The Silver Certificate by Sarah

Written in November

Last Saturday, after waiting for three painfully long weeks, I received the Silver Certificate for the Congressional Award. The Silver Certificate is the second of six awards given when you have set and completed goals in four different areas. The four different areas are: personal development, voluntary service, physical fitness, and exploration or expedition. For each level you set new goals and put in a certain amount of hours. For the physical fitness goal I trained to run a 10k in less than 60 minutes. On June 14th I successfully reached my goal with a time of 58:14. For the voluntary service I volunteered at the Ooltewah Collegedale library. For the personal development I attended a girls' Civil War camp where I sewed a Civil War era skirt, petticoat, hoopskirt, and slat bonnet. I learned several Civil War period dances. It was a lot of fun. For the Expedition I got to wear my Civil War clothes and assist in the dance exhibition for the 145th anniversary Battle of Chickamauga Reenactment in Chattanooga.

Hiking by Sarah

The Zeglens have posted!!!!!!!!! Gasps are heard around the world.

This past month Susie, Mary, and Mom accompanied Sarah in doing three separate six to eight hour hikes at the Chickamauga Battlefield. Yes, by the time we got to the last hike we were ready for them to be done. For the first hike we started out at 1:30 on a lovely Friday afternoon. In order to do six hours we had to hike until 7:30. It got dark around 6:00, so we were going to have to hike an hour and a half in the dark. We had counted on it getting dark so we were well prepared with flashlights, pepper spray, whistles, and a very excited Susie. (She was looking forward to hiking in the dark.) Unfortunately we were not totally prepared for the creepiness of walking on a deserted battlefield in the dark. It was not a very pleasant feeling, and I am never planning on hiking in the dark again. On the second hike we got to use a compass which was very exciting until we got lost within the first 15 minutes. Eventually we got our bearings and successfully finished the hike without any more incidents. On the last hike Mom came with us for the last two hours. She was fully equipped with her hot coffee and her very important toilet paper. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was carrying the roll of toilet paper when she waved to some (amused) people walking by. After that she decided to put the toilet paper somewhere less obvious. The hikes were very fun and exciting and the Zeglen girls now know every rock, trail, and monument at the Chickamauga Battlefield.

Here is a sampling of the many pictures taken by Mary

The great map debates