Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

Good evening Scottsdale!

T648’s 28 summer camp scouts returned triumphantly from Mataguay Scout Ranch yesterday, leaving the beautiful 42 degree morning and arriving back to the Blessed Sacrament parking lot and our depressingly normal July 110 degrees.  It was a hugely successful, fun and safe week, where the boys averaged more than 4 completed merit badges per scout (much higher than normal), there were a number of rank and skill advancements, smiles and laughter too numerous to quantify, and best of all – a spider bite was the worst T648 injury of the week.  In between negotiating massive COPE courses, glider flights, pirate overnights, spooky fire stories, raccoons in tents, cinematography, radio broadcasting, lifesaving, wild turkeys in camp, horseback riding, black powder rifles, compound bows, dragon boat races, and fishing competitions, our youth learned many things about themselves as scouts and as people.  Our troop was the sharpest dressed and most orderly marchers, and had 100% participation in many camp activities such as the daybreak water dogs swim, the daylight nature hike, the spooky campfire story night, and the overnight “Rugged O”, where every scout slept on the ground under the stars somewhere within the scout ranch (or perhaps more accurately stated, tried to sleep).  My favorite memory is of our entire troop on the dam far across the lake, cheering our entry in the cardboard dragon boat race to a 6^th place finish, but then staying on as a group and wildly cheering a tiny California scout in his mini-boat to a successful and exhausting finish long after all other boats had finished or sunk, and many other troops had left.  Your young men are outstanding individuals, and together make an exceptional troop – one with which I am most proud to serve.  Thank you for sending them to camp this year.  Thanks as well to the 6 adults who joined the troop for the entire week.  It was sometimes an exhilaratingly wild ride, but ultimately extremely rewarding for all of us.

Next on the horizon, a dozen of the more senior scouts and scouters are looking forward to an even more exhilarating trip in a couple of weeks – a 10 day backpack through Philmont Scout Ranch.  We have announced the first of our leadership changes as young Mr. Andrews takes over for young Mr. Finnegan.  We owe many thanks to both of these terrific young men as they transition the Senior Patrol Leader role.  We will also be reconfiguring the patrols and assigning other new leadership roles within the Patrol Leadership Council (PLC) as we work our way toward the PLC planning session weekend, to be held at a local resort the weekend of August 19^th.

This coming Tuesday we have our normal troop meeting, preceded by an optional tenderfoot and second class scout skills session at 6PM at the church with Mr. Butler.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Mr. Cole

Greetings!

Summer Camp is here; hopefully everyone is finishing up their preparations. A few final notes:

1) Please remember, we will meet at the church tomorrow (Saturday 7/9) between 4pm-6pm to load the trailers and prepare for departure. Please bring: all gear (packed), bicycles (if you are bringing one), health forms, medication, spending money, permission slips & any paperwork not yet completed.

2) Please arrive in uniform on Sunday 7/10 at 5:30am, ready to go!

3) We will return to Phoenix on Saturday, 7/16 in the mid-afternoon. (I apologize for a typo in the bulletin that said we would return Saturday, 7/18.) We are indeed returning on Saturday, 7/16.

4) The troop will not hold the regular meeting next week. Meetings will resume on 7/19.

Please contact me with any questions regarding summer camp.

Thank you, Mr. Benyi

Happy Fourth of July…

I hope you have all had a time of celebration and family togetherness this extended weekend, and that your fireworks show this evening will be dry!  We are really truly finally in the home stretch for summer camp.  Please review Mr. Benyi’s last Camp Mataguay overview, sent out via email this weekend, and let us know if you have any remaining questions.  We will also have troop meeting tomorrow night, so that will be an excellent opportunity to get any remaining paperwork checked off / completed.  Please ensure that health forms, insurance card copies, permission slips, payments, and merit badge selections are all finalized.  In less than a week, the T648 caravan will be Westward Ho!

Don’t forget that PLC and optional tenderfoot skills training begin tomorrow at 6PM, followed by our final pre-camp troop meeting at 7PM at Blessed Sacrament.  See you there….

Mr. Cole

Good morning!

Thanks to the 39 of you who participated in our backpacking and equipment meeting at REI last week.  Hopefully it gives you some additional ideas on how to pack, what the essentials might be, and some ways to get more out of a hike.  Remember that it is not always how much you spend on backpacking, it is the preparation that goes into what you take that helps make it a more enjoyable and successful outing.

I hope you are out enjoying the cool morning, seeing as how it is only going to be 116 degrees today.  Makes one more than ready for a trip to summer camp in southern California, doesn’t it?  Only two more troop meetings until we head to Camp Mataguay!  Start thinking about what you will want to pack for a week at summer camp.  Do you have your merit badge books, and have you begun to look through them?  Cross reference the prerequisites in the note last month from Mr. Benyi.  Do you have your health form completed, or an appointment with your doctor scheduled?  Mr. Benyi will be sending out one of his famed planning emails shortly to help you and your parents with final planning.  I’m looking forward to a marvelous week of adventure!  And speaking of adventure – it is less than a month before almost a dozen of our older scouts will be heading out for the adventure to end all adventures – a ten day backpacking trip through Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico.  Wow!

