September 12–14, Troop 478 spent the weekend at Camp Strake for Full Throttle -- a Sam Houston Area Council event that gives Scouts a half-day of merit badge work they chose for themselves and a half-day of open program at one of the best Scout camps in the region. No assigned curriculum. No mandatory badge. Just Scouts making their own choices and doing the work.

On September 7th, Troop 478 held its fall Court of Honor, recognizing two new Eagle Scouts and one of the largest merit badge slates the troop has seen -- the result of a summer at Kia Kima Scout Camp in Arkansas and Scouts who kept working on their own time. Twenty-eight Scouts were recognized. The work they did over the summer showed up all at once, in one room, on one evening.