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Troop gains fame in pages of Scout books
By Derek Hodges
Boy Scouts from across the nation are getting to know several local residents as they learn how to canoe and explore the great outdoors.
Five Jackson County Scouts, Nick Savell, Joey Maldonado, J.D. Large, Rady Large and Bryon Houghton, all members or former members of Cullowhee’s Troop 914, are featured in the Boy Scouts of America’s newly revised Fieldbook and canoeing merit badge book.
The boys are shown demonstrating some of the basics of canoeing, including how to free a boat trapped on an obstacle, how to travel safely downstream if a canoe capsizes and how to paddle correctly.
Sam Fowlkes and Boy Scouts of America Troop 914 of Cullowhee were recently part of two scouting publications. Fowlkes helped with a rewrite of the BSA’s canoeing merit badge book, which he is shown holding, while pictures of the boys were featured in the book and in the newly revised BSA Fieldbook. The troop’s canoeing program was also the subject of a cover story for Scouting magazine in 1992, seen in the frame behind Fowlkes. – Herald photo by Derek Hodges
They are included in the books because of troop leader Sam Fowlkes’ involvement with the revision of the canoeing book.
Fowlkes who lives on the Tuckaseigee River near Dillsboro, has served as a leader in various capacities with the troop for 20 years.
In addition to his duties with the Scouts, Fowlkes has also served in several leadership roles with the American Canoe Association, runs his own business taking boaters on guided trips on area rivers and has taught at several colleges, including Western Carolina University.
It was Fowlkes’ experience with the ACA and the program he started to get local Scouts out canoeing that led Scouting officials to ask him to help with the rewrite of the book on canoeing.
In 1990, Fowlkes directed a fund-raising campaign that netted the troop enough money to buy a fleet of canoes. The money was donated by private citizens and businesses. The scouts told local entrepenuers that they would put the name of each contributing business on the side of the boats. With canoes on hand, the scouts had a new problem: How could they get the boats to water?
One Scoutmaster answered that question by donating a trailer to haul the boats.
Fowlkes then started a program to get the boys out in them.
He began by training the Scouts how to manage the boats on the still waters of Cedar Cliff Lake. Then he graduated them to moving water on the Tuckaseigee. Next came the whitewater of the Nantahala and Chatooga rivers.
When Scouts get old enough, they are allowed to teach the younger kids the same lessons they were learning a short time ago. That’s the principle Fowlkes used in selecting who would be photographed for the Scouting books.
“All the photographs from our group are technically accurate, good pictures,” Fowlkes said.
The canoeing book is used by about 50,000 Scouts each year in earning the merit badge, which makes it the second-most popular of all the courses.
Fowlkes worked on several chapters, and was solely responsible for the rewrite of the chapter titled “Paddling a Canoe.”
In addition, the boys’ pictures, all of which were taken on the Tuckaseigee, were featured throughout the book and the Fieldbook, which is a guide Scouts use to help them manage when they are in the wilderness.
The troop’s program was also featured in a cover story in a 1992 issue of Scouting magazine.
“I was happy for the boys to get the recognition,” Fowlkes said. “We’re lucky we live where we do. This is one of the most suitable areas for outdoor programs. A lot of troops in cities would love to be where we are.”
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