Trail Talk – 4/14/25

Please take note of important signups, permission slips and payments needed below:

  • April Campout to Camp Tamarack
  • Girl Troop Lock-in
  • Summer Camp
  • Boundary Waters
  • Mini-High Adventure

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

T21 Orienteering Course Requirement(New) – THIS Tuesday night, all T21 scouts are going to work on the Orienteering Course requirement for 1st class! You are going outside so DRESS FOR THE OUTDOORS! Sean Harrigan along with a few other adult leaders will take you guys outside, as long as it is nice out, and you will work on learning your compass skills and what it means to make an orienteering course. You will then make your own or be split into groups and make your own orienteering courses that go all around the church. Be warned, I may just grab one of these courses at some point and see if I can follow it! I love orienteering so I want to see how you guys do!

NEW MERIT BADGE SESSION(New) – We will have a new merit badge session start this Tuesday night! If you did not complete your merit badge from the last session and still have things that you can do at troop meetings with your counselor, then you will stay in that badge until it gets done! If you did not complete your badge but there is no more work that you can do at a troop meeting(such as a time or service requirement) then you will be put into a new merit badge Tuesday night. Remember, NO Partials! If you are not done with your badge but there is no more you can do at meetings, then get whatever it is done that you can get done!

BOUNDARY WATERS(New Info) –July 11 – 20th.  Please remember that we will be having a brief informational meeting THIS TUESDAY NIGHT, APRIL 15th, right after we get the scouts into their merit badge classes. The room at the church is TBD but I will let you know where to go at opening. The cost is $900, and we have been asking you to pay $200/month since January. Please be keeping up with those payments! We will do a training/shakedown for those going on this trip on the Saturday of the April Campout. April Campout is April 25 – 27th. Come on the campout or come out for the day on Saturday!

APRIL CAMPOUT CAMP TAMARACK(Reminder) – April 25 – 27th we will be going to Camp Tamarack for our April campout. There is a signup and permission slip for this. The cost is $40. Permission slip is attached. You can pay on Zeffy or pay Sherry on Tuesday. PLEASE START SIGNING UP FOR THIS CAMPOUT THIS TUESDAY NIGHT! You can also hand in the permission slip for this to Sherry on Tuesday. We will be tenting on this campout. There will not be a cabin. We will be staying in one of their campsites rather than in a cabin! We are looking to make this a high adventure themed campout. This will be a combination training for those going to Boundary Waters as well as a time for younger scouts to learn about what it often means to go on a high adventure trip. IF YOU ARE GOING TO BOUNDARY WATERS, I ASK THAT YOU TRY TO COME OUT FOR AT LEAST THE DAY ON SATURDAY!

GIRL TROOP LOCK-IN(Reminder) – May 2nd, 2025, at Pathfinder Church. This event is for the girl troop only! Sorry boys! We will be having a lock-in at Pathfinder Church starting at 6:00 p.m. on Friday May 2nd and ending at about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday May 3rd.  The cost is $10 and there is a permission slip attached to this email. You can pay Sherry and signup on Tuesday. There is a signup sheet with Sherry. You can also hand in the permission slip. PLEASE TRY TO START SIGNING UP FOR THIS EVENT THIS TUESDAY NIGHT!  We will have the use of the Fellowship Hall, the gym, the community room and the firepit out back! Scouts in the Girl Troop, let’s get together and have a good time! We will get pizza, and we will ask you all to bring snacks and drinks! I will get a sign up for this out and a cost to you once I confer with that darn SPL! Please put this on your calendar girl troop! It should be fun!

SUMMER CAMP 2025(New Info) –Pioneer Scout Reservation the week of June 15 – 21st! The cost for Summer Camp this year is $430 per scout and $215 per adult! All payments are due by the end of April! That is only a couple of weeks away! We, as a troop, must make a payment to camp by the end of April. If you are waiting to sign your scout up or holding back on payments, it is going to hurt us, as a troop. Please go to Zeffy(click here) or see Sherry and sign your scout up now. Don’t forget that there is a ton of paperwork that must also be turned in; Informed Consent, Release Agreement and Authorization, Scouting America Physical Forms Parts A, B1, B2 AND C, Troop Summer Camp Permission Slip. If you haven’t selected your merit badges yet for camp, you must talk with Sherry AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! We had a TON more scouts sign up for Summer Camp last week which makes me SO HAPPY!! Thank you!