Don’t forget Tenderfoot training tomorrow at 6PM at the church, ahead of the troop meeting.  I look forward to seeing you there…

Mr. Cole

Good morning,

I hope that you had a memorable holiday weekend.  It was not a particularly relaxing one for the Andrews family, but what an outstanding Eagle Scout project!  Many thanks to the 35 scouts and adults who participated on Saturday, and those who also helped to do prep and finish work on Friday and Sunday, the charity Casa de Suenos now has a first class ramada and BBQ area along with some freshly weeded flower and vegetable gardens.  Scouts had tons of fun while actually also learning roofing, tiling and painting skills.  Congratulations to young Mr. Andrews on a well planned and unique project.

Last week was also the orientation meeting for new parents – many thanks to Mr. Benyi for organizing it, and for the many participants - both helping and attending.  Hopefully this answered many of your questions, but always feel free to reach out to myself or any adult leader with anything you are missing or do not understand.  Looking ahead, please remember that there is no tenderfoot training class this week at 6PM, but Mr. Butler and team will resume again on 6/28 for those of you looking to  progress on a number of the initial scout skills such as first aid, maps & compass and knot tying.  This is also the week that we will be meeting offsite at 7PM on Tuesday night at REI across from Paradise Valley Mall.  The address is 12634 E. Paradise Valley Parkway – just north of Cactus.  Please wear your Class A uniforms as usual.

Summer camp is now less than three weeks away.  If you are attending, please ensure that you are complete with payments, health forms, merit badge selections and books, and permission forms.  We have 29 scouts headed for a week in southern California – Mataguay here we come!

Mr. Cole

Hello everyone!

As most of you know my eagle project will be occurring tomorrow at 6 AM in the morning. We will be reconstructing a ramada and barbecue area along with adding some paths at a facility known as Casa  de Suenos. The casa is part of the Tumbleweed organization which takes in kids who have been abandoned in the US after being illegally shipped in and gives them a home while they wait to be returned to their families. By doing this project, we are giving them back their outdoor meeting area and helping them have a nice spot to relax in.

We will be supplying breakfast and lunch, but you may want to bring a snack if you get hungry alot.

Please Bring: Workgloves, a water bottle, sun protection(hat, sunscreen)

Directions: This starts from my house. Sorry. Just start the directions from Going East on Shea.

Just paste the url into your browser. The link doesnt work so i took it out.

http://classic.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Scottsdale&1s=AZ&1a=10836+N+65th+St&1z=85254-5017&1y=US&1l=33.584875&1g=-111.941695&1v=ADDRESS&2c=Phoenix&2s=AZ&2a=1733+W+Mountain+View+Rd&2z=85021-2033&2y=US&2l=33.574881&2g=-112.096843&2v=ADDRESS

Good morning,

A reminder to join us in the cool of the morning for Mr. Andrews’ very creative and ambitious Eagle Project.  He has provided details via flyers and email over the past few weeks.  We will be meeting at the job site at 6AM.  If you require directions, need a ride, or have any other questions please contact Mr. Andrews or Mr Cole through the usual methods – cell or email.

Mr. Cole

Good morning,

What a week it was!  An inaugural assistant scoutmaster meeting developed a fantastic initial roadmap to support success in the upcoming year. A most excellent rank advancement court of honor recognized the hard work put in by our scouts, and awarded more than a dozen rank advancements prior to summer camp. And an outstanding weekend on the water was enjoyed by 30 of our troop boys and adults during the canoeing at Apache Lake, kudos to young Mr. McFetters for exceptional planning.  Many of our newest scouts and dads were introduced to one of the basics within T648 – our connection to the great Arizona outdoors.  Many were capsized, all were successfully again rightsized, we performed a service project to defray our camp fees, and then everyone came down the hill warm, tired, & ready for a shower.  I understand some of the older boys even did a good turn by feeding one of the hungry indigenous wildlife from their adundant dinner resources. Nicely done, men!

Tomorrow we will NOT have tenderfoot training ahead of the 7PM troop meeting.  The next tenderfoot training will be 6/28 at 6PM.  Tomorrow night in parallel with the troop meeting will be a parent orientation meeting on all things T648 – come with any of your questions as to how the troop functions.  This coming weekend on 6/18 will be J Andrews’ Eagle Project – all are encouraged to attend this very worthwhile service project coordinated by one of our boy leaders.  Stay tuned for further details tomorrow night and on this website.  Looking ahead, we will have a field trip to REI on 6/21 for orientation on the latest in camping / backpacking equipment.  Finally, keep in mind that summer camp is just over the horizon.  Merit badges should already have been selected through Mr. Benyi, health forms should be coordinated through Mr. Cole, and accounting for the $400 in camp & travel fees should be finalized with Mr. Benyi.  Now would also be an excellent time to obtain all merit badge books for your scout from our T648 library or the scout shop, and to begin work on the prerequisites for assigned camp classes as outlined in Mr. Benyi’s earlier emails.  There is no time like the present to be exercising the Boy Scout Motto!

Many thanks for your involvement in our troop.  We appreciate each and every one of you.  See you Tuesday night!

Mr. Cole