Scout Trips

Local Scouts from Troop 223 Share Their Experiences on Recent Good Turn and Career Trips

Marcus McCannel

The Falcon Patrol of Troop 223 had a Good Turn Trip dedicated to spreading positivity in our community on Sunday, November 10, with the HangOutDoGood group. The day began at my house, where we gathered, ready to donate our time and energy to those in need.

We started the project by spending the first 20 minutes decorating 50 lunch bags. On each bag, we drew positive messages and cheerful drawings to brighten the days of those receiving the lunches. Then, we split up, making 50 PB&J sandwiches and packing them with water and other food, like cookies, a granola bar, and chips.

Once our preparation was complete, we packed the lunches into our cars and drove to the designated drop-off location, where we added it to the growing pile of lunch donations those in the community provided.

This Good Turn Trip not only allowed us to provide meals to those in need but also strengthen the bond in our patrol. It was amazing to see everyone come together, focusing on service and helping the community.

We look forward to more opportunities like this, that show even small acts of kindness can make a big difference.

August Brancato

For the Troop 223 Bruins Patrol Career Trip, we visited the NFL offices with Mr. Andrew Uhm who is the director of engineering in the Next Gen Stats division of the NFL.

We toured the dynamic headquarters, with some incredible views of the NFL offices and SoFi Stadium. We saw the news studios, the podcasting rooms and the conference rooms where many famous athletes and coaches have been interviewed.

We learned about the purpose of Next Gen Stats and the colossal amount of data they gather from wearable technology. Next Gen Stats gathers this intelligence from RFID transmitters (built by Zebra Technologies) that are placed in the players’ pads, the footballs, the end zones and the yard markers, and how Next Gen Stats organizes the data that the transmitters provide.

They can use the data gathered to make charts upon charts of player statistics, team statistics and even game statistics. This information provides a more exciting and in-depth NFL experience.

We viewed some playthroughs from recent games and noticed how each of the transmitters are programmed to follow their specific player on the field. We saw how the transmitter embedded in the football clearly showed where the football was on the field and its relationship to each player on the field.

We heard a story about early days of the transmitters where the frequencies they were using to transmit information from a game at SoFi was the same frequency that police choppers were using to survey the area—it disrupted the Next Gen Stats information stream! Luckily, the NFL quickly made a compromise with the sheriff’s department.

We as a patrol learned about many career opportunities in the NFL and realized how fun it could be working there. We admired how incredible it was that such a huge and influential company does all these things just in our backyard.

The Bruins Patrol includes: August Brancato (patrol leader), Rowan Woodruff, Lincoln McCannel, Leo Holmes and Leo Huang.

Maxton Flaherty

On November 16, the Kahunas Patrol went to the VA to help rebuild the Japanese Garden built by Japanese American veterans after WWII.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the famed Japanese Garden of the VA was not maintained. It served as a place for many veterans to heal; it was a staple of the veteran community. Being left unmaintained, it was subject to overgrowth.

As a patrol we helped clear lots of overgrown plants from the garden, further beautifying it.

Lauren Whiteley

For the Foxes Patrol Career Trip, we visited the Lexus dealership in Santa Monica where we learned about selling cars and how to connect to a customer.

We first learned about what a day was like for General Manager Matt Unger and Product Specialist Golnaz “Naz” Mojtahedi. They told us how it can be exciting meeting new people. They also enjoy when customers can be a challenge, it’s more fun and a good experience for them.

Naz said she spends a lot of time connecting with her customers. She said that it is important to keep in touch with her customers even after the purchase. If you treat the customer right and have a good time selling the car to them, it’s a nice memory for the seller and you.

The last thing we talked about was how to sell to the customer. Pitching a product is easy, but in order to get the sale, you need to listen to the customer’s needs and understand how your product will address them. Matt said it is always important to give the customer good service and a great time.

Overall this experience was great! We even got some delicious cookies in the end. Thank you, Matt Unger and Golnaz Mojtahedi.

For more information about Troop 223, visit troop-223.org.