PHYSICAL FORMS!(Reminder) – Every Scout and Leader MUST have an up-to-date BSA PHYSICAL FORM with all parts of the form filled out, Part A, B1, B2 and C if you plan to go to Summer Camp, Boundary Waters or the Mini-High Adventure. You must get a new one for this year. No Form, No Trip. WE NEED ALL PHYSICAL FORMS TURNED IN BY MAY 1ST.

WILDERNESS FIRST AID TRAINING(New Info) –Just a reminder for those involved in this training. This will take place on May 3rd and 4th at the Brake’s residence. 2723 Vanderbilt Ave. Portage, MI  49024 starting at 8:00 a.m. each day. There will be a cost but I do not yet know what that is. Most likely it will be around $50ish. I will let you know, once I know for sure!

TAX EXEMPT DONATIONS(Important) – Now that we are back under the charter of Pathfinder Church, we once again have a 501c 3 status which means that we have an EIN number that allows for tax free donations! If you have been wanting to donate money to the troop for such things as our Campership Fund(help, send a scout to camp) or for other areas of troop need but haven’t wanted to be taxed on it, NOW is the time! Please talk to Sherry about donations to the troop!

 JERKY!(Reminder) – Our annual Jerky sale began on January 28th. Each stick sells for $1.00 and for each one sold, the scout earns 24 cents into their individual scout account. You can make payments for jerky at any time here – https://bit.ly/244Jerky

Mini-High Adventure(Reminder) –The trip will take us to the Historic battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This trip is taking place August 2 – 6th. A day of travel, 3 days in Gettysburg and a day of travel home! The mini-high adventure sounds like it is going to be loaded with fun and some awesome things to see. Sign up now! The final cost is to be determined but could be somewhere around $150. That is a STEAL for a trip like this. We are going to ask for a $50 deposit currently to secure your spot. Sign up for this and pay the deposit with Sherry in the office.

Scoutmaster Minute –  “Be Prepared”. For the past couple of months I have been taking my time, reflecting on the Scout Oath and Law and then speaking to you about my reflections through the Scoutmaster Minute. I hope that you have found some of those reflections about the Scout Oath and Law helpful and/or meaningful. Today, I would like to chat with you a bit about the Scout Motto. We all know that the Scout Motto is “Be Prepared”. I have to admit to you that I have taken the scout motto to the extreme in my life. It is definitely something I have always tried to live by. I can give you some examples of how I have made the Scout motto my motto as well. One thing that absolutely drives my kids crazy is that I am always early to EVERYTHING and when I saw early, I mean sometimes an hour early to certain things. My kids go crazy because they are all “why do we have to sit and wait for so long” or “we could have left 45 minutes later” and so on. However, I just do not believe that it is polite to be late to things. In fact, I think it is actually quite rude to be late and that is just my personal feeling. Another way that I am a bit extreme with the “be prepared” is at my job. Many teachers will do their lesson planning for the week, the week before or sometimes in a lot of cases the weekend before the upcoming week. Not me. Most of the time, I have all of my lessons ready to go at least 3 weeks in advance. I keep that steady throughout the school year, always 3 weeks in advance. If I fall behind at all, I take some time to get myself caught up to being back to 3 weeks in advance. I just need to be prepared. The last example I will give is when I go on weekend campouts with the troop. I prepare not only for myself, but for anything else that could happen on the campout with scouts, etc. Usually, I am bringing 2 or 3 jackets of varying thickness for warmth depending on the weather. I am packing a few extra pairs of socks or underwear, t-shirts or shorts. Sometimes, I throw an extra blanket or sleeping bag/pad in my car “just in case”. I want to “be prepared”. However, I think when you look back at these examples, being prepared is really a mindset. It translates into action, but you have to have the mind set of being prepared first. You have to know what it means to “be prepared” for every situation and circumstance. This is one of the things we are trying to teach scouts in scouting is the mindset of being prepared or as the Scouting America slogan goes “Prepared for Life”. Are you practicing being prepared in any and all circumstances?

 “What Troop Does More!!” – 244