Wow! Let me second our intrepid SPL’s assessment of yesterday’s event. It was well attended, well run, and I think a great time was had by everyone hosting and attending. Many thanks to all participants, especially our adult volunteers who put many hours of support into ensuring that scouts benefited appropriately based upon their levels of participation. We also thank our Knights of Columbus partners without whom none of this would have been possible. Excellent work all around – stay tuned for the results to be coming soon from our own very fine banker, Mr. Parizek. Many scout accounts within T648 are going to be much healthier going into this summer camp season.
Speaking of which, we currently have a good group of 25 scouts signed up for Camp Geronimo on July 7th.  No later than Tuesday night Mr. Benyi needs to know your 6 requested merit badge selections, as merit badge sign-up has opened at the camp and the most popular ones are filling up. If you have not been to see your physician to get the annual BSA health form completed, that also needs to occur before July – the form is under ‘documents’ on our website.  If you haven’t signed up for camp, and would like to, please see Mr. Benyi Tuesday night. It will be a bit of a scramble, but it is still not too late! Camp experience in Arizona’s northern pines is the one of the cornerstones of our troop’s scouting experience – I hope you are able to join us!
Two weekends from now will be a mini-version of the Camp Geronimo experience, as we head north for District Camporee. Most of the troops in the Four Peaks District will send their troops, and it will be a weekend outing of scouting camaraderie and competition shared with our District peers. It will logistically be a normal outing, where we will leave on Friday night, have fast food dinner, camp two nights, cook by patrols, and return by Sunday noon. The weather is warming up in Phoenix next weekend, so come join us for a cool down in fabulous Bumble Bee, Arizona.
Additional items to plan for include a mountain bike day outing next weekend in the McDowell Mountains. There will be two tracks – a more advanced trail for the accomplished mountain bikers, and a more leisurely trail for those less experienced. Stay tuned for announcements from young Mr. Harness for the details. We also have a key event coming up Saturday May 5th. Young Mr. Kuhl is coordinating the 2012 troop shed improvement and spring cleaning program – an opportunity to get our shed put back together, and to bring together troop equipment from the various garages and attics where it has accumulated over the years. Let’s all take this opportunity to ensure that our patrols are fully outfitted and know what they have and/or need, and the junk cluttering our ability to do this is carted away and disposed of.
For those of you older scouts, please continue to work on your Citizenship merit badge with Mr. Clapp. We also have an opportunity to now be working on the Personal Fitness merit badge with Mr. Conrad – please sign up directly with him. Keep working on your advancements, we will have another Court of Honor in June, prior to summer camp to ensure you have your current rank awarded by the time Camp Geronimo comes our way.
See you Tuesday night!
Mr. Cole