Welcome Back!

Troop 1-Gaylord


Welcome Back Troop 1

In one way this is a test message and in another it is a brief for scouts and parents of all of the early season activities this year. We hope you are all planning to come back—we miss ya. The scouts who made the Brevort Lake Fishing Trip are anxious to tell you all about it. Thanks to Julia Bushong for the unwinding of the troop site—she posted this and will take over Tim Neff’s duties.

First off-Hessel this year is September 17-19, so, in order to get started with the planning, we will have our first meeting on the 8th of September 7:00PM at Bagley as usual. The agenda for this meeting includes planning for Hessel and planning longer term for the Fall Camporee at Flywheelers on the weekend of  October 1-3.

First, congrats to Doug Tyran—made his Eagle about 2 hours after his 18th birthday and he will come back at the holidays for his investiture—maybe, if we are lucky, with the troop at a regular meeting.

First, the regular Committee Meeting will be held on September 12th at Bagley at 4:00PM for allllllllllll parents. Come and get a hot dog and a soda and we will break out the calendar for the year. We should be out of the meeting by 6:00 so you can get on home. It is very important to the troop that you all be there so we can take a look at the troop activities and plans—modify where necessary—and be sure we have enough adult talent for our events. I have also prepared a new troop manual and have a few comments on scout leadership.

Second-Hessel, our traditional fall opener, is 17-19 September. This will be themed “Through the Decades” and we always put forth a good showing. It is one of the best campouts of the year—warm weather, water, lots of scouts from all over and, as I hear it, GIRLS. So far this year Jeff Proux has signed up and he will drag the troop trailer. We will start planning for that and finish on the 15th of September.

There is also the Friends of NRA Dinner on the 11th of September. Last year we had four scouts there and the Gaylord group made a donation which we split among the 4v scouts there and the troop. We will do this again this year—5:00 to about 10:00—we are runners for charge slips and we deliver gifts. They feed us too so mom, you won’t have to worry about that.

The Camporee on 1-3 October has the theme “Olympic Games” and we have the task of running the stilts race—and of course we have to build the stilts. Mr. Proux—will you keep us from cutting off our hands??

Apart from those activities, we also have the fall Court of Honor for all of the efforts at summer camp and over the summer—and we earned even more merit badges this year than we did last. We also elect new troop leadership in October and new patrol leaders and staff. It will be a busy couple of months. Before you know it we will be headed to the fall lock in to “rest up” for the tree sales over the holidays.

On behalf of the committee I hope to see you all on Wednesday. We all know that we have lost some scouts over the summer—some have aged out and we are not likely to see them much more, some just became Eagles and drifted to other interests. The older boys will be eligible for the higher adventure programs later in the year—hopefully it will be interesting and challenging and they will drift back. We also have our Seabase Trip in the Spring—and we still have a couple of spots. We can promise you a challenging year. This is the cycle for the Silversides and water park trip next summer if you all agree--and there are many new ideas on the table.

Until Wednesday, then, I wish you all a great Holiday

From the Scenic Trail-

Ken Arndt
Scoutmaster