Boy Scouts

Newport Beach Eagle Scout Edward Kehoe and 14 Boy Scouts from Newport’s Troop 37 are working together this weekend to remodel a playground at a local YMCA. Working Saturday and today, the scouts will landscape the playground and build a new swing set at the Central Orange Coast YMCA, 2300 University Drive. An anonymous donor paid for half of the materials the group needs to fix up the playground, but Kehoe hopes to raise an additional $1,400 to cover the rest of the project.

Noaki Schwartz Gary Adams learned his first leadership lessons from the Boy Scouts when he was 8. After his father died, Scoutmaster "Pop" Clarke's guidance gave Adams the role model he missed. Although it's been years since he was in the Scouts, as Adams sits in his sky-high office at Parsons Transportation Group, the impact it had on his life is evident -- the sentimental Adams still has plaques on his wall to remind him of that time. "It's probably one of the reasons I do what I do," Adams, 45, said, adding that it was the Scouts that gave him a sense of community involvement.

More than 18,000 Boy Scouts are expected to participate in a three-day series of events titled Scout-O-Rama, running Friday to Sunday at the Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort. About 1,000 Boy Scouts are expected to camp at the Dunes' private facility during the weekend's festivities. The series will kick off with an Eagle Scout alumni reunion to be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday. This event is open to all individuals who have earned the Eagle rank and will include dinner and presentations by Eagle Scout alumni.

Mike Stewart is a proud skipper. And rightly so. Stewart's ship is the Del Mar Sea Scout ship ? a Boy Scout troop on water ? and it's considered the most skilled in the country. In May, the Del Mar Scouts won the 2006 BoatU.S. National Sea Scout Flagship Award, a prestigious honor that's a first for this ship, one of the oldest in the area. On the Del Mar ship, young men ages 14 through 21 learn everything about sailing and the sea ? tying knots, navigation skills, rope climbing and radio communication.

A championship-winning college sailing coach with nearly 30 years of experience at sea will become the director of the Boy Scouts' Newport Sea Base, officials announced Friday. George Wood will begin as base director Feb. 1. He will fill a post that has been vacant since early August, when former sea base director Charlie Abbott was fired for undisclosed reasons after six months with the base. Wood has been head sailing coach at the College of Charleston in South Carolina since 1980, according to a statement from the Orange County Council of Boy Scouts.

Troop 746 of the Boy Scouts of America honored the largest batch of Eagle Scouts in the group’s history Tuesday night. An Eagle Scout Court of Honor named seven new Eagle Scouts at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors the troop. Only 2% of Boy Scouts are able to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout by completing a number of activities in order to qualify. The seven youths are: Geoffrey Burns, 16, Sage Hill High School; Danny Emrich, 18, University High School in Irvine; Ross Evans, 16, Corona del Mar High School; Brett Hanrahan, 18, Mater Dei High School; Tom Multari, 18, Sage Hill High; Max Voettiner, 18, Corona del Mar High; and Patrick White, 18, Corona del Mar High.

When people typically think of the Boy Scouts of America, they think of Pinewood derby cars and camping trips. But there’s another branch, and on April 17 it’s reminding the public of everything it has to offer. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Newport Sea Base, 1931 W. Coast Hwy. in Newport Beach, plans to host an opening day celebration with fun for kids and food for all. The location is home to the Boy Scouts of America’s Sea Scouts group, which participates in water-based activities.

Check out model aircraft, learn about space and talk to a real astronaut Friday at the Boy Scouts' booth at the Orange County Fair. NASA payload specialist Gene Trinh, who lives in Culver City, has been a space researcher since 1979 and flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1996. Trinh's work includes research in physical acoustics, fluid dynamics and shuttle flight experiments. He's in good company among the Boy Scouts: More than half the pilots and scientists who have worked as astronauts since 1959 have participated in the Boy Scouts in some way, according to the Orange County Council of Boy Scouts.

Stonewall Initiative for Equal Rights, a Los Angeles-based gay and lesbian rights group, is planning to stage a protest in front of the Boy Scouts of America Sea Base on Coast Highway at about noon Sunday. A Sea Base employee said Saturday that the two buildings there will be closed Sunday. "We heard there were going to be quite a few of them tomorrow protesting on the sidewalks," said employee Brenda Stewart. Organizers have said they will protest against the Boy Scouts' policies on admitting gays into the organization and against the Orange County Board of Supervisors' decision last year to extend the Scouts' lease on the Sea Base property for 30 years.

