Trail Talk – 2/3/25

Happy February! Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted 6 more weeks of winter yesterday but Woody the Woodchuck, Michigan’s official groundhog predicted an early spring! I am going to go with Woody the Woodchuck on this one! I am ready to be done with winter! 😊 I hope you all had a great weekend. A few of us met up on Saturday with some of our T21 scouts and did the swimming requirements for Second and 1st Class! It was soooo much fun and the scouts did great!

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

SCOUT SUNDAY – EXTREMELY URGENT! EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Sunday, February 9th. THAT IS NEXT SUNDAY!! Please plan to attend 1 of the 2 church services at Pathfinder Church on Sunday, February 9th, which is Scout Sunday. This is one of our ways to thank the church for all of the ways that they support us in scouting. We have things that many other troops do not have and we are so grateful for it. Please wear your uniform shirt and come to either the 8:45 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. service. Please be there about 15 minutes early. I may need some scouts for a flag ceremony.

PACK 235 BLUE AND GOLD BANDQUET – next Saturday, February 8th, Pack 235 is holding their annual Blue and Gold Banquet at Pathfinder Church. The Blue and Gold Banquet starts at noon however they need some help from OUR scouts to setup in the morning. They will have some of their leaders at the church at 9:30 in the morning and need help setting up chairs and tables. I told them that our scouts were up for the task. Would you please email me back if this is something that you are willing to do on Saturday morning! Thank you!

HIGH ADVENTURE 2026 – SwampBase. I need a favor. I asked all of you for your input. Now I need to know names. Unfortunately, I forgot to look at the list last Tuesday at the church and won’t be there this Tuesday. I WOULD LIKE ANYONE AND EVERYONE who is interested in SwampBase for 2026 to EMAIL ME BACK from this email and let me know. I want to get an pretty accurate count so I can move forward with this high adventure!

FEBRUARY CAMPOUT! – February 14 – 16th at Gerber Scout Reservation. We will be in Venturing Cabins. There will be 1 cabin for the boys and 1 cabin for the girls/adults. This campout looks to be a great time! Your PLC is meeting this Tuesday at 6:15 to discuss the campout. Do you have a great idea for an activity on a campout? Let Ian or Elizabeth(Rebekah won’t be there) know on Tuesday night! Remember to sign up with Sherry in the office for this campout! Sign up soon so we can plan properly! The cost will be $45 per scout and $20 per adult because of the cabin rental. One unique thing about our February campout is that we usually celebrate with a Thanksgiving feast on this campout. We cook a couple of turkeys and have all of the fixings for dinner on Saturday night! I hope to see many of you there!

CUB SCOUT PACK 235 HELP!! –I am still looking for some of our scouts to step up and be a Den Chief for Cub Scout Pack 235 at Pathfinder. They meet on Mondays at 6:30 for about an hour. This can either earn you leadership requirements or service hours. Please see me or Christy if this is something you can do! Let’s show Pack 235 that they should join Troop 244 when done with cub scouts! In addition, Pack 235 will be holding their Pinewood Derby on March 22nd. Setup will be Friday night, March 21st and then the actual derby on Saturday, March 22nd. This is the same day as our museum trip but if you don’t think you can go on the museum trip, the Pack is asking for scouts from 244 to help out at the Pinewood Derby! I did this when I was a scout and it was a blast! Please let Christy or I know if this is something you would be willing to do!

FEBRUARY COURT OF HONOR AND DINNER – February 25 – AT 6:00 p.m. We will be having our annual winter court of honor and dinner coming up in February. It is scheduled for Tuesday, February 25th. This is a time of fellowship but also of awards!! Scouts and Counselors, any rank advancements and/or merit badge completions need to be submitted by Tuesday, February 18th in order to be awarded at the court of honor on February 25th. That is coming up soon so please keep it in mind!

SUMMER CAMP 2025 – It is time to start signing up with SHERRY for Summer Camp 2025!! We will be attending Pioneer Scout Reservation once again the week of June 15 – 21st! If we don’t have all of the fees for summer camp turned in by the end of April, the fee that Pioneer charges actually goes up. Please start signing your scout up now and paying for summer camp. We would like to have you signed up and the first $150 paid by the troop meeting on February 18th! Physical must be completed and turned in by May 1st! We are often one of the biggest scout units out at summer camp and I want that tradition to continue! I want as many scouts as possible from Troop 244 to come to summer camp! It is such an amazing and great time! You will work on merit badges, rank advancements, plus do so many other amazing activities like WATERBALL, ROOT BEER CANTINA, POOL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT, OPEN SWIM, OPEN BOAT, OPEN SHOOT and I could go on and on!

PHYSICAL FORMS! – Every Scout and Leader that goes to summer camp, boundary waters or the mini-high adventure MUST have an up-to-date BSA PHYSICAL FORM with all parts of the form filled out, Part A, B1, B2 and C. You must get a new one for this year. No Form, No Trip. WE NEED ALL PHYSICAL FORMS TURNED IN BY MAY 1ST.
Scoutmaster Minute – TRUSTWORTHY – Interestingly enough, this was one of my shower thoughts the other day. I was thinking about the fact that in the Scout Law we don’t ever see the words “honest” or “dependable” or “responsible” and we often think that these are words that would be perfect for the scout law. As I thought about this more thought about how these words and many more like them are encompassed within the scout law of Trustworthy. If you think about it, being Trustworthy means being trusted. Being trusted means that you can be counted on to do whatever is being asked of you. Are you going to be trusted to be “honest”? If I give you task to do are you going to be “trusted” to get it done? If your asked to perform a service in a responsible way, can we “trust” you to do that? Trustworthy essentially boils down to being “trusted” to do all of these things. One thing I have learned in my life is that trust is something that is hard to earn but very easy to lose. You earn someone’s trust and become trustworthy after you demonstrate time and again that you can indeed be trusted to be honest, complete tasks, be responsible and so on. Eventually you are trusted by the people around you. However, if you do 1 thing that goes against that trust, especially if it is a big thing, then you will lose people’s trust in a heartbeat. Once trust is lost, it is so hard to earn back. You essentially have to start over. That is why, as scouts, we follow the scout law of Trustworthy from the beginning of our journey, so that it is something that becomes a part of who we are, a part of our life. We live as trusted individuals so that we won’t lose people’s trust and have to start all over again. If being trustworthy is already a part of who you are, you won’t have to worry about not being trusted or losing someone’s trust. Do you feel that you are a trustworthy individual? Is it something that you are working on? If it is, keep on working on it because it is a valuable characteristic to have throughout your life, in relationships, in jobs and in interactions with others! Be Trustworthy!

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244