Troop 7 is scout-led: the patrol plans the menu, cooks the breakfast, and pitches the camp. Scouts can be dropped off; adults are there to guide, keep everyone safe, and encourage each scout’s independence. Merit badges, ranks, and the long road to Eagle start here, in the clearing where the troop has met for a century.
A century of scouts have climbed this trail. Two minutes, and you will see why.
Troop 7 was founded in 1922, before Coral Gables was even officially incorporated. The scouts' first cabin was built from the telephone poles the 1926 hurricane brought down; when it burned in 1971, scouts and neighbors built the Scout House back by hand. Each rank is a step up a trail that generations of Coral Gables scouts have climbed, and it shapes them the same way: practical, steady, used to leading.
At the scout's own pace. Every rank adds a skill they will use for life, and every one is signed off by an adult who watched them do it.
What it builds. The Scout Oath and Law, the patrol, the first knots. A scout learns what the troop expects, and what it promises in return.
Why families love it. A clear set of values your child agrees to out loud, every week, among friends.
What it builds. A night in a tent they pitched, a meal they helped cook, first aid for the scrapes of a real trip, and an hour of service.
Why families love it. Independence with a safety net: two trained adults at everything, and older scouts teaching younger ones.
What it builds. Map and compass, a fire built and put out properly, safe swimming, and citizenship beyond the clearing.
Why families love it. Practical competence that most adults never learn, earned before high school.
What it builds. Plans the patrol's menu, budgets and shops for it, lashes a camp gadget, swims, navigates, and brings a friend into Scouting.
Why families love it. A scout who can lead a camp is a scout who can lead a group project, a team or a club.
What it builds. Merit badges in subjects they choose, service hours, and a real position in the troop for months at a time.
Why families love it. Leadership practiced for real, with real people depending on them. It shows on every application that follows.
What it builds. More merit badges, service with a conservation side, a leadership role held for six months, and teaching younger scouts.
Why families love it. The habits of a mentor: patience, explanation, responsibility for someone else's success.
The highest rank in Scouting, and the one that lasts a lifetime.
The road is long, so the troop plans it with each scout: the app counts back from the 18th birthday and shows what comes next.
Opening exercises beside the chimney, then patrols: skills, planning the next trip, a game. Parents can watch from the patio.
Most months: Camp Sawyer in the Keys, the Everglades, the hills further north. Two registered adults are present at everything.
Scout to Eagle on the scout's own pace. The Scout House keeps a flag that every Eagle since 1976 has signed.
ScoutTenderfootSecond ClassFirst ClassStarLifeEagleTwo weekends a year from each family keeps the rota of drivers, campers and boards of review running.
Modest, and mostly paid once a year.
Why a Scout House fee? Few units anywhere have a home of their own. Ours has stood in Merrick's clearing since scouts, families and friends rebuilt it by hand in 1976, beside the coral-rock chimney of the first cabin. We are lucky, and honored, to keep it, and the Scout House fee goes to its upkeep.
A leader will go through dues and trip costs with you before you commit. A uniform and handbook are bought once. If cost is a concern, tell the leader when they call; they will talk it through with you. Children of active-duty, Reserve and National Guard members can have the Scouting America joining fee waived.
Scouts BSA at Scouting America: see “How much does it cost to be a Scout?”
Fill out the form and join today. A Troop 7 leader will call or text within a couple of days, or just come by on Wednesday and say hello.