Good evening,
On Friday we had another excellent turnout to staff the Blessed Sacrament fish fry and sell flag-pins – many thanks for the terrific effort to ensure we are giving back to our host organization. We received many compliments, and even some individual donations to the troop this week from happy customers. Saturday morning we had a disappointingly sparse turnout for fire-by-friction practice, so with only a week to go until Scout-O-Rama, we are going to modify our approach to include firestarting (using flint & steel and/or magnesium), so that our younger scouts will have some success in training scouts at the event. We also had a number of boys taking a fishing merit badge this weekend, as well as an adult crew beginning the process of readying the troop shed for painting. A special thanks to Mr. Norling and Mr. Andrews for being big cats on a hot tin roof.
This week we have PLC on Tuesday night at 6PM, followed by the troop meeting at 7PM. The key focus for this week will include preparation for Scout-O-Rama. We will ask that boys take a two hour shift each on Saturday to man the tent at the event down at Kiwanis Park. We will have stations set up where scouts from other troops can try fire-by-friction and firestarting techniques with coaching by our boys. Your patrol leaders will be building the lists to staff the event. We will also begin planning for the pancake breakfast and auction/raffle. Please plan to sell tickets in advance, work the event on 4/30 from 7-10:30, and contribute to the raffle baskets and auction items. This is an opportunity to work as individuals and as a patrol, and especially to make $$ for your scout accounts. Finally, for those hikers in the crowd – start preparing for our April outing on the 15th – a backpacking opportunity in the Superstitions to take advantage of this glorious time of year!
Because of PLC this week, we will take a sabbatical from the Citizenship Merit Badge class with Mr. Clapp. That class will resume on Tuesday the 12th. See you Tuesday night!
Mr. Cole