Mother’s Day Scout style

Bryce Alderton

Together, Mothers and sons chomped on eggs, french toast, fruit salad

and other enticing fare.

Sitting alongside other family members, Boy Scouts from the Orange

County Council of the Boy Scouts of America and their mothers enjoyed a

Mother’s Day brunch to close out the Scout-O-Rama, a weekend event

honoring the Boy Scouts of America, at the Newport Dunes Waterfront

Resort in Newport Beach.

The Lodeen family, from Trabuco Canyon, sat together enjoying a

late-morning meal.

Kevin Lodeen, leads the den for his 9-year-old son Jake, a member of

Pack 717 in Trabuco Canyon.

Wearing the khaki uniform of a second-year Webelo, Jake sat smiling as

he poured some more syrup on top of his french toast.

His favorite part of the weekend was when he made orange eggs on

Saturday, he said.

Scouts cut oranges in half, pulled out the pulp, cracked an egg into

the peel and heated the egg in the peel over a charcoal fire, said Kevin

Lodeen.

“I got all sticky,” Jake said.

His mother, Joy Lodeen, couldn’t have been more proud of her son this

mother’s day. In this third year of scouts, she hopes he takes after his

grandfather -- her father 67-year-old Lawrie Honens who was Eagle Scouts.

“I think it’s even more cool for my dad to see [Jake],” Joy Lodeen

said.

This year’s Scout-O-Rama drew about 25,000 spectators and scouts to

the Dunes on Saturday, and about 150 families attended the mothers day

breakfast on Sunday, said Cristin Poda, director of development for the

Orange County scouts and coordinator of the Mother’s Day celebration.

Scout-O-Rama, which celebrates the 92-year-old organization, began

Friday with an Eagle Scout alumni reunion. Saturday was filled with

events such as canoe racing, climbing walls, making ropes, running

obstacle courses and cooking. The weekend finale was Sunday’s Mother’s

Day brunch.

“It’s a recognition to mothers for all they do for their kids,” Poda

said, of the brunch. “To pay tribute to moms and say, ‘Happy Mother’s

Day.”

Scouts received commemorative corsages to give to their mothers.

One mother of three Eagle Scouts, Fullerton resident Robyn Mathy,

proudly wore “rag-rags,” pins each of her son’s earned going through Boy

Scouts, she said.

“I’m very proud,” Mathy said, speaking of her 23, 21 and 20-year-old

sons.

Her oldest son, Jeff, called her this morning from 12,000 feet on

Mount Everest, which he started climbing on March 29, an eight to 10-week

trek to the top, Mathy said.

Her son has successfully climbed the tallest peaks on Africa,

Australia, Antarctica, South America and North America, she said and is

trying to climb the tallest peaks on all seven continents.

While not every scout aspires to such feats, Brea resident and Star

Scout Frank Madrid, 72 said he feels the organization is an important one

for his 14-year-old grandson Troy Vander Hulst, who belongs to Troop 811

in Brea.

“I’m proud he’s staying with it,” Madrid said. “I still have my old

Scout uniform. Scouting is very motivating.”

* Bryce Alderton is the news assistant. He may be reached at (949)

574-4298 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .