Even on those weeks when we are not on an outing, there is often a lot of activity in Troop 648 in addition to our Tuesday meetings. This week we had two excellent Eagle candidate scoutmaster conferences, as Mr. Martin and Mr. Zahnow prepare for their Eagle Boards of Review.  Hopefully everyone has been selling Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast tickets to benefit the Conti family as they struggle with the cancer treatments for their 12 year old daughter. Today there was a lively and informative gun safety course attended by 16 youth of our troop, and hosted ably by Mr. Norling. This is in preparation for the true motivation – upcoming trips to Ben Avery Range to try out the safe handling techniques learned in the class, and as requirements for the rifle shooting merit badge.
The primary goal for this coming Tuesday will be final checkouts and planning for next weekend’s outing to Peppersauce Caverns outside of Oracle. Remember to bring clothing layers, knit hats and gloves for the cool weather, headlamps, flashlights, bicycle helmets or hardhats for the caves. Hope everyone can attend – it will be a terrific opportunity to explore underground, as well as obtain additional rank advancements.
Two other upcoming opportunities are focused on fundraising for the boys’ scout accounts – money that the boys can use to defray the costs of being a scout such as outings and summer camp.  First we have the troop garage sale at the McFetters’ on the 11th of December. Be planning items you can contribute to the sale  – we can begin dropping them off the weekend of the 4th. The boys can also raise money for their scout accounts by obtaining tips through gift wrapping at local book stores during the month of December.   Signups have already begun, and are coordinated by Mrs. Yu.
Happy trails – it’s always an awesome time to be a scout in T648!
Mr. Cole