Troop 132

The past Saturday outing was well planned, organized, and run by the senior scout leaders. I won’t name them all because it was a team effort. They all contributed to make it an interesting day full of learning, challenges, fun, and camaraderie. There were stations set up for knots, first aid, TotinChip, patrol breakouts, and a relay race full of challenges. Fire building and practice with an ax, saws, and knives were helpful to build skills. The foil meals were also well thought out. Patrols had a food budget and used that wisely and they even included vegetables. I’ll also comment that all the scouts behaved according to the scout law and were helpful and kind. It was an extraordinarily beautiful fall day and glad to have been at Camp Acton with the troop.
 
Parents for new scouts; there is a requirement:  With your parent or guardian, complete the exercises in the pamphlet "How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parents Guide" and earn the Cyber Chip Award for your grade. If you can do this and sign off on your boys' scout book, we will plan on the cyber chip training.  

This was also a full week of scouting. The PLC meeting Monday planned the day and meetings through mid-October. Plan to be outside for as long as we can working with daylight. Wednesday night was the Flintlock District Awards Night. Mr. Mark Rzepczynski and I attended. District advancement chair Mr. Quigley was recognized and earned a special award. All our Eagle scouts will know or get to know Mr. Quigley. All the rumors are true. We also were there to cheer on and offer congratulations to Charter Org Rep of the Year - David Owen. David is a hands-on guy who has created national trails and was recognized for his achievements. Well done and well earned.

Thursday thanks to Mr. Herrero, Mrs. Sprague, and Mr. McWilliams as they took on the challenge to get Scoutbook record-keeping up today. Scouts, Scouters (adult scout parents), and parents will benefit. Well done. The joy of this Troop is the scouts and also the parents who all chip in to do the work to keep the program going. Special thanks to Mr. Rzepczynski who put in 4 days/nights of scouting this week and maybe more with all the work he does for Life scouts working on their projects. We as a Troop earn praise from the council because of this good work. Well done and many thanks.

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.

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.