What our Whistlers are Doing and Going

Boy Scout Troop 177 from Washburn, Maine is going to the National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia for the National Jamboree. There will be sixteen youths and 10 adults attending this year. I made their Jamboree shirts for them and they were looking for items to take that they could swap with the other scouts. My wife Nadiene thought that a crisis whistle was the perfect item, so she assembled a big bag full and sent them along for the boys to make friends with. I suggested to Larry Harrison, the scout master that he should keep one whistle for himself, so he could get the troop back together again at the end of the day.

The girl scouts have been practicing on their whistles since their visit last winter and recently performed in the World Band that was part of the International Food Festival at Northern Maine Community College. Their leader, Penny Kern remarked that she was enjoying playing her whistle as much as the girls were and they are making plans to continue with their project.

The local winners in the Soap Box Derby and the other regions in Maine are leaving for Akron, Ohio for the Nationals. Lynn Brabant and her son Luke came by to get the special shirts for the hundred plus folks who are going to the event. Luke needed something to "throw at the crowd" when the Derby kids parade through town, so we made another bag of crisis whistles and now he will have something special to swap and toss to the crowds during the event.

We have received many reports back from the recipients of whistles. Last season, I included one in every eBay whistle that we sold and donated over 1500 of them for fund raisers, auctions and customers and friends that dropped by. One lady remarked that her horse threw her into a patch of red alder bushes and she couldn't get out of them on her own. The horse came home empty, but when people came looking for her, they couldn't see her down over a bank and hung up in the brush. The crisis whistle got their attention in a hurry and help was on the way.

My wife came back from the Post Office one afternoon last winter and remarked she was glad she had a whistle on her purse. The Post Office parking area was busy, but no one paid any attention when she started to open her car door and get in and a drunken man attempted to force his way into the vehicle. She blew a loud burst on the crisis whistle and it startled the man enough for her to gain entry into the car and another blast from the whistle brought help. A local policeman was summoned and the man was taken into custody. This incident happened directly across from the police station. Posted by The WhistleSmith at July 19, 2005 11:50 AM | TrackBack