Good afternoon,
Summer may be here, but T648 activities are still in full swing. Thirteen young scouts were a part of 39 T648 friends and family taking part in the 2nd Class local wild animal identification skills requirement held at the Phoenix Zoo with Mr. Butler. Once completed, further exploration of Komodo dragons, orangutans and other non-native Arizona animals ensued. Other boys continued to explore merit badges opportunities this weekend throughout the valley. With no school work hanging over our heads, long summer days are terrific times to do exercises, practice knots, or review for advancement boards of review. Your patrol leaders, troop guides or adult leaders really earn their keep when you are demonstrating for them what you have learned to do!
Speaking of advancement, after the PLC leaders meeting at 6PM on Tuesday this week, we will have our Summer rank advancement court of honor celebration at 7PM. All family and friends of T648 are encouraged to attend. We will have the honor of formally recognizing all the hard work this spring resulting in new ranks and badges for more than a dozen scouts. Merit badges earned will be presented at our end of summer COH after summer camp. We also want to recognize recent terrific fundraising accomplishments with a few sales awards. But keep in mind that everyone who participated was a winner - with corresponding increases in their scout accounts. Nicely done!  Later this weekend we will have an opportunity to cool off with our canoe outing at Apache Lake. How good that last month we decided to move the outing from Big Lake, so that the water would be warmer for swimming at Apache. As it turns out, the Willows fire outside of Big Lake would have been VERY warm. The weekend of June 18th will be J. Andrews’ Eagle Project to rebuild a ramada and grill for a very deserving charity in south Phoenix. And of course, summer camp is but a short month away.  For those of you attending Camp Mataguay, all merit badge selections and payments should be in to the troop, and medical exams should be completed or scheduled – they are requirements for participation at camp.
As a reminder, there will be no 6PM tenderfoot training on Tuesday night this week. Come instead at 7PM and bask in the glory of the advancing scouts from T648!
Mr. Cole