2025-07-13 This Week: Troop Meeting, Summer Camp Recap, Sea Base Paperwork, Scout Day at Nationals Park, SYT Training, Religious Emblems, One Month Look Ahead

Troop 131,

I hope you are enjoying your summer!  There is lots to cover this week so please read through it all …

TROOP MEETING

We will have a Troop meeting at 7:30 PM this Monday at Immanuel Church on the Hill!  Your leadership team has a great plan for you that includes learning about lashings!

For those that were at summer camp, I know after a week away the idea of putting on your uniform again tomorrow may seem a bit crazy, however, the meeting plan tomorrow includes a good bit of time for sign offs (see below) and for awarding merit badges from camp (also see below).  Therefore, if you are in town, please attend if you can.

SUMMER CAMP – Recap and Merit Badges/Rank Advancement

I am pleased to announce that the summer camp is complete and that all the scouts made it home safely following the bus ride.

Let me start with some interesting stats for the week:

• 142 merit badges were earned with 36 partials! (new record earned)!
• 32 scouts attended (new record)!
• 25 scouts in the troop took mammal studies!
• 5” of rain!
• 2 Missing troop flags!
• 1 scout (Francis Gress) earned 9 merit badges at camp!
• 1 scout (Beau Painter-Ullom) earned 9 merit badges AND attended the new Scout Program! (We did not know that was even possible)!
• Approximately $510 of merit badges from the scout shop!

I was able to visit the troop mid-week on Wednesday and despite more mud than I have ever seen at Goshen, all the scouts were in good spirits. The summer camp patrols (Flaming Bigfoots, Zombie Bigfoots, Sasquatch & Yeti) were doing a great job of managing the meals and more importantly cleaning up!

Special recognition to Andrew Devlin who was both the acting SPL and a PL.  He did an amazing job keeping the troop together, on task and focused.  I also want to acknowledge the efforts of the three other Patrol Leaders, Jonathan Nguyen, Luke Irwin and Rylan McDonald, for their great effort in leading their patrols and supporting the SPL!

When I was a scout, summer camp was the signature experience for me, and I still remember to this day many of the things that I did.  None of this is possible with the support of the adult leaders/volunteers.  So let me start by thanking Mrs. Lacayo for organizing the troop, managing the paperwork and doing the yeoman’s work to sign everyone up for their classes.

Also, a very big thank you to the adults who braved the heat, rain, mud, camp food and open tents to support the scouts: Chris Grocki, Brian Gross, Lee Irwin, John Nguyen, Eric Reading, Jon Teixeria-Moffat and John Yuda. If you see these folks at the meeting, please thank them directly for donating their time (almost 150 for those that went the full week) and for their support of the scouts.

There are also now a few scouts who have earned the special Scoutmaster Goshen Triple-Crown Woggle!  You earn this by attending three different camps at Goshen (Olmsted, Bowman and Marriott).  I will award this at the August CoH/picnic!

Mrs. Farmer is busy processing all the electronic blue cards for those 142 merit badges.  She hopes to have most of them (if not all) ready for the meeting on Monday!  We are at the mercy of the Scout Store inventory, so we cannot guarantee that we can award everything, but we will do our best.  We will order anything missing and award it at a subsequent meeting.

We will also print out the partial slips for any merit badges that are incomplete.  Once you complete the missing requirements then we can award these merit badges.

For those that participated in the new scout program, please bring your scout books and the adult leaders or Sr. Scouts in the troop will sign-off on the rank requirements that you completed at camp.

All in all a great summer camp!

SEA BASE – PAPERWORK

It is hard to believe that the Sea Base Crews will be on their boats less than a month from now!  Please make sure you get your gear and paperwork in order!   See the message below from Mrs. Ramirez!

All:

Reminder for your Sea Base paperwork:

• Boat 1 Participants: see Michael Farmer’s prior emails and instructions for uploading to the Google Drive;
• Boat 2 Participants: bring your paperwork to our Monday 7/14/25 meeting.  

As a reminder for the required paperwork you need to upload/bring, please see below outline Mr. Devlin shared with our Boat 2 participants.

Thank you!

