment.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: It was an encampment.
Right.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: 57 units from 56.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: 56 units from New England, southern Maine, southern New Hampshire and most of Massachusetts. We did invite Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode island, but for whatever reason, they weren't able to attend.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Okay. And from all walks of scouting life, what's kind of the age?
[00:03:18] Speaker C: It's the traditional program which is youth ages 11 to about 17.
So what we used to call the Boy Scouts, but it's no longer that. It's Scouting America. So it's co ed. So it's the youth that are age 11 to.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: So boys and girls. Boys and girls and sort of that middle school to high school age.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Super exciting.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: So I bet for a lot of the kids never been to this part of the. Correct.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: It was the big, bad, scary. We're going to the Metropolis Quincy to
[00:03:48] Speaker C: some of the Scouts. They live in small communities and it was really exciting for them. They're like, oh, there's a hundred thousand people that live in this city. And you've got all of these things. And we're camping in the middle of the.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Of the urban. Urban setting.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Boston skyline off in the distance.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: The Boston skyline off. And the ocean. You had an ocean view.
Beautifully manicured field.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So when East Greenfield, Mass, I think was the furthest. They were two and a half hours away.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: It's almost North Adams.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: So it was a drive for them
[00:04:15] Speaker A: from hills to the shore to hills to the shore.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: But we had a great security team. I can't say enough about Quincy PD and Norfolk County Sheriff did an amazing job. It helps that we're on sort of a peninsula, of course, out into Blacks Creek.
But we had an amazing security force as well.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: To make everybody feel comfortable.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. But really it was a way to show off the city. Right.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: It was the idea. It was. That was the idea.
It really came from the Reincarnation of the president's trail. There was the old Quincy historic trail. Do you remember the brown signs with a big hue on it? And that sort of fell into disrepair. It was a little too big and complicated. Nobody really owned it. So I got to give credit to mayor Tom and to former executive director Tim cahill for the chamber, who really redesigned that trail, just focusing on the president's. And that's how it became the president's trail. And when that came to be is when Tim and mayor Tom and I had a conversation to say, hey, could we leverage this with the scouts? And I said, yeah, I love the idea. And the pageant field got renovated, Right? The field got renovated. The new pavilion got built. And I just saw the venue was there, the opportunity to bring guests, our guests, our friends. So it's invitational only. These are all troops that we know personally and invited them to come and experience the president's trail. So in a lot of ways, it's a tourism event.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Right. We have a bunch of pictures.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: We could sit here and talk about it all day. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right?
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Absolutely. Love to.
[00:05:40] Speaker A: So we want to take show folks what the camporee looked like in Quincy last weekend. So let's kick it off with the welcome banner, I guess, if you will.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: This is what we call a gateway. And each of the troops was encouraged to build their own in their own site. But this is the one that we built for the event as a whole. The actual wooden plaque was built by some friends of ours, 702 in Reading, Massachusetts. Two of the dads up there, One actually did the backboard, and another one had a beautiful CNC machine to do the medallions. They're set into the backboard. And so this is in our house right now. Diane's trying to figure out what we're gonna do with it.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: But this was the greeting for everyone. Everyone came underneath this gateway, and you knew you'd arrived at something significant.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. It sets the stage. Right?
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: And then I love this next shot because it really gives a perspective as to how that's one of our favorites.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Filling the amphitheater.
How often have you seen the Ruth Gordon amphitheater shoulder to shoulder?
[00:06:34] Speaker A: I mean, maybe when the Beatles tribute band was performing, but other than that, not like this.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it was super exciting. So I think I'm standing in the foreground, and I think this is opening ceremony. So the mayor. There's the. I can see the sheriff down in the lower left. And the mayor is here as well to do his Greeting.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: So you started off on a beautiful fall day, but it didn't last, unfortunately.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: It lasted, but it didn't.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: It lasted long enough for us.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Well, it didn't end that way. It didn't end that way. It was just some liquid sunshine on Sunday night.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Joe. But you're scouts, so you don't.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: We're scouts. Exactly. Diane and I were adamant with all of the leaders. A, be prepared is the motto.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Be prepared for any old thing.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: And plan B is plan A with a rain jacket.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: So you had some old time games?
[00:07:13] Speaker B: We did. These were kids working on the Liberty 250 program. It's a special award.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: Scouting America came out with a special award this year where Scouts can earn special recognition for the 250th anniversary.
So they had to play games from the 1700s. They had to do different activities. They had to talk about the Declaration of Independence and what it means to them, certain key parts of it. So we had a little booth set up where they could go and talk.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: And I love the partnership.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: And Ben dragged it.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: So we had a three way partnership.
