Yours in Scouting

NOVEMBER BACKPACKING TRIP from Melissa Liazos
On November 9-11, 11 Scouts and 4 parents headed out for a 3 day/2 night (or for some, 2 day/1 night) trek on the Midstate Trail. We started in Ashburnham on a cold but clear day on November 9, with a hike to the summit to Mt. Watatic. Scouts enjoyed the beautiful views and even brought out the Troop flag for a picture. On the way back down we picked up our heavy backpacks and hiked to our campsite for day one on Fisher Hill. On Day 2 we picked up a few more Scouts and continued our journey, at times walking on the road and even through a cow pasture where we got some very puzzled looks from the cows and decided to continue our hike on the other side of the pasture fence, just in case … We camped at the Muddy Pond shelter, filtering drinking water from the pond and building a welcome campfire. The bananas with chocolate and marshmallows in tin foil were a big hit. The Scouts were helpful and supportive to one another, and displayed excellent use of the patrol method. Lessons learned included double-checking your backpack to make sure you had all the needed gear, but also not carrying unnecessary items. A big thanks to Scouts Ben Sprague, Lucas Anthony, and Jonah Carter for their leadership, and to parents Mike Sprague, Ed O’Neill, Arthur Anthony, and Melissa Liazos for joining the trip.


From our Scoutmaster:
Happy Thanksgiving to our scouting family and friends. We hope you enjoy the holiday with family and friends. I’m grateful for the support at last weekend’s Turkey Drive. Lots of help from adults, scouts, and youth at the parish collecting about 250 turkeys for CrossRoads Family Shelter. It was cold, wet, and we appreciate the donated turkeys and cash donations that were used to buy turkeys. Thanks for all of the support for this worthwhile cause. This made a difference for the many families for Thanksgiving and also for the upcoming holidays.

It was nice to see and connect with a few of our scouting alumni. John, Alex, Logan, Will, and Xander to name a few. Some of the alumni went to 5 Guys and a movie (Ford vs. Ferrari). We welcome all our scouts to join us any time during the holidays and thanks for keeping in touch. We know that you are all living the scout law in your adventures.

December is fast approaching and we have camping & shooting in December, elections, and appointments of positions of responsibilities coming on December 10 and we have our Holiday Party on December 17. The PLC recommended a $15-20 gift for the swap and this is optional and fun.

On the first Saturday in January we have our Christmas Tree Pickup one day blitz to pick up 700 or so trees and raise funds to support our Troop programs. We will need all hands (mandatory) to help. More details to follow.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving break and prepare ahead for some good scouting. There are ample opportunities to put the scout law into practice; Helpful, friendly, courteous….just to name a few!