Converting image views to Lighbox

I've spent several hours recently going through the site and converting the emblem image views to use Lightbox, a web presentation effect that places a dark translucent screen over the web page the image is linked from and displays the image centered with a white background.


While the effect is visually appealing, there are a couple of other reasons that I chose to implement it on this site.

The prior image presentation method of using popup windows was a serious pain to manually code and many browsers and adware/spyware blockers are configured to block popup windows.


The lightbox effect includes navigation when an image is displayed. If you mouse over the image you will see "next" and "previous" links so that you can view other images in a series (you can also use the "n" and "p" keys on your keyboard to accomplish this).

For example, you can go to the Kecoughtan Chenilles page, click on the link to the C1 emblem, and then proceed to view all of the other Kecoughtan chenilles by just pressing the "n" key on your keyboard while the lightbox effect is active.

I held off on a mass conversion of the site to lightbox until I could verify that the effect works without issues when browsing images from an Apple iPhone. I was mighty relieved when I saw it works fine on the iPhone's Safari browser since I was not at all eager to go back to popups or research another display solution. When I get a chance I will take some photos of Kecoughtan patch images from this site displayed on the beautiful iPhone LCD screen and post them to this blog.

New Bayport Scout Reservation patches

Colonial Virginia Council showcased Bayport Scout Reservation, their new Scout camp in Middlesex County with a grand opening council-wide Camporee on May 18-20, 2007. The Camp replaces the 40 year old Camp Chickahominy, which was sold by the Council to US Homes Corporation in 2004 due to encroaching development around it. With an estimated attendance of 1,700 the Camporee is believed to be the highest attended event in the Council's history. Tim Ewing kindly sent along an image of the patch that was issued for the occasion which was appropriately themed "The Adventure Begins." The patch notably does not include any text reference to Bayport but the design features a tower emblazoned with icons of activities available at the new camp.


While the May Camporee was the first council activity at the new camp, Wahunsenakah Lodge has already held their 2006 Summer Ordeal and 2006 Fall Fellowship at Bayport, pitching in plenty of cheerful service to help get the new camp ready. Reports about both events are available in the online archives of the Lodge's newsletter, Duck Calls.

Larry Johnson kindly sent along pictures of several new patches for inclusion on the web site, including a commemorative shoulder patch issued by the council, as well as several variations of the diamond-shaped camp patch. You can find the camp patches included in the new Bayport section of the Colonial Virginia Council Camps page.

New community strip images

Before colorful Council Shoulder Patches (CSP's) made their way onto the scene in the early 1970's, Scouts wore Community and State strips on their left shoulder to identify the home of their troop. The strips were made of red twill with white lettering which is why they are also known as RWS patches. These were originally lettered in red on dark khaki decades ago, and can sometimes be found on old uniforms unearthed from the attic or basement.


Recently I was provided images of an old Newport News KRS and a Fort Monroe RWS to add to the Peninsula Council Community Strips page. If you have knowledge of other community strips from troops that were in Peninsula Council, please let me know so that I may add them to the list. If you can provide pictures that's even better!

2007 SR-7A Conclave images added

Way back in May Tim Ewing sent me a picture of the new Wahunsenakah Lodge flap issued for the 2007 SR-7A Conclave that was held April 27-29 at Pipsico Scout Reservation. Larry Johnson sent also me pictures of the Conclave patches, Vigil rededication tokens, and hatpin. For some reason I prepared the pictures and uploaded them to my server but completely forgot to link them from the appropriate pages. So today I added links on the SR-7A page to the 2007 Conclave items, and added the Conclave flap to the Wahunsenakah Lodge 333 page.

July 1993 Kryer added to online archive

Tim Ewing kindly supplied me with a scanned version of the July, 1993 edition of the Kecoughtan Kryer, which I have converted to PDF and added to the online archive.

This edition is particularly interesting as it reports on the final SE-8 conclave hosted by Tutelo Lodge in April of 1993 at Camp Powhatan before the section was dissolved as part of the national realignment of OA lodges into four regions. This newsletter also reports about the very first Conclave of Kecoughtan's new Section SR-7, hosted by Occonneechee Lodge 104 at Camp Durant near Raleigh, NC on the same weekend. Kecoughtan sent delegations to both events.

Note: According to the History of Itibapishe Iti Hollo #188, the 1993 Conclave at Camp Durant was in fact the last SE-7 event:

In April of 1993, Itibap attended the last SE7 Old North State Conclave hosted by Occoneechee Lodge 104. Following that weekend, the section was redrawn to include four new lodges from Virginia. The section is now named SR7 because of the new Southern Region.

This Kryer also includes two high-quality photo pages that include identifying captions for the Arrowmen that are featured in the pictures. One photo shows then Lodge Chief Dan Raymond serving breakfast to the two "tooth docs," Ron Godby and Barry Green, who purchased his services in an auction the night before.

The SE-8 conclave report mentions that attendees to the final section event were given an SE-8 chenille patch. I'm working to gather more information about this patch for a future article on this web site.