Great Start to the New Year!

Dear Scouts,

Many thanks for a great job last weekend. Hundreds of Christmas trees were picked up and all the donations will help our troop purchase equipment, reduce the costs of outings, and provide some cost relief for summer camp. You should all be very proud.

I’m very happy to report that I received and witnessed many good deeds. You helped people with their trees, you helped each other load and unload, and you helped each other stay energized and focused through a long day. You were prepared (our motto) and you lived the scout law.

Let’s start with Trustworthy: You showed up when you said you would. Others depended on you to coordinate pickups and chase cars, and off you went working together. The simple thing of doing what you say and saying what you do builds trusts. I know we can count on you and others can and that’s the basis for trust. As the saying goes, it’s hard to build and easy to break.

I also hope you had fun. I know in our truck that, between Marcus and Alexander they consumed a couple boxes of Uncrustables, in addition to a couple pizzas and donuts! Some trees were easy to pickup, some were hard to find, and they were all covered with dusting of snow which meant by the 3rd you’re your gloves and pants were all wet. You overcame all these challenges in a friendly and cheerful manner and were fun to work with.

Congratulations and well done. I am very proud of you all and how we all worked together for the service of our town and I know I received several comments on how well run the event was and how kind and courteous you all were toward each other and to the citizens of Concord.

We have a couple meetings to plan for the next outing and also finish up some things like the Metalworking MB and planning for Eagle.

We have been making some hand molds for the Metalworking Merit Badge and want to finish up any molds. This coming Monday night I will host a molding session at Monument Hall starting at 5:30pm for anyone who wants to do a mold. It will take about 30 minutes each. I can use some help. After the molds are complete, we are planning a trip to Mr. Anthony’s Foundry to cast these in aluminum. This should be exciting and will need some help from the PLC on dates and times to make this work.  Also, please remember that Mr. Sprague is leading First Aid Merit Badge training on five Sundays spread out over the next couple of months; it starts next week (Sunday January 22), so be sure to sign up!

The next exciting outings are the Ice Climbing outing (January 28), the winter skills (Klondike) training (January 29), and then the Klondike or Polar Bear Challenge 2023. You will need to know the bowline and timber hitch, first aid, especially hypothermia signs and treatment, how to start a fire with flint and steel, how to saw wood, how to set up ice fishing and be good marksmen in rifle, and how to find your way with map and compass. Finally, you need to race faster than all the other troops to win the 2023 Polar Bear Challenge. I know you can do it but you need to work hard to build the skills.

Do you good turn daily.

Yours in Scouting,
Mr. Duggan