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Welcome new Scouts and Scout Families. It was thrilling to see our scouts in Class A uniforms, a flag ceremony with a bugler (thank you Nathaniel), and the new scouts who crossed the bench to part of our Troop. The leadership of Lucien, Christian, and Ben, plus the patrol leaders and Troop guide (Lincoln) all contributed to a warm welcome. Nolan, our newest Eagle Scout, was there to show them that they can be an eagle too and to stick to it. He recounted his best and most challenging times. All scouts were friendly and kind as we welcomed the new scouts.
Please come to Camp Acton on Saturday (today). Even if you can’t make it the whole day, please come for part of it to learn, practice, and advance your scout skills. It will be a rewarding day. Dress warm and be prepared to start fires, tie knots, practice first aid, and many more scout crafts. The day starts at 9 AM at Camp Acton today.
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Crossover will take place next Tuesday (Sept 15) at Emerson field. Scouts shall arrive at 5:45 for set up. Class A for all. Face coverings and social distancing are required and we are looking forward to a simple but welcoming event.
We also welcome parents to become engaged with the Troop and there are plenty of opportunities. To make all these great events happen, we always need help. Many hands make light work is the saying and we urge all new parents to participate in the Troop. This will be our first Emerson field Crossover and regardless of the location, new scouts will be warmly welcomed to the Troop. The senior leaders will run the event and will have some short inspirational and motivational messages for our new scouts. We will have some short games afterward, but be mindful that we will be in Class A uniform. For our troop, the boys decided on Class A uniforms. In short, this is the scout shirt, neckerchief optional, shorts, or pants with a belt. No athletic shorts is what the boys decided as the uniform of the Troop. All the new scouts should have been provided books to start their scouting journey. The Troop is also planning a scout day on Saturday, September 19, 2020 at Camp Acton. This is important for new scouts to start learning scout skills such as totin chip. Earning this chip or in our case a card, demonstrates that the scout understands and agrees to certain principles of using different tools with blades. So I would ask and the Troop requires that new scouts do not have knives, axes, or saws with them until they earn the Totin Chip. Earning this takes 5 days at camp and we will do our best to get this type of training in during September. There’s so much to learn and the older scouts will now have to step up and help train and teach the younger scouts since we didn’t have a summer camp experience. Nothing like teaching to learn the material yourself! September 11 was yesterday. September 11, 2001, America’s single-worst day of terrorism, nearly 3,000 people were killed as 19 al-Qaida members hijacked four passenger jetliners, sending two of the planes smashing into New York’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field in western Pennsylvania. Please remember Troop 132 former Assistant Scoutmaster Alexander Filipov who was killed on this day and the many others who were killed. Schedule Update: Crossover scheduled for 9/8/2020 has been moved to the following week and we are working on potential alternate locations. While it would be great to have it at the North Bridge, there were restrictions that would potentially limit family participation so we are making alternative plans.
Please join me in welcoming the newest Eagle Scout to Troop 132, Nolan Roberts. Nolan earned his Eagle by passing his board of review last night, 9/3/2020 over Zoom. He answered a lot of questions about his scouting journey to district board members he never met before. This is always an exciting event. All the years of scouting brought together over a short span. My job as Scoutmaster is to field any questions about the Troop and our program, but generally to introduce the scout to the board. Nolan held many troop positions including SPL and did a great job. We are all very proud of his accomplishments. A special thanks to Mr. Rzepczynski who as Eagle Advisor prepares the guides the scout from Life to Eagle. Our goal is to form good scouts. It is always rewarding when they reach those ranks as icing on the cake. Be assured that we are also proud of all our scouts who live the Scout Law and grow in responsibility and kindness to others in the Troop. We witness this at every meeting, every event, and its who they become and it takes a Troop and a community behind them. This is why scouting matters! Good Work Lucas Anthony who led the way to build 10 picnic tables. Scouts had a good opportunity to work with tools and did a quality job. Well done. More service projects will be coming. The town Dropoff & Swapoff will most likely be canceled, so you should take advantage of these smaller service opportunities as they arise and more will be coming. The Camp Acton Scout Day has a lot of promise. The scouts put a lot of time to plan this and all of the scouts will learn. The younger scouts will learn new skills and the older scouts will learn again by teaching. There is a saying that if you want to learn something, teach it. So they will put that into practice. Outdoor summer game meetings are going well. The Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) meeting was held last Monday, August 24 and the next PLC is scheduled for Monday 9/14 from 6 - 7:30 pm. I also encourage all senior scouts to attend the PLC, even if you don’t have a current position of responsibility. You can learn and participate in the decisions of the troop. The PLC put a lot of work into planning the September 19th Scout Day at Camp Acton. Similar to our Troop Klondike Derby, this one-day (9:00 am to 3:00 pm) outing will set up camp, break into patrols, use the buddy system to go through several “stations” where older scouts can teach younger scouts, and all scouts can test their knowledge and skills. Some stations will include tent/campsite preparation and set up, stove choices, stove operations for propane and liquid fuel, and first aid which will include burns, hypothermia, blisters, heat stroke, altitude sickness for the Philmont crew, and etc. Totn’ Chip will also be started (knife, ax, saws). We will have a noontime meal for those scouts looking for advancement for preparing and cooking a hot lunch meal. Scouts can bring their own lunch and in all cases social distancing and following the guidelines will help to prevent Covid. All are encouraged to attend and especially the younger scouts who did not have the opportunity to do a “trailblazer” summer camp program where they can earn Totn’chip and Firen’Chit. Of course, this will be fun and dynamic scouts in action. We decided to do a program focused on scout skills to kick off the year on learning and practicing good scouting.