My mom and my stepfather came in dressed up as Betsy Ross. Ben Franklin in this. In a certain booth. But on one side we had representatives from the DAR talking about the Liberty 250 and America 250. And then next to them we had National Park Service.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Marion Peak's team and Hillary's team were there playing games with the kids.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was a beautiful three way partnership working towards an award.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Yeah, fantastic.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: We had a beautiful time capsule that kids could put stuff in that we've got sealed up and we've got to put someplace for a couple.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Oh, what did you put in the time capsule?
[00:08:11] Speaker C: They did a lot of different things. They did patches or wrote little notes. Then we actually had a lot of kids didn't bring stuff. So we had a big cloth with the Fleur de Lis on it. And the kids could sign their names and write a little message along those lines. But a lot of kids did patches and stuff, stuff that meant stuff to them. Or Pokemon cards.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Oh, of course. Right.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Where's the time capsule gonna go?
[00:08:29] Speaker B: It's gonna go in Diane's island.
She has her own little traffic island in her name to the right of that on Marymount Parkway, Blacks Creek trailhead.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: There's a flower garden there that has a little sign that says Diane T. Birch on it. And so it's going in that garden. All right.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: For how long?
[00:08:47] Speaker B: We're thinking 25 years.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: When they have the next camporee 25 years from now.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: We're hoping somebody uncovers this reel.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: 25 years old.
A couple more pictures to show, folks, please.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Ah, Lawrence Louis. Great guy.
Nationally ranked chef for sure. Amazing guy. Roboto, is his restaurant up in the downs?
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: And so his dad is a scoutmaster
[00:09:12] Speaker C: from one of the units that was attending.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And a friend of mine happened to
[00:09:15] Speaker C: pull us aside and say, hey, wouldn't it be really great if we could get Lawrence to come and do something because he's an Eagle Scout. We called him a little before. He's an Eagle Scout. And we called him. He said, well, yeah, he's like, I'd really like to do this. I come and like to walk around to office.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: But I have a very limited.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: I have had like a one hour window of opportunity to come.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: He was actually going to Atlanta that night to compete in something.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Oh, is that right?
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: He loves competition.
[00:09:36] Speaker B: So we're like, oh, how about lunch? So he came, he judged lunch.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: The winning. Actually, the winning meal, it was macaroni and cheese.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: I was gonna say it looks like Mac and cheese in a cast iron skillet.
[00:09:44] Speaker C: This was the winning meal.
So he was quite happy with it.
[00:09:48] Speaker B: And where is she from?
[00:09:50] Speaker C: She was from 3Dedham.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: 3Dedham.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Oh, very good, that one.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: So that's something different that you did this year.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: It was a great added feature. And Lawrence was wonderful with the kids. They really got a kick out of his feedback and his conversation with them. It really made a difference.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: And we did the golden ladle. We had a custom trophy made of a ladle in gold.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: And look, that's bragging rights.
[00:10:14] Speaker C: It is absolutely good.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: Next one.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: This is one of the stops on the historic President's Trail in front of the old town hall.
And we had reenactors. So something different we did this time we had trail guides. It was very important to me that we package people up, that we not just give them a map and say, go get it. Right. So they had a lead and a sweep who guided them along all 10 stops of the President's Trail. So they're stopping here. But last time we also leaned on those trail guides to tell the story of each of the 10 stops. And I think that was a lot.
So in this case, we recruited and trained reenactors to tell the story of each of the ten.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Very good.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Yep. So they dressed up.
[00:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah. This is an educational experience. There they are walking the trail again.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Yep. This is one of our assistant scoutmasters, Matt Sammons. I think you know Jen Sammons.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:11:04] Speaker B: She's the president of Thomas Crane and works at Interfaith. This is her husband Matt. Good, amazing guy. And he did the Hancock burial grounds or cemetery.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah. See that in the background there? Very good. Keep it rolling. Still on the trail. Yep.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: This is Andy Lesher, also helping out in the burial grounds, telling the story
[00:11:22] Speaker A: at the JQ Adams crypt there.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Next one is. Yes. The 25,000 daffodil.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: 25,000 yellow daffodils are across that same berm that we talked about on Marymount Parkway.
So the city, the parks department had a Thomas and Sons come in and dig a six foot wide trench, 500ft long. So it's from Vietnam Vets Drive all the way up and over the berm and all the way to Black's Creek.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: So in the spring it's just going to be a ribbon of yellow.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: It's going to be amazing. Yeah. Really beautiful. Is there like a sign there saying what, what you folks did?
[00:11:54] Speaker B: Not yet. Not yet. But there will be.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Yeah, but there will be.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: All right.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: And we're hoping the word gets out through QATV in the sun.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: We hope so. Yeah, absolutely. Looks like inside of the church presidents here.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Another group of the President's Trail touring.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: And I can see that young man with his badge on. And who's that guy?
