We have great news for anyone and everyone involved in scouting in Williamson County! Santa Rita Ranch has been asked to sponsor a new section of the Smilin’ V Boy Scout Camp west of Liberty Hill, and we could not be more excited to help!
For those who don’t know the Smilin’ V Scout Ranch, it’s a 100-acre camp that was donated to the Boy Scouts of Williamson County, who are part of the Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts of America program. The site features a main event center and a series of pavilions, all of which have been built in the past year to make the site not only functional for scouting activities, but beautiful as well, offering ample outdoor opportunities, especially for Cub Scouts, Cub Packs, and their families.
Considerable site work has been done over the past year, but it’s not yet finished! Four pavilions have been completed, but four more still need to be built. One of our local builders has already volunteered to provide the labor if funds can be raised to purchase material for the pavilions, including the concrete foundations, and Santa Rita Ranch has volunteered to ensure that it happens!
“Santa Rita Ranch, its developer, and builders have stepped up to see that today’s Cub Scouts, their families, and other groups will have a chance to enjoy the beauty of Smilin’ V Scout Ranch,” said Ron Garland, Vice President of the Capitol Area Council Boy Scouts of America. “Their generosity in making financial gifts to the Capitol Area Council BSA will allow the council to build four pavilions at the camp.”
We’re only too happy to help. We’ve reached out to each of our builder partners to see if they would commit to contributing $9,000 in money or materials towards the construction, while we at the Ranch have already agreed to contribute $25,000 ourselves. Of course, we’ll also display recognition plaques at the pavilions for every company that helps us with donations to the Smilin’ V Ranch project to commemorate the good work they’ve done to help our community.
“These pavilions will increase the number of families utilizing the camp and allow us to plan larger events and partner with local entities for the use of the facilities,” Garland said.
Located less than an hour from Liberty Hill, the Smilin’ V Scout Ranch is situated on a gorgeous piece of countryside and offers more than 100 acres of space for family camping, corporate and community events, and scouting activities. The Scout Ranch will soon offer even more than the various pavilions. Plans include an archery and BB range, a council ring, a chapel, fishing ponds, a splash pad, and even a “wild west” Main Street area offering opportunities for everything from classroom space to STEM training.
While the Smilin’ V Scout Ranch is primarily designed for use by Scouts and their families, it also offers a variety of opportunities for the local community to camp, learn, enjoy, and take advantage of this unique location!
Current Camp Features include eight campsites spread across 91 acres of gorgeous Hill Country ranch land. Campers have access to restrooms and shower facilities, and the sites feature electricity and water. A serving kitchen next to the pavilions includes picnic seating for up to 200 people!
Obviously, we see this as a great opportunity to help out a wonderful and important youth program that benefits our city, community, and country. Santa Rita Ranch is honored to have been asked to help. So far, we’ve raised $70,250 in donations to Smilin’ V Scout Ranch from builders here at Santa Rita.
We’re so happy to be a part of such a unique and important project, and we hope that you want to be a part of it, too. You can keep up with Smilin’ V’s phase development or even reserve a campsite at BSACAC.org/activities. If you want to be in the know about amazing projects like this and keep up on everything that’s happening at Santa Rita Ranch or across our community, you can subscribe to our Ranch newsletter by filling out the short form on this page!
