As a kid, Wes Metheney helped clear brush at Camp Mountaineer, when the 1,000-acre Boy Scout camp was taking form in the woods off Grafton Road, near Morgantown.
“I grew up in the country,” said Metheney, who is now an attorney with his own firm in the University City.
“We didn’t have Little League baseball or Pop Warner football,” he said, “but we had scouting, which I’m really grateful for.”
Come Sunday, Metheney, who earned enough badges to become an Eagle Scout as a teenager, gets to share billing with Camp Mountaineer.
Metheney’s firm is sponsoring the 70th staff reunion at the camp, which has been home to Scouts from the Mountaineer Council since its dedication in June 1954.
Said council takes in troops in north-central West Virginia, including those from Barbour, Doddridge, Gilmer, Harrison, Lewis, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Randolph, Taylor, Tucker and Upshur counties.
Meanwhile, festivities at the camp run from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Metheney said.
“It’s a chance for everyone to get together and see all the changes,” he said.
Changes, he added, that just warrant their own merit badge for resourceful renovation.
He can tell you all about changes at Camp Mountaineer.
Metheney was a Webelos Scout when he and his troop started trekking to the camp in 1956, two years after it opened.
He was still in elementary school when he earned that rank, which is a gateway to the Boy Scouts.
“Lots of woods up there, but not much of anything else,” he said, recalling those days at Camp Mountaineer. “Now we have everything you’d want or need.”
There are cabins, a zip line, a trading post, pavilions and more — including that 60-foot climbing and rappelling tower that rises over the expanse like a wooden Saturn rocket on Launch Pad 39-A at Cape Canaveral.
“I might be able to make it up the third rung,” Metheney said with a chuckle, as he discussed the latter.
“But I can repel down really fast.”
His years in scouting went by briskly also, he said.
He graduated from WVU in 1968 and left the Mountain State for a few years, but he came back to Morgantown and decided to go to law school. He’s been here ever since.
Scouting, he never left.
In 2015, in fact, he was recognized with the rank of Distinguished Eagle Scout for his career success and continued advocacy of scouting over the years.
As the veteran lawyer said, the verdict has long been in.
“For me, scouting has always been about the values and the life-lessons,” he said.
“Any successes I’ve had in life, I can trace back to scouting.”
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