Live the Scout Law Daily!

The Troop Klondike: fire-building, tomahawk throwing, lashings, 2-man sawing, patrol cook-off, sled race, and a campfire program was a good learning experience for all. I think we need more practice and skill development in fire-building and cooking has come a long way.
Here are the results:

1. Lashing  - Ben Yankee Patrol
2. Fire building  - Lincoln – Uniform
3. Two Man Saw – Ben Yankee  1:03 vs 1:26 vs 2:16
4. Tomahawk Throw – Tied – Cameron Hotel 5 and Lincoln – Uniform – 5 Ben Yankee 3rd
5. Race – Ben Yankee 1:52, Lincoln Uniform – 2:04 Cameron Hotel – 2:14
6. Cooking 1 point difference  - Ben Yankee Lincoln Uniform

• Overall - Ben & Yankee Patrol - #1 - 10 low points
• #2 Lincoln’s Uniform Patrol - 11 points
• #3 Cameron’s Hotel Patrol - 15 Points

Troop 132 1st Place Team Category 2019 Gingerbread House Contest at Concord’s Colonial Inn. This entry (thanks Team Grady) received over 1200 votes and was a crowd favorite. Check out the Facebook page for a picture. Two gift certificates were the prize and they were converted to a check and a donation to the Scout House was made. Yea Troop 132!
 
Christmas Tree Thank You’s –A scout is courteous;  We have over 40 Concord residents who donated more than $50 and we will be enlisting help to send out “Thank you letters”. In the next meeting, we will carve some time out.
 
Opportunities
There is an intern position with the National Parks (in Concord). They reached out and wanted to share this opportunity: Opening for a Community Volunteer Ambassador. Apply to Margie Coffin Brown, Integrated Resources Program Manager/Historical Landscape Architect, Minute Man National Historical Park. 174 Liberty Street Concord, MA 01742 (cell) 617 620 2942
 
Advancement Corner – Service Projects
We have four total Troop service projects yearly: The semi-annual Dropoff & SwapOffs, a Cleanup day for the Scout House, and finally the Christmas Tree Pickup (1/2 credit for service hours because it is both fundraiser and service). These Troop service projects are as close to mandatory as we can ask. That said, please let Mr. Sprague or I know if you cannot attend any of the service opportunities. The Troop and community and need help. Just think of Christmas Tree pickup for example: each scout contributes through hard work and we raise about $175 per scout towards Troop expenses. So each scout makes a major contribution.

Star scouts need to perform 3 hours of a conservation minded project. Drop off Swap off is not one of them. Please seek permission from the Scoutmaster before (as required) to see if your service project fits.  

Eagle Projects: Our Troop culture is that every scout should help on these projects to the best of their scheduling ability. Someday, you will be needing help with your project and this is what we do in our Troop. We help each other. Often, many Eagle scouts come back to help showing how important this is. You can learn new skills and learn to work side by side with all our Troop. Please be on the lookout for these projects and be prepared to help.

Other Service Requests: We as a Troop get requests to help in many events. Unfortunately we can’t respond to them all and sometimes we will ask through the announcements for help on a specific event. If you can, please help. Otherwise, we plan our service projects out (Eagle projects are subject to approvals and other time constraints). For asking organizations, we would also ask them to have a youth protection trained adults and also an SM or ASM attending. This takes planning and while I would like to do more service projects, we are doing all we can now and just don’t have the capacity.

Service projects are also required for Camping and Citizenship merit badges. Generally, they are unique to the merit badge and Troop service does not satisfy those requirements. Of course, for high schoolers, you can count all your Troop and merit badge service hours, you earned it.