Award of Merit

Tonight was the Bird Haven District's Annual Awards Dinner.

I received a fun phone call about a week ago and was informed that Nate would be receiving the District's Award of Merit tonight. I was told to keep it a secret. I am surprised that Nate didn't figure it out when I said that the whole family would be going. 

The presenter for Nate was Kay Kraus, she is the mother to one of Nate's Order of the Arrow boys, she is on the District Recognition committee and she works at Camp Fife in the summers among other things. She had a wonderful write up about him. The presenters read it without the audience knowing who they are reading about. It was fun to watch Nate's face as she read about him and seeing the realization it was him dawn on him. As Kay read about him and his influence on the boys she choked up a bit. She has thanked Nate previously about his influence he has had on her son, Spencer. It was a wonderful night. Below is the wonderful presentation they had about him. 

BIRD HAVEN DISTRICT AWARD OF MERIT

Nathaniel Mills

This person has been an adult leader in scouting for over eight years and in that time he has touched many lives. He has attended NYLT as a youth and Wood Badge as a leader, for which he recently earned his beads. He has also earned the Den Leader award, and the Cub Scouter award. He has held various positions in scouting including Assistant Team Coach, Pack Committee Chair,

Pack Trainer, Wolf Den Leader, Webelos Den Leader, Order of the Arrow Associate Advisor, District Trainer, and District Training Chairman. This past year he was able to go to the National Jamboree in West Virginia with his son while serving on the National Jamboree staff.

(Nate and Ron Bingham)

He has made a huge impact on all the young men that he has worked with in his pack and in the Order of the Arrow. In the OA, he has driven himself and the young men to OA events all over including those in Wyoming and Delta, Utah. He has been a mentor to many of these young men and he is an example to them of someone who lives the scout law. He always has a positive attitude in all that he does.

Also, this person is actively involved in service in the community. For the past six years, he has helped with the community project to clean irrigation ditches. For the past four years, he has been a peer counselor for Cancer survivors. He is active in his children's school and he is on the Parents Crew of Service for Venture Academy.

He is an active member of his church and has served in many callings including Elder's Quorum President, Teacher's Quorum Advisor, primary teacher, Gospel Doctrine Teacher and Sunday School President. He served a mission for his church to Taiwan and his Chinese is Excellent! He is the father of two daughters and two sons.

Bird Haven District is pleased to present Nathaniel Mills with the District Award of Merit and recognize his wife Ronda.

I don't even know where they got all of that information on him. They didn't ask me any questions about him. 

It was such a wonderful night and so fun to see Nate's surprise and delight at receiving the award. So proud of him and all of the hard work he does in Scouting.