Troop 131,
I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Just a reminder, we will not have a meeting on Monday due to the 4th of July Holiday. Our next troop meeting is on Monday July 11th.
Note, we will be moving to summer hours on the 11th, so the meeting will start at 7:00 PM!
GOSHEN UPDATE
Let me start by saying that the trip was great. The weather was a bit like an Oreo Cookie, we had rain for the first 24 hours and rain for the last 18 hours, but it was near perfect in between!
Like last year, the rain on the first day caused us some drama with respect to Aquatics and specifically swim test certification, however, we muscled thru it and everyone who needed or wanted to be certified was.
While there were certainly some lazy moments, such as cleaning the Latrine or picking up trash, which required “gentle encouragement” from the adult leaders, we saw good leadership from the Scouts, including some who really started to step up and keep the troop moving and on time.
From an advancement standpoint we had 17 scouts who earned a combined 94 Merit Badges, with only a handful of partials. There is no other way for me to say this, other than the scouts totally rocked this out!
I want to take a moment to say thank you!
First to John Wells (SPL) and Nathan Wells (ASPL) who provide good leadership for the troop!
I also want to thank our adult leaders/volunteers who sacrificed vacation time to be with the boys over the past week.
Let me start with a big thank you Daren Devlin, who helped organize the trip and stayed for the first half of the week. His many tasks included the creation of a of an excellent sign-up form, managing the scouts class load, collecting all the health forms, and of course managing the necessary payments. It is a lot of work, and it could not have happened without Darren!
Other thanks go out to Sean Dalton (2nd year in a row) and Lee Irwin (first time), who stayed for the entire week, suffered thru two bouts of rain, helped manage the boys and generally kept me sane!
No less of a thank you for Kathy Lloyd and Jason Wells, who each came out for half a week and should be paid hazard duty for riding the bus with the boys either to or from camp.
And a final thanks to John Nguyen, who for the second year in a row, stayed with us the second half of the week, shared his wisdom, and saved me again with his monster battery back-up for my cell phone!
There were many standout moments, however, let me share just a few:
· Noah Urchek– Successfully completed the Mile Swim!
· David Stanyanoff and Ethan Lacayo– each were in the semi-finals (aka the final 4) for a two-day Chess Tournament, with Ethan bringing home the gold and was the camp-wide winter!
· Rylan McDonald, 11 years old and in his first summer camp, completed the wilderness survival merit badge including building his own shelter and sleeping overnight in the woods and away from the troop.
· Theo Ramirez completed the shooting sports merit badge triple crown by qualifying in Archery, Shotgun and Rifle Shooting!
· Josiah Baldwin and Arthur Dalton Earned 7 Merit Badges each.
· John Wells Earned 8 Merit Badges!
· Gabe Muldoon, representing T-131 as a CIT (counselor in training- Archery and Troop Advisor)
· 7:00 AM pirates’ breakfast on the Lake Merriweather as the sun came up and the fog started a burn off- just perfect and beautiful.
· Friday lunch troop shoot.
· Our Bazooka Bubble Gum Skit at the closing “Ice Melt” in lieu of campfire.
· Wednesday and Thursday Night Troop Campfire (no adults allowed)
· Mr. Dalton and I, spending 4 afternoons and one evening in IOLS training (Introduction Outdoor Leadership Skills)- be sure to ask us about “the socks”
· Finally, NO BEARS!
There are certainly many more moments and I encourage the other adult leaders to chime in with their perspective!
I know that I can speak for the other adults and say that all the scouts did great and that we were proud of their success, effort, and emerging maturity.
It was a great trip, we will go back next year, however, perhaps we change scenery, challenge ourselves a bit more and go to Camp Bowman or Marriot!
HORSEBACK RIDING TRIP
Now that Goshen is behind us, now is time to focus on our next overnight activity, the horseback riding trip! This was a favorite a few years ago and I know it will be this time again! See message below from Mr. Mulvaney, our activity coordinator. Please don’t wait to sign up as we need to get an accurate head count!
