June 26, 2017

Wasn’t going to do a BSB this week, but a few camp things that I want highlight, so I decided to put one out this week.

Great week at camp

We had a great week at camp and the scouts appeared to have a lot of fun despite the 18 hours of rain and other challenging things, we overcame and had fun!! Sometimes, the challenges make it more fun because the sense of accomplishment when you conquer those challenges. Check out the Troop 161 Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Troop161Racine/# or on the Troop photo album. Thanks to Doug Hanna for sharing his photos, if anyone else has any, be sure to pass the on for all to see.

Camp Advancement

There was a lot of merit badge work going on and some of them had prerequisites that some people did not finish before camp, so they have partial completion of merit badges, if you log into the portal that you used for sign up for badges, you can see what was signed off, and you can print that and seek out a counselor in town to finish those up, we will have blue cards for you shortly and you should take those with to your counselor. Need a counselor, you can check out the document section of the web page on how to log in to find a local counselor or you can ask Mrs. Andersen. Remember, Just like any merit badge, you can not start working with a local counsel

or till you have approval from the troop, this is to ensure that the counselor is currently up to date on all of their training. For our new scouts, we worked on a lot of things when you did the Tenderfoot trail, some of those things still need to be signed off, we will work on those in the coming months and get those taken care of, if it was things like cooking and such, be sure to get your Patrol Leader to sign those off.

Problems?

The Troop leadership does the best they can to ensure that all Scouts are treated with respect while on an outing or event. We can not be everywhere or hear every conversation that happens, so as with all scouting events, if anyone had any problems, felt they were not treated with respect, their privacy was violated, bullied or were put in any situation where they were not treated with the respect or they felt was not safe, please let me know. As a Troop we expect the Scouts to live up to the Scout Oath and Law at all times, especially while on scouting events and at times we need to remind scouts of this (just like when they are at home too). Overall the scouts did a great job at this and MANY parents can be proud of their son’s behavior, but sometimes stories bubble up after the event with things that should be addressed, please do not hesitate to bring those to my attention. As a troop we, and as Scoutmaster I, take these kind of things very seriously, that is part of what makes Troop 161 a great troop, is that everyone is treated fairly. If anyone has any concerns, please let me know, parents, if your son has expressed anything that concerns you, please let me know about them so they can be addressed sooner than later or we can be more aware to look out for concerns. Safety, respect and being treated under the guidelines of the Scout Oath and Law are the primary focus of the Troop, but we need the help of all to make it happen. I also like to hear about the things you/your son enjoyed about camp too, feel free to send me a note on that as well!

Tick Check

Just a reminder to do a good tick check, we encouraged it at camp often, but as scouts and parents unpack, they may find some packed in their gear, I found one this morning myself.

Lost and found

I have a few things in the lost and found box along with some leftovers from the care packages, I will have those at the meeting on Monday, be sure to look at the box and make sure nothing of yours is left behind! If you grabbed anything in error or it ended up in your dirty laundry bag, please bring it back and return it to its owner or add it to the lost and found. Sometimes things get chaotic (especially if you saw some of the tents) and things get picked up in error.

Thanks!

I want to thank all the adults who were part of the week at camp, both those at camp and those who helped with the preparations for camp. I would like to thank Mrs. Andersen, Mr. Lisowski, Mr. O’Conor, Mr. Sisak, Mr. Svoren and Mr. Voelz for giving up an entire week of their time to be with the Scouts, along with Mr. Hanna, Mr. Kunda, Mr. Townsend how gave up part of their week and make this a great week for all. The scouts had a great time because of the assistance of these people, be sure to thank them for their assistance, and think about how you can assist in keeping the Troop a great Troop and we can have many more of these type of activities for the youth of the Troop.

This week!

Just a reminder, meeting for Disk Golf at St. Rita at 5:30 PM on Monday, see you there.

Thanks

Mr. F.