Ditch Walk

Pack 25 / Troop 25 Ditch Walk
Saturday 30 May 2009
10:30 am
Valhalla Corner (US 59 & Valhalla Rd)

rain date Monday, 5:30pm
Contact your leader with questions.

Scoutmaster Minute—Matches

 

(Material: small bundle of wooden matches and a rubber band. Gather up the matches and neatly bundle them together so that they will stand when you set them down.)

Our Troop is much like these matchsticks. (Stand the matches on end for everyone to see.)  You might have noticed that we all stick together.  It is the trust, friendship, and knowledge of everyone here that makes us feel this way. We know that when the going gets tough, if we stick together we will come out on top, like at the Camporee.   Everyone did their job.  The event was set up, and everybody took their turn at the table, timing the participants, and helping open and close the gate.  We stuck together and won best event.

But what happens if we don’t stick together?  (Pick up the bundle of matches and take the rubber band off. Then set the bundle back down. Let the matches fall and scatter.) If we don’t stick together, we will all fall apart just as these matches did. When this happens we cannot accomplish as much as we can as a team.

Thanks for sticking together.

(adapted from p.12 of Troop Program Resources)

 

Bridge to Adventure

 

Scout Bridging Ceremony

A Webelos Scout must show his knowledge of the requirements to become a Boy Scout to earn the Arrow of Light.  Among other things, he must repeat from memory and explain in his own words the Scout Oath, 12 points of the Scout Law, the Motto, and Slogan.

Scout Oath

On my honor I will do my best

To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law

A Scout is Trustworthy.

A Scout tells the truth. He is honest, and he keeps his promises. People can depend on him.

Loyal

A Scout is true to his family, friends, Scout leaders, school and nation.

Helpful

A Scout cares about other people. He willingly volunteers to help others without expecting payment or reward.

Friendly

A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He offers his friendship to people of all races and nations, and respects them even if their beliefs and customs are different from his own.

Courteous

A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows that using good manners makes it easier for people to get along.

Kind

A Scout knows there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. Without good reason, he does not harm or kill any living thing.

Obedient

A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he things these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobeying them.

Cheerful

A Scout looks for the bright side of life. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.

Thrifty

A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for the future. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.

Brave

A Scout can face danger although he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at him or threaten him.

Clean

A Scout keeps his body and mind fit. He chooses the company of those who live by high standards. He helps keep his home and community clean.

Reverent

A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.

Scout Motto

Be Prepared.

Scout Slogan

Do a Good Turn Daily.

Welcome To Troop 25!

Lone Scout Goes to Summer Camp

What to do about your Scout who is gone on family vacation or church camp during your Troop’s one week at Summer Camp?  Never fear, Lewis & Clark is near!

Do you love attending Lewis & Clark so much that you wish you could attend another week this summer?  Imagine the additional merit badges and fun you could have by camping another week.  Is your Troop going to camp during a week that you can’t attend?  You wish you could go with them, but your schedule just doesn’t allow it.

 

The Sioux Council is offering a solution to both of these questions for 2009.  We are putting together a special Council Contingent Troop.  Here’s how it works; we have set aside the Sergeant Floyd campsite during the week of July 19^th to July 25th. The Sioux Council will provide the Troop leadership for this Troop during that week.  Youth from around our Council who would like a second week at camp or who can not go with their regular Troop can attend.  We will form a temporary Troop and divide the youth into patrols when they arrive at camp.  This Troop will get to participate in any and all programs camp has to offer.

 

Here’s what you need to do.  Print off the “Lewis and Clark Contingent Registration” form.  Complete the form and send it along with half the camp fee ($87.50) to the Center for Scouting.  Once we receive your registration, we will contact you to get your merit badge selections.  You will need to have a BSA Medical Form completed (parts A, B, & C) before attending camp.  This includes a doctor’s signature, so plan ahead.  You will also be responsible for bringing you own camping gear for the week.  Participants are required to find their own way to Lewis & Clark and must be picked up at the end of camp.

