On June 19, 2010 a contingent of Mountain men arrived at camp Nobe to pay tribute to our long time friend Lee Weems. Since the Paul Banyan Area had been a long time project for Lee it was only appropriate that we recognize his life and his contributions to Scouting in Iaoapogh Mountains District,

Lee took on this twenty year project when he was Scout Master for T-Troop, seeing that the condition of the campsite was rustic he adopted it as his own . During this span of time Lee would organize a group of Mountain men to volunteer a weekend for site improvements. Now Lee would not just come up to work there had to be some fun included. He arranged for dinner at the Wallenpaupac Inn on Friday evenings. The idea was to get the volunteers up early so they could put in a full days work on Saturday. Now Lee was a Scot and was known to imbibe in a wee bit, which came after dinner. There were stories jokes and a good time had by all. The designated driver transported everyone back to camp at dark o thirty, so the volunteers were up bright and early but not so bushy tailed.

Over the years the improvements made to the campsite were: 30 tent platforms and their maintenance and repair, a Scoutmaster's Tent platform Two assistant Scoutmaster platforms, Stone for drainage to reduce the amount of mud during rainy periods, fire pit seating, three sets of Picnic tables and seating (one is 18 feet long), A Scout masters tent (big), a dozen Adirondack chairs, a canopy for the big table so the boys would have cover for eating or gabbing. and a 20x30 pavilion for rainy days. While there was nothing to do he created three storage boxes to for the Adults to hold beverages and keep them cold and a plaque for everything we built to honor those Ramapo Scouter's that are with the great Scoutmaster. In addition to organizing getting the projects completed, Lee was a phenomenal fund raiser, securing over thirty thousand dollars for materials. Now Lee and associates ran the Chili Dog and Road Kill cafes at scouting events and they are a fixture at the iditarod, but that's a lot of hot dogs, hamburgers and hot cocoa to raise that type of cash,. Lee had a cadre of givers he would contact each year to raise more funds for his projects.

Lee was not just happy to build, each year he would have maintenance projects to keep the site in top shape. Each year as part of the weekend project we would do a general clean up of the site, remove trees that were at risk and seal the platforms. Even though he has left us the tradition continues and a flag pole was raised in his memory.

This is only a small testament to Lee's life, in 88 years he has touch a lot of hearts and minds. He was a quiet man, never looked for recognition for all he did, enjoyed a good laugh and enjoyed the smell of wood smoke and the outdoors. My vision of where he is now is sitting around a campfire with the Bear, Herb, Steady Eddy, Al and George telling tales, bantering, joking and passing around a hip flask of Weems' Elixir (single Malt).

We all miss your smile, the wink of your eye but remeber how you gave our lives meaning