Thank you

Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to take this time to say it was both my honor and privilege to have served as Scoutmaster for Troop 45 for the last 5 years. I first want to thank each and everyone of you for entrusting your son with us, and that you continued to bring them back to meetings, campouts, merit badge events, and fundraising events. It means so much to me that you allowed me to be a part of their growth from boys to fine young men who will go out into the world and accomplish great things. I also want to thank Chuck Crouch, Jeff Woodfin for seeking me out and bestowing the honor of serving in this role. To Bill Taylor who made it easy to lead as he never said no to an adventure and kept the board apprised of our great many trips. I also want to thank each and every board member and Assistant Scoutmaster who helped along the way, if it were not for them, we could never have accomplished so much. The countless hours of sacrifice they made to make every trip and event a success. These men and women who always said yes to serving and giving back are the backbone of Troop 45. I will always look back at my time as scoutmaster with great fondness and thankfulness for the time I spent with these men and women and our scouts. They have brought great joy to my life over the past five years and will continue to do so as I have made everlasting friendships and bonds. There are so many stories I could tell of our boys’ growth and the growth of our leaders that I could tell, but I am limited to this email. I also want to thank Jason Bouldin and Jamie Copelin for being my rock in the trying times, I could always lean on them for just one more thing. These two embolden the spirit of the Scout Oath and Law in every which way. It was these two I relied on at dwindling hours of the nights and mornings trying to find new ways to inspire the boys to realize their goals and achieve them. I also want to thank Nathan Crouch for taking on the undaunting task of stepping in as the new Scoutmaster to continue these boys journeys to excellence. Lastly, I want to thank the boys themselves. I want to thank them for stepping up to each and every challenge I laid out before them, even in our failures we created stories of overcoming obstacles and a relentless passion to never quit. The boys who took on the roles of leadership know just how demanding I was of them and not one of them backed down from these demands and took them on as challenges they would face together and succeed together. I’m not sure who learned more from each other, the boys or me. Every moment I spent with them I learned more and more, and I will cherish these moments for the rest of my days. Each and everyone of these scouts whether they were eagled or not were very special to me. I hope one day they realize just how thankful I am of them. I look forward to my new role with the troop as a committee member and continuing leading them on High Adventure trips across the United States.
From a truly grateful heart and as the final time as your Scoutmaster of Troop 45, I send this last email out to you. Thank you Benjamin D. Stepp Scoutmaster