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Scoutmaster Moment The troop made a fantastic showing at our first ever Klondike Derby! The weather cooperated by delivering snow in the early morning on Saturday for the sleds to get proper use.  The 893 family did well, with awards going to the Crew and Boys Troop in the Chili Cook-off, and 893GT earning 2nd place for the main event Klondike Trail competition - fantastic for an inaugural attendance! Earning this achievement shows the hard work and dedication that all the scouts have put into learning scout skills and coming together as a team. Leaders and other adults in the [...]

Scoutmaster Moment Between Winter Break and the recent snow it will have been almost a month since our last meeting together. Winter snows have always been a time I enjoy watching the flakes fall, the snow pile up on the ground and cover the trees in a quiet blanket. The falling snow muffles sounds and brightens the landscape, making the night much brighter.  As we grow older sometimes we focus overly much on the fact that snow throws off our plans, makes us break out shovels and ice scrapers.  Enjoy the forced break on routine and use the time to [...]

Scoutmaster Moment Winter Break has wound down and tomorrow is the return to normal routines in the new year with school (and work for the rest of us). Over the holidays I was able to spend time with family see a play, caught the flu (things don’t always go according to plan), caught up on some TV and played some new games. I hope you also had time with loved ones, down time to relax and some fun.  This is the start of a new year, a new decade, a new chance to work on our progress as scouts, as [...]

Scoutmaster Moment The theme for meetings for the next month is Klondike Prep.  The Sully District Klondike campout and competition is next month.  Stations are likely to include standard scout skill activities, so we prep by working on knots (last week) and first aid (this week), later we have fire building and more.  These are key Scouting skills to know and master. We expect these skill to serve us well at campouts, in competitions with fellow scouts such as Klondike, and some sometimes Scouts draw on these skills at other times.  Most of us have had an opportunity to use [...]

Scoutmaster Moment After some planning sessions for the lock-in, the overnight happened and was a smash hit.  I’m still a bit slow and recovering, but happy to have some sleep that night…  The grins on scouts’ faces makes the tiredness worth it!  There was hot cocoa, gingerbread houses made (and oh so much royal icing and candies!), late night pizza and lots of other snacks.  Many thanks to Mrs. Sengupta for arranging the food and icing!!  The hot sandwiches in the morning were especially welcome!  The Christas Carol karaoke was fun to have everyone singing (who knew there were hand [...]

Scoutmaster Moment Today marks the first day of the last month of the year based on the Gregorian calendar, and beginning of the busy holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year's. 2019 is drawing to an end. As the first Sunday in December it marks the start of the Advent waiting period for Christmas for Christians. Students, meanwhile, are waiting for the start of Winter Break (and no school).  Many faiths have holidays in this season of longer nights that shine light into the dark; advent candles and Christmas trees, Chanukah lights, Yule logs…  Whatever your faith of the season [...]

Scoutmaster Moment I can’t say enough about the fabulous Mission Impossible weekend we just had. We had some very promising visits from prospective scouts for both troops.  We had 6 girls come visit and were taken around our camp and the 6 activity stations.  The visitors were from local scouting units, and some have not been in BSA before - I hope we see them come by a meeting soon!  Once our scouts had finished their hard work with visitors, they had to do some hard work of enjoying the adult demo of dutch oven cooking (ideas for upcoming campouts!) [...]

Scoutmaster Moment Tomorrow, 11 Nov, is Veteran’s Day as celebrated in the US as a day to recognize and thank all those who have served in our Armed Forces.  Other countries also celebrate this day, some call it Remembrance Day, once upon a time all called it Armistice Day in celebration of ending what was then referred to as “the War to End all Wars”. In many countries red poppies are worn to commemorate the day.  Now we know the end of World War I and the peace that followed would be relatively short-lived.  The history of Scouting is tied [...]