[00:12:13] Speaker B: This is me greeting every single one of the 56 units as they came to Pageant Field. Wow. So the, the antenna is actually appropriate because we queued them up at Quincy High School. Oh, right. Because they're coming from all over.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Geographic Central gathering spot.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Central gathering spot. And then once there was room on Vietnam Vet's Dr. I would radio. Okay, I can take this workout. Bring in the next unit.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: I see. Okay.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: And I would greet him at the top of the hill.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: And you also gave them all Dunkin Donuts.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Dunkin Donuts, Yeah.
[00:12:40] Speaker C: Being the home for Dunkin Donuts. And we very proud of that, of course.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Welcome to Quincy heroes.
I think that was a highlight for them.
[00:12:47] Speaker C: They were so excited.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: So I would turn to Diane and she would hand me three dozen and we'd put it on their dash and say, look, they have to set up their tents first.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Then they can have. So the kids were beaming. The adults were beaming.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: I think we have a couple. Oh, the. Oh yes. The infamous bonfire.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: The infamous bonfire. So this was 120 pallets and a few two by fours.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: Thanks to troop six.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: Troop six out of the neck. Nobody can make a bonfire like A necker.
And this one's approved. And you can't quite see it, but there is a fire truck directly behind it.
Four of our friends from qfd.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Keeping us safe.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:13:24] Speaker B: So even though it was pouring rain, it didn't matter.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Not with that fire.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Not with that fire.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: It's going to take a while to put that. I think it boiled the rain, I bet. Yeah.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: But it's a memory, certainly.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Now, the participants earned badges for participating in camporee, right?
[00:13:38] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Correct. I have a couple I want to show.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: It just wouldn't be scouting without some badges. So one of those is for participating in the camporee. And then the one in your right hand is for hiking the trail.
So that's the five mile historic trail and learning. There was a little quiz afterwards. Who's buried in grandstone, that sort of thing. And then the gold version is what we call the ambassador patch. And that's for the scouts that went above and beyond, not only hiked the trail, but participated in all of the ancillary activities like the interfaith service.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: Made friends with other scouts.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Made friends with other scouts.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Was an ambassador to scouting basically at the event.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Okay, so this is really. This is more than just having fun.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: This is also educational and giving back community service.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Right?
[00:14:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:22] Speaker C: And the trail patch and the medal that you have there is something that scouts can work on outside of the event. They can come to Quincy anytime and hike the trail and they can earn that medal and the trail patch at any time.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: So it's a tourism event that continues on.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: It perpetuates itself.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: Perpetuates itself throughout the year, every year.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:40] Speaker C: The trail itself. We worked with the scouting America to actually have it be a national trail with scouting America. So any scouts that, hey, I'm coming to Boston, what's something I can do in that area? They can come see it.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Like the freedom trail. Everybody's familiar with the freedom trail now. Quincy has its own freedom trail.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Fantastic. Yeah.
You're already gearing up for the breakfast trail.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Thursday, December 3rd. I gotta make sure I got my dates right.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: That's right. Yep.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: And ticket sales are available at www.qfos.org, which in essence is the Quincy Francis Scouting. There you go. You get the great picture.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Appreciate that. It is at the terrell room. We are finalizing who the honorees are. We have two out of the three nailed down. We're just working on the third one with the mayor's office to get his approval, but we should have that shortly but in the meantime, everybody's pretty familiar with the event and the good that we do with it.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: So tickets are available already on the QFOS.org website.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: Excellent. All right, look forward to that. Anything else we should let folks know about?
[00:15:38] Speaker B: I had a quick note about some eagle projects that we've already worked on
[00:15:41] Speaker A: this year, if you don't mind. Sure.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Ella did 20 pollinator gardens in various parks around the city, so that was pretty exciting. People saw us. There's little signs for them with the little bee houses. They're not stinging bees. They're. They're mason bees or solitary bees that work on pollinating.
We just finished. Karina did three beautiful murals down on Arthur street, sort of Brewer's Corner.
Just exquisite.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: She went to elementary school in the area and really wanted to do something that would benefit the community that she grew up in.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: So they're exquisite.
Ava did the interfaith social services plant grocer program promoting that. Raised a ton of fresh produce to give to the beneficiaries and some funds that we donated. Ruyan did a beautiful resting reflection garden at the Veterans services on High School Ave.
And then recently, we also did with John, a sound booth at Quincy High School in the broadcasting program.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Very good portable Sabbath. I think it had wheels and everything,
[00:16:41] Speaker B: so they could be dismantled. They have a green room there similar to yours, and the kids needed a sound booth to do some dubbing work.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Good stuff.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: So Scouts continue to do well in the city of Quincy. Appreciate the support.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Thank you both. Great to talk to you about this. And we'll have you back, too, for the breakfast.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having us.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: We appreciate it. Thank you.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: Really appreciate it.
