We arrived at the Alaska Rock Gym just after 8:00 pm on Saturday, April 23, and started climbing in the bouldering area, and if you were 14 years or older, you had the opportunity to be belay trained.  We worked on the fundamentals of belaying, and then we were briefed on the rules and given instructions.  Once the initial talk was complete, we grabbed our climbing shoes and started climbing

Around 11 pm, the second year scouts arranged a "sharks and minnows" game, but after about 20 minutes of playing time, Mr. Strickland shut down the game, and told us to stop playing.  I think some of the boys didn't go to bed until about 3 or 4 am.  I felt sorry for a couple of the adult chaperones who probably wanted to be in bed, sleeping long before that time. 

Around 11:30 pm the adults brought out the first round of food, which was hot dogs, chips, and gatorade, and the around 1 am, we had crackers, cheese, salami, and pepperoni.  If you like food, this is a good event to attend.

The next morning we woke up about 6-6:30 am, and started getting our stuff packed and ready for the trip home. I think that one of the highlights of the event, in addition to the climbing, was the breakfast we had in the morning.  Mr. Estes made, from scratch, biscuits and gravy with sausage patties for breakfast.  After breakfast we went over to the corner of the two climbing walls and two boys climb the rock wall and held the troop flag while we took the troop picture.

Approximately 18 scouts and seven adults worked two hour shifts at Fred Meyers on Saturday, April 16th, gathering food for the Alaska Food Bank.  From 10 am to 4 pm, the scouts of troop 219 stood in front of the entrances of Fred Meyer's encouraging patrons to donate food to the Food Bank of Alaska. In total, we gathered 2,675 pound of food and $889 in cash donations.  I thought the highlight of the service project was when one gentleman donated $200, and a lady donated almost an entire grocery cart of food.  It is amazing how generous the people of Eagle River are.  I feel we learned from this service project that a little help from a needy family goes a long way. 

Troop 219 swept the parking lot of Joy Lutheran Church on Sunday, April 10, 2016.  To show our appreciation to our host church we sweep the parking lot clean of all gravel and debris every spring.  For this service project we had about 30 scouts and 8 adults help with the work.  It took about two hours to complete the work, and when we finished, we were given popsicles and ice cream sandwiches for a job well done.  From sweeping the parking lot every spring, we have learned that it feels good to give back to those that help you.