SCOUT DAY AT NATIONALS PARK- Sunday August 3^rd

See information and links below for Scout Day at National Park.  I will be out of town that day, but if you are interested you can buy your tickets directly or if there is someone interested in organizing a larger group (13 or more) let me know and I can send an email out to the troop with your contact information.

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/tickets/specials/youth-days

https://www.gofevo.com/event/Scoutday53

Join fellow Scouts at Nationals Park for Scout Day! Sunday 8/3/2025 at 1:35 p.m.

• With the purchase of a special ticket, scouting fans will receive a limited-edition Nationals Scout Patch. 
• For every ticket sold, $5 will be donated to the Scouting America National Capital Area Council.

If you organize a group of 20 or more, the group leader will receive a complimentary game ticket (1 ticket per order).

For more information or to purchase a group of 13 or more, please contact Ella Charles at 202-640-7474 or ella.charles@nationals.com.

SAFEGUARDING YOUTH TRAINING (SYT) TRAINING (formerly YPT)

Adults: ASM Patel has volunteered to be our training coordinator for the troop!  Many of you probably received an email from him concerning your training status in the troop and specifically SYT (formerly Youth Protection) training.   See information from the National Office Concerning this:

Safeguarding youth is our highest priority. As part of our continued commitment to creating a safe and supportive environment for every young person in our programs, we are excited to announce the launch of the new Safeguarding Youth Training (SYT).

This training replaces the previous Youth Protection Training (YPT) and reflects a significant investment in updated content, delivery, and compliance standards. SYT is designed to be more engaging, accessible, and aligned with current best practices in youth protection.

What You Need to Know:

Deadline: All volunteers must complete SYT by May 31, 2026.

Recognition of Prior Training: If you completed YPT before May 22, 2025, it will be honored until May 31, 2026, after which SYT will need to be taken.

Why This Matters:

This overhaul is more than a name change. SYT introduces updated modules, clearer policies, and a more robust learning experience to ensure every adult in our movement is equipped to protect and empower youth.

Next Steps:

Log in to your My.Scouting account and click the Safeguarding Youth Training logo on the right of the page to be taken directly to the new course.

For questions or support, please contact your local council.

Thank you for your unwavering dedication to youth safety and for being a vital part of Scouting America’s mission.

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS COORDINATOR

ASM Patel has also offered to be our religious emblem coordinator.  See the information below, this is a great award for both scouts and adults!

Good evening.

I am the Troop Religious Emblems Coordinator.  

My goal is to ensure that both scouts and adults are aware of the Religious Emblem Program and how they can earn a religious emblem based on the faith that the individual would like to learn about.  

If you would like to learn about earning the Religious emblem in your faith (or another faith) please feel free to contact me.  

I will do what I can to assist you in the process of earning the award.  

Both youth and adults (you don’t have to be a member of Scouting America) can earn this emblem.

More details can be found at:

https://www.scouting.org/awards/religious-awards/

https://www.praypub.org/scouting-america

Please feel free to contact me at this email address for more details. 

Thank you. 

YiS,

ASM Patel

SCHEDULE: One Month(ish) Look Ahead

Monday, July 14^th – Troop Meeting – 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Sat/Sun, July 19 & 20 – Merit Badge Class- Lifesaving – Delray YMCA

Monday, July 21^st – Troop Meeting – 7:30 PM (BoR) (PLC) – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Monday, July 28^th – Troop Meeting – 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Sunday, August 3^rd – Scout Day at Nationals Park

Monday, August 4^th – Troop Meeting – 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill

August 6^th -11^th – SEA BASE- Coral Reef Sailing (Boat-1) – Islamorada, Florida

August 8^th -13^th – SEA BASE- Keys Adventure Sailing (Boat-2) – Islamorada, Florida

Monday, August 11^th – No Troop Meeting

Monday, August 18^th – Troop Meeting – 7:30 PM (PLC) (BoR)- Immanuel Church on the Hill

Monday, August 25^th – Court of Honor- Family Picnic 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Friday August 29^th – 31^st   – Patrol Outing 2.0 (ACPS no school on Friday) – TBD