Winter Garden Heritage Foundation debuts scouting exhibition

The Winter Garden Heritage Foundation debuted its new exhibition, “Trailblazers: A Look Back Over the Decades: Trails, Camping and Scouting in West Orange County,” Thursday, Aug. 7 at a special reception open to the community.

In addition to the history of local scouting, the journey through the great outdoors — located in the Winter Garden Heritage Museum — includes stories of how the area’s lakes and natural parks have shaped generations of nature enthusiasts.

Through the decades, Winter Garden has been home to anglers staying at one of the many fish camps dotting Lake Apopka, as well as winter visitors, called the Tin Can Tourists, who stayed in Trailer City.

The exhibition is sponsored by Giant Recreation World, Stage Stop Campground and Orange County Government. The foundation also hosted a back-to-school drive for local students.

Dr. John Cappleman, a former Boy Scout and scout leader with Troop 210, shared stories of his experiences through the years in a reception at Heller Hall before the crowd walked over to the museum to see the new display.

The troop, sponsored by the First United Methodist Church of Winter Garden, was established in 1937 as Troop 46 with sponsorship through the Winter Garden Rotary Club. Cappleman’s grandfather, W.F. Cappleman Sr., was a member of the scout committee.

The reorganization of the troop into Troop 210, with sponsorship by the Winter Garden Methodist church, took place in 1951. Cappleman was a boy scout from 1969 to 1973, at a time, he said, when the scoutmaster was more interested in making memories than seeing the boys through the ranks to the pinnacle rank of Eagle scout. He reached the First Class scout rank.

Scout meetings took place in the official Boyd Street scout house, a residence owned by the Methodist church.

“It was a pretty small house; it was in decent shape,” Cappleman said. “I remember we painted that house. It has old cypress siding, and it took gallons and gallons of paint. It was just sucking the paint right up. We must have used 20 gallons on this little old cypress siding house. 

“The funniest history about that scout house is that a big supporter of the scouting program was George Bailey of The Winter Garden Times,” Cappleman said. “George knew we always needed money, and he thought it would be a good idea to give us the … overruns … of the newspaper and then we could take them somewhere and get money. … The scout house got so full of newspapers — I don’t remember taking them anywhere to change them into money — but that little rickety house that soaked up so much paint actually began to tilt from all the newspapers that were stacked on one end of the house.”

Interest in the troop waned and it ceased to exist from 1988 to 1993, when Bob Karney, an Eagle scout and member of the Methodist church, resurrected it and became known as the grandfather of Troop 210. Cappleman’s two sons became Eagle scouts through the troop.

“When my oldest son got to be in scouting, I was so excited,” he said. “There’s a good theme that runs through all scouting stories and it’s who’s having more fun, the dads (and the moms) or the scouts, and who’s doing more work, the dads and moms or the scouts.”

Cappleman told of numerous experiences, including camping in south Georgia in the winter and locally at Little Lake Bryan, which is located at the south end of County Road 535. 

He also helped scouts earn their merit badges.

“Anybody can be a merit badge counselor … for your profession or just anything you’re interested in,” he said. 

Cappleman helped boys earn badges in first aid, astronomy, canoeing and home repairs.

“The one that I enjoyed the most was home repairs,” he said. “We would teach these boys how to change a lock or strengthen a door, but the best was to change the insides of the toilet. We had a sub-badge that said, ‘You’re now toilet trained.’”

In addition to achieving the Eagle rank, he said, the pinnacle is to get to go to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico that challenges participants through 11 days of hiking from 40 to 120 miles. He went three times — with his sons, Sam and Matt; another time with just Matt; and a third time as a leader of a contingent of 12 scouts.

The exhibition at the museum includes a camping pack belonging to one of Cappleman’s sons. The display will remain up at the Winter Garden Heritage Museum, 1 N. Main St., and available to the public until Sept. 30.