Every year between Christmas and New Year’s Day, we head out to Camp Trevor Rees-Jones (aka Cherokee) for Winter Camp. Click on the picture to see some of what we did.
The troop went back to Tyler State Park for a trail-biking weekend in September. Click HERE for more pictures of the bike trip. October was the Camporee out at Clements Scout Ranch.
Service projects included picking up trash on our adopted highway near the Fisheries Center and assisting the VFW with placing flags on the graves of veterans at Athens City Cemetery for Veteran’s Day. Next major event will be Winter Camp – a 4-day campout over Christmas break.
We’ll kick off the new year with an ice-cream social on Monday! Meet new scouts. Share summer stories. Plan a new year and make it a good one!
PLC will be on Tuesday night this month so we have a chance to include the boys who are in band and cannot come to Monday meetings during marching season. Future schedule will be planned Tuesday night.
Troop 343 lost a true friend and long time supporter this week with the passing of Thomas P. Faulk, III.
This writer’s earliest memory of Tommy was in 1990 when our first son joined the troop. Tommy was already an entrenched leader by then, already handling troop finances and seeing to it that no boy missed a summer camp or a chance to attend Philmont for lack of money. While we didn’t always have much in the treasury, there was never a real need that wasn’t met, somehow. Tommy’s sons, Thomas IV and Jim Ben, both earned Eagle Scout honors through Troop 343, and at that time most parent volunteers step back from scouting and move to other things. Not so for Tommy. He continued to serve on the troop committee as treasurer and for the last several years as liason with our sponsoring organization, First United Methodist Church.
The scout lodge we now proudly call home exists primarily because of the single-minded, consistent vision of this wonderful man. While many great local friends of the troop donated time, materials and funding, it all came together over a period of more than 20 years, due to the vision of this man.
Many people around Athens, and indeed around Texas, will speak of how much Tommy was loved and respected by those he met in his many endeavors. I’ll speak for how much he has been a part of the lives of so many boys, and their parents and families, as he worked tirelessly to promote and represent Scouting in our area. We can never thank him enough. He is forever loved and will long be missed.
First pictures are in from Summer Camp. Thanks, Penny! When others are received, they’ll be added to the show.
![]() |
| Summer Camp 2011 |
Here are the first pictures to come in. Hopefully a few more will be added as we have a chance to share. Click on the picture to go to our online album. Look for the Slideshow link at the upper left. You can set the length of time each slide will be shown by clicking at the bottom of the screen. Hopefully, summer camp photos will be available soon.
![]() |
| Philmont 2011 slide show |
Our Philmont crew is off the trail and headed home today. The summer campers came in last Sunday. We’ll get pictures posted as quickly as we can. Have a great summer and check back often for updates!
There is now a troop leadership position of Troop Webmaster.
Whoever holds that position will be responsible for updating this page.
Check back often to see what we’re doing in Troop 343!