This came over the wires when I was out of town, so I don’t know if there’s still room available.  Our Troop has camped at Lewis & Clark Scout Reservation during the first week of camp in June, several years running.  We always eat in the dining hall, too.  The camp has a variety of topography on the bluffs above the Missouri River resevoirs, with an extensive waterfront program.  Check for info on Sioux Council website.

Radio Merit Badge

Volunteers from three counties in our area organized a Radio Merit Badge workshop Saturday for Scouts from several troops. Scouts learned the basics of amateur radio and wireless communications, how Scouts and amateur radio operators used to have to know Morse Code, and the best way to raise a CQ on a ham radio.  They went on a fox hunt and talked to some friendly operators over the air.

Radio merit badge offeres 3 options:  amateur or ham radio, broadcast radio, or shortwave listening.  Our Council summer camp offers the broadcast radio-option, which is quite popular with the Scouts.  However, we brought in a sheriff’s deputy to demo his mobile radio setup during Jamboree-On-The-Air (JOTA) and several of our guys expressed interest.  This workshop gave them a chance to engage in something a bit more active and practical.  It would certainly fit right in to a search and rescue camp-o-ree or weekend exercise.

The most difficult part of the workshop, at lest for the younger scouts, was the electronics.  The badge requires some basic understanding of radio waves and electronic circuitry.  And be sure to double-check the merit badge requirements, as they changed quite a bit for 2009.

The merit badge counselor / workshop organizer volunteers with a local county emergency management office for disaster-related communications.  Other instructors included a police officer, a weather watcher, and a local retired Scouter.  The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) had extensive information on ham radio, as a hobby or profession.  Your emergency management office (check with the County) could be a good source of radio merit badge counselors, in addition of course to the Eagle-required Emergency Preparedness merit badge.  Give ’em a call or drop an email, by land-line or wireless.

Be prepared.

 

p.s. My Science teacher at Agassiz Junior High ran a ham shack in his classroom.  I never took the license test, but I’ve always remembered that world of adventure over the air.

Scout-O-Rama + Camp-O-Ree = Camp-O-Rama

There are a precious few spring days that approach perfection.  Crisp nights give way to a clear dawn, sunshine enveloping still-bare limbs to warm the ground below.  Those few days when the promise of summer is more full than any actual summer day can be.

We had a day close to that out at Camp Shetek.  Several troops and packs from Buffalo Ridge District gathered for the Spring 2009 Camp-O-Rama.  I previously wrote about our challenges with the traditional scout-o-rama.  This is the second year our District has combined the spring camp-o-ree with scout-o-rama for a Camp-O-Rama.  Troops camp out at a different location in our district, then are joined by packs at noon for an afternoon of fun, games, and scouting skills.

Our Troop won Best Event for an obstacle course.  Scouts started scooting under a low tarp picking up tennis balls, then high-stepping through low ropes in a diamond pattern moving footballs from one side to the other, then weaving thru a line of garbage cans picking up dodge balls, and finally diving into a bin (made of snowfence) searching for a small rubber ball in a sea of balloons.   We were careful to adjust scoring easier for Cubs, more difficult for older Scouts, and there was a line all day.  Other units did things like:

• Monkey bridge
• Boiling egg over an open fire in a paper cup
• Baseball toss (with tennis balls)
• Orienteering
• Pioneer games
• Duck game
• Flag retirement
• Knot-tying contest

Last year we held Camp-O-Rama at a county fairgrounds that is more centrally located in the district.  Camp Shetek is on the far east side of Sioux Council and we didn’t have as large a crowd this year.  We also tried convening our District Awards Banquet with the Camp-O-Rama this year.  I don’t usually go to banquets, so it was nice to see some good Scouters recognized.  It’s good to try new things I suppose.

A good time was had by all.

.