Slowly and delicately, a crane lifted the M1902U.S. Armyfield gun off its grassy resting place in Costa Mesa on Monday morning. The artillery piece had been in front of the Costa Mesa Police Department substation on West 18th Street for some 40 years, but now, for the next six to eight weeks, it will be getting restored by 16-year-old Brenden Fettis, an aspiring Eagle Scout and son of a Costa Mesa police officer. Brenden chose the restoration as his Eagle Scout project and will get help from other Boy Scouts.

The Webelos Scouts of Costa Mesa Cub Scout Pack 108 on Wednesday gave a special gift to Willard T. Jordan Park, where they meet three times a month. With the help of city staff, they planted a tree as the final requirement to earn their World Conservation Award. It's clear the environment is important to the group of eight Webelos, the highest rank in Cub Scouts. They'll all bridge to Boy Scouts in 2013. "To be good to the Earth, make sure your cup doesn't fall on the ground," Hunter Kennemer, 10, told his fellow scouts after their snack.

John Uri Crites, 85, a retired aerospace engineer, husband, father (5), grandfather (14) and great-grandfather (21) passed away peacefully at home in Newport Beach, October 5, 2011. John was born in Los Angeles, 1925 to Viola Agnes Uri and Clarence Dynes Crites. His family, older brother and lifetime best friend, Cyrus, and younger sister, Mary, moved to Oklahoma when he was 9 years old. John graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1950.  He was a loyal fraternal member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.  At an exchange with Delta Gamma he met the love of his life and wife of 61 years, Edwina Cornish.

COSTA MESA - Red, yellow and orange bell peppers were being chopped alongside iceberg lettuce. Juicy red strawberries were sliced, dainty mushrooms cut up. A stew of elk and lamb meat bubbled inside industrial-sized metal pots while steam rushed from others. Corona del Mar High School sophomore AJ Fischer, 15, worked in the middle of the active kitchen, mixing the ingredients for meatballs made from elk, venison and antelope as volunteers and kitchen staff prepared to feed hundreds.

In rebuttal to the article posted about how Costa Mesa will trap coyotes ("Costa Mesa to trap coyotes," March 3): Rather than trapping the coyotes, why not respond to the public outcry that they treat their own pets responsibly and not allow them to roam at night? We should rejoice that there's still some wildlife left in the concrete jungle that we've created for ourselves. Pets are an artificial means of surrounding ourselves with the animals that we pretend to love. If we love these animals so much, why would they be left outside in the winter cold to become prey for the wildlife that is only responding in a natural way to hunt for food left so conveniently for their sustenance?

When people typically think of the Boy Scouts of America, they think of Pinewood derby cars and camping trips. But there’s another branch, and on April 17 it’s reminding the public of everything it has to offer. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Newport Sea Base, 1931 W. Coast Hwy. in Newport Beach, plans to host an opening day celebration with fun for kids and food for all. The location is home to the Boy Scouts of America’s Sea Scouts group, which participates in water-based activities.

Newport Beach Eagle Scout Edward Kehoe and 14 Boy Scouts from Newport’s Troop 37 are working together this weekend to remodel a playground at a local YMCA. Working Saturday and today, the scouts will landscape the playground and build a new swing set at the Central Orange Coast YMCA, 2300 University Drive. An anonymous donor paid for half of the materials the group needs to fix up the playground, but Kehoe hopes to raise an additional $1,400 to cover the rest of the project.

Due to a lack of evidence, criminal investigators are not filing charges against a Newport Beach Mormon church member accused of molesting a boy in the congregation, according to prosecutors. Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police investigated Todd C. Summers, 37, of Costa Mesa, for accusations that he had carried on a sexual relationship with a boy in the church. Newport Beach police determined that any potential crimes occurred in Costa Mesa, Sgt. Evan Sailor said. Costa Mesa detectives investigated the claims and turned over their findings to prosecutors, who declined to file charges.

Nestled among sunny hills covered in sage brush, green shrubbery and cacti, the 210-acre Outdoor Education Center is hosting its first campers, just a few months from its grand opening this summer. But it was far from a foregone conclusion that the facility would open on schedule and on budget until $10 million in contributions poured in during December alone. Alarm bells started to sound when the economy began to flounder, according to Mike Harrison, who imagined the project and has been its heart and soul ever since.