Special Notice

Important Announcement

In the role of Scoutmaster I get to share the triumphs of Scouting from anything from a Scout badge to an Eagle Scout Award. I also get to share the things that are not quite a triumph, today is one of those later things we must share. I would ask that you please go to this link and read a recent announcement from the Three Harbors Council

Three Harbors Announce relating to camps

Lyle will be closing at the close of the 2015 season. As many of you know, camp Lyle has been my passion for over 40 years, and VERY close to my heart, so to say I am sad about this situation is an understatement. I was involved in the Council task force that for two years evaluated the feasibility of our four camps and it was painful to see this as an end result. In time, it will be easier to understand why the decision was made. As part of this process it became clear that we could not compete with a overwhelming number of Boy Scout camps in the northwoods and the basis of this decision (there are like 7 camps within 50 miles of Lyle). What does this mean to Troop 161. Trust me when I say, creating a great Scouting experience for all members of Troop 161 (both youth and adults) has been and always will be the Troop's primary goal. As a member of this task force we visited many camps to evaluate what many camps had to offer vs. what Lyle could offer and there are some things that I feel the entire troop will find very exciting as we move to a new camp in 2016. I have shared a link HERE of some pictures we took on that fact finding mission. As you can see from the pictures there are some pretty nice options. The Troop committee will be working on a plan to review and select a camp for 2016 with the help of the PLC. As bitter as this may feel right now, and as extremely hard as it will be for the Troop to accept change a walk away from a Lyle this summer, there are greater possibilities in the horizons in 2016 and beyond. The committee looks forward to bringing you to these new horizons. If any of you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or drop me a line, but as I stated early there are many positives associated with this decision, not to mention we are going to have one HECK of a going a way party at Lyle this summer!