Don’t forget, September 8th we will welcome our new scouts with a North Bridge Cross Over Event. Good work from Henry and Lucas on conducting trail cleanups. They took a lot of trash out of the Rifle Range and some trash along the Nashoba Brook. This is good scouting and good citizenship. Good work for Life Scout Kevin O’Neil on completing his library project and Lucas Anthony is building his project this weekend (see signup above). You can learn woodworking and get some tool experience with wrenches, sockets, and drills. To me, these are essential must-have skills all scouts should have including changing a tire. Someday we will do that for the automotive merit badge, but one thing at a time. Looking ahead, the PLC is looking to host our September meetings outdoors and we will need to make adjustments to our schedule to capture daylight. Stay tuned because we are losing daylight and will need to start the meetings earlier and earlier. More information in the announcements. I am going to take some time off from writing the Scoutmaster message.
Tropical storm warnings canceled our Orienteering meeting at Fairyland and we will move that event to August 11. Sunset will be coming earlier so our meeting is now at 6:30 pm start and end at 7:45 pm. On August 18, we will be back at Emerson Field with a bike trip. The outdoor meetings have worked well and it’s been great to see so many scouts interacting in a safe manner. All of you are doing a good job of keeping this virus contained by your good use of social distancing and masks. Well done scouts.
Kevin O’Neil is finishing up his project and he has acted as the leader while the scouts and he have performed the work. You should all be proud of good workmanship. Very impressive scouts and good teamwork helping each other with the Eagle projects. I encourage all our scouts to help as you can learn how to use tools and build something with pride that will help the community. Our first meeting in September will be a cross over meeting with the new scouts and the plan is to assemble at North Bridge (permit pending) at 6 pm on 9/8/2020. The time and place will allow parents and friends to socially distance and support their scouts' journey to scouting. The Troop Committee met this past week and we really are trying to put a program together with the PLC that would enable scouts to do scouting, but we will need parent support to drive and pickup. Since we have had some success with meetings and small hikes, we would like to do a bike trip type meeting and our first outing in September will be a day trip. The details and planning need work from the PLC and we are taking our planning in 2-3 month increments. We have not formally introduced this but outdoor meetings have gone well and the thought that we may continue with this format until weather forces us inside in the fall. This will need more planning and changes to our schedule. I’m really happy to say that both the scouts and parents are eagerly coming up with flexible options and to provide some good scouting opportunities. It won’t be quite the same but we have a creative group of scouts that will look to do some “cool” and neat events this fall and all within the guidelines of being safe and meeting every regulation and guideline. Stay tuned but suffice to say we will have a good program for our scouts that will be both challenging and provide some good learning opportunities. Good work on the face shield project. This has been a great Troop effort to produce over 1000 face shields. I know this is not easy and it takes time. Keep in mind the many people who would be using them and the good turn you are doing. Well done and thanks to Lincoln for putting us together with this project.
Games have started and its been fun to see the high spirits. I think we are all a bit rusty on our baseball and frisbee skills so it was good to be outdoors. We will be meeting earlier as the summer moves on and stay tuned to the announcements for specific dates and times, which start this coming Tuesday. The good work of scouting in our community continues and there are many service projects either underway now, or starting soon. Lucas and Henry are cleaning up the bike paths, Kevin will need some help with the library project, Lucas will need help with picnic tables, and Simon will need help with Kestral Boxes. The Scout House might need some scout attention like leaf raking and such and we will keep you posted on what we can do and when. The Philmont crew hikes continue and this is a good opportunity to get in shape. You might be tired of me saying this but I’m really proud of our scouts and scouting program. The scouts are making a difference and putting the Scout Oath and Law into practice every day. When in doubt on any decision or day-day activity, think about how that fits into the Scout Law and you will always come out ahead. Exciting news. We had our first meeting in person since March and we will continue through the summer. We will again meet at Emerson Field from 7 pm to 8:15 pm. Everyone was wearing masks and social distancing as we broke into smaller groups. We plan and will follow all state and town guidelines.
Thanks to many who signed up to make face shields. Good job – helping others at all times! Our next PLC meeting is scheduled for 6 pm on Monday, July 27 and this meeting will focus on planing the remaining summer programs which might include some other meeting locations to perhaps hike or bike. Stay tuned. Reminder, if you want to earn a merit badge, sign up online or send what you would like to do to me. Then request a blue card from Mr. Sprague. Complete the work, fill it out the card, and drop it in my scout box for unit leader signature (that’s me). I’ll complete it and do you the favor of getting it to Mr. O’Neil as Advancement Chair. BLUE CARD Update
Here is our updated policy on Blue cards effective July 1, 2020. This update will make it easier for our Troop to support your efforts.
This will help support you as you learn about all those interesting merit badges. The new leaders are now in place and well done with the transition. Last week we had a good meeting learning about Beekeeping from a former scout leader and neighbor of Grady Flinn. Thanks to Grady for putting this together. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Gardening merit badge. If there is interest let me know and start a blue card.
Next week we will have another virtual meeting to set up the patrols. Going into July and August we will start meeting in smaller groups outside and we have some planning to do and will have a plan by next week. We expect to do this and meet all state and best practices including social distancing and masks. The PLC Monday meeting will discuss our next set of meetings. This also means parents will need to drop and pick up as we will not be able to carpool. We have some ideas such as hikes, games, cleaning up trails, gardening (community plot), and etc., but the PLC needs to put the time into effective planning. BLUE CARD Update Here is our updated policy on Blue cards effective July 1, 2020. This update will make it easier for our Troop to support your efforts.
This will help support you as you learn about all those interesting merit badges. |
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