I may be a little biased, since my Chinese surname is 马 which means Horse, but we are totally looking forward to this (rescheduled) trip.
12-14 August, Horseback Riding at Red Gate Farm Sign up to ride horses!
We want to get as much of the Troop out to this one as possible, so we are going to cover much of the cost of the trip. With the T-131 discount, it will just be $40 per Scout for all of the instruction and all of the riding necessary to complete the Horsemanship Merit Badge.
Remember- You Can Use Scout Accounts to pay for this. Check with the Treasurer for your Scout’s current balance. All you have to do is sign up!!!
BUT YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP!!! Because we are using a company to provide horses and instructors, this trip there are no last-minute changes. We want everyone available to go, it’ll be a great time. So sign up BEFORE August 2nd.
All you have to do is sign up!!!
The boys need to wear long pants and sturdy shoes with a heel!
And of course, the forms:
Brendan Mulvaney
MISSING FIRST AID KIT
Our troop first aid kit seems to have gone missing. If anyone knows the whereabouts of the kit, please let me know or return on Monday. I took my personal one on the camping trip this weekend, however, the troop is required to have one at all outings.
ADULT VOLUNTEERS
Parents, we need your help! It takes a lot to keep this troop together and active. Even if you don’t have time to be in one of the more active positions, there some one-off tasks. Please consider volunteering to one of the activities below:
We need help with:
· Shed Clean up
o We will soon be moving the shed from First Baptist to Immanuel Church on the Hill
o Mr. Jahns is organizing the actual move, but prior to this we need to have a troop workday to clean out the gear we don’t need and organize and clean what we want to keep.
o The scouts will do the bulk of the labor; however, we are looking for an adult volunteer to organize the workday.
· Service the Camp Stoves
o 75% of the stoves we took camping on the last trip failed!
o All had gas, but clearly needed some cleaning and servicing.
o We need an adult or older scout, to take all the stoves, make sure they are cleaned, in good working order and filled with gas for the next camping trip.
· Health Forms
o We need an audit of the troop health forms and reconcile with our current roster.
o The forms need to be updated every year.
o We need to a volunteer to review the box and contact parents if we need an updated form.
We also need adult volunteers:
· To sit on the committee and be available for Board of Reviews
· Additional ASM’s to go on camping trips
· High Adventure and Jamboree Planning- we are in the beginning stages of putting together a long-range high adventure/jamboree calendar for next two years and for the “big trips”. Nothing is set in stone right now, but these trips take a long time to plan, and fund raise and below is what we are considering. We need a volunteer to help explore interest, logistics and ultimately to help with the planning.
o Spring Break 2023 or Spring Break 2024- Sea Base
o July 19-28, 2023- National Jamboree- Summit Bechtel Reserve
o August 1-12, 2023- World Jamboree – South Korea
o Philmont- Summer 2024
SCHEDULE: One Month(ish) Look Ahead
Monday, July 4th – No Troop Meeting – Federal Holiday
Monday, July 11th – Troop Meeting- 7:00 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Saturday July 16th – Architectural Walking Tour DC (Architectural Merit Badge)
Monday, July 18th – Troop Meeting (BoR)– 7:00 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Monday, July 25th – Troop Meeting – 7:00 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Saturday July 30th –Tour (Citizenship in the Nation Merit Badge)
Monday, August 1st – Troop Meeting- 7:00 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Monday, August 8th – Troop Meeting (PLC)– 7:00 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Friday August 12th 14th – Horseback Riding- Red Gate Farm
Monday, August 15th – Troop Meeting- 7:00 PM (BoR) – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Monday, August 22nd – First Day of School- Troop Meeting- 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill
Monday August 29th – Court of Honor- Family Picnic
Monday, Sept. 5th – No Troop Meeting – Federal Holiday
