Trail Talk – 1/19/26

Good afternoon Troop 244!!! I hope you are all staying warm and cozy inside your houses on this very, very cold Monday afternoon! It looks to be cold all week, so please stay safe and warm!

Before I jump into the announcements below, I wanted to start off this week by addressing the trailer problem from the campout this last weekend. Please know that I am not going to go into specific details, but this is more of a For Your Information type of thing. First off, please be assured that everyone’s safety was always the #1 priority on our list! Everyone was fine and we all made it home safely. However, in the process of making it home, the Yellow Troop Trailer broke down. We had to leave it in Indiana overnight because we could not get it home. Thank you to Jeremy Custer and Scott Dunckel who are going to work on retrieving it this week, depending on weather. WE WILL NOT BE USING THE YELLOW TRAILER AGAIN UNTIL REPAIRS HAVE BEEN PROPERLY MADE. We also cannot use the red troop trailer now because that also needs some repairs. I don’t see repairs happening before the next campout so we will either rent a U-Haul trailer for the next campout OR if someone has an empty trailer that they would allow us to borrow for the weekend of the February Campout, that would be great.

Suffice it to say, the repairs to the yellow trailer are going to be extensive and costly. We do have a couple of scout leaders and a 244 Eagle Alum who are willing to make repairs for us but parts are still going to cost quite a bit. I would like to start a donation type fundraiser to help raise needed funds to fix the Yellow Trailer. I am going to try to put something up on Zeffy soon where, if you feel so inclined, you can donate funds to help us fix the Yellow Trailer and get it back to working conditions again. The trailer has served us very well for almost 13 years now and we would like to continue to use it. Any help towards the cost of the repairs would be greatly appreciated. Look for a place to donate that on Zeffy soon!

Aside from the issue with the trailer on Sunday morning, the campout itself was a great success! Every scout that attended earned the Moviemaking Merit Badge and they all did such great work both in presenting information but also in making their movies. We all had a ton of fun with this merit badge and definitely will consider keeping this in the books to do again in the future. It was a cold one this weekend, but we even had some scouts who slept outside on Friday night! It was a great campout!

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

TROOP MEETING CANCELLATIONS: I found out recently from Pathfinder Church that if Portage Public Schools cancel school, then Pathfinder Church also cancels all activities at the church for the day. Please keep this in mind. If Portage Public Schools cancels school tomorrow, Tuesday January 20th, due to weather, then Pathfinder has asked us to also cancel scouts. We will cancel scouts if this happens. Please look for an email from me as well as a Facebook post if scouts get cancelled. Thank you.

FEBRUARY CAMPOUT: ANTHONY WAYNE SCOUT RESERVATION – February 13 – 15th, 2026. $45 per scout, $20 per adult. COME AND CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY WITH YOUR FAVORITE TROOP AND YOUR LOVE OF SCOUTING! We will have 2 cabins, one for the girls and one for the boys! In honor of Valentine’s Day, we will have a Thanksgiving Dinner with Turkey and all the fixings! This is our annual Thanksgiving Meal campout! Your PLC will plan activities for the weekend. The permission slip for this campout is attached! You can start signing up with Sherry and paying the fee on Tuesday night!

SUMMER CAMP 2026 June 21 – 27th, 2026 PIONEER SCOUT RESERVATION! We are looking at the cost this year of $450/scout and $210/adult. Pioneer raised their prices approximately $20 over last year. This price includes the summer camp fee, T-shirt, and transportation. Summer Camp is one of the best things a scout can do to have a great outdoors time with their fellow scouts, to learn some new skills and to advance in rank. WE HAVE A SIGNUP FOR SUMMER CAMP STARTING THIS TUESDAY! YOU CAN SIGNUP NOW AND EVEN START MAKING PAYMENTS! WE WILL HAVE AN INFORMATIONAL MEETING FOR SUMMER CAMP IN APRIL AFTER SPRING BREAK! Please remember that every scout that goes to camp must have an updated Scouting America Physical form. The forms for last year DO NOT count! The physical forms are only good for 1 year. So, start thinking about this now and get your scout their physical form filled out Parts A, B1, B2 AND C. Adults attending camps or high adventures are required to have medical forms filled out as well!

 Scout Sunday EXTREMELY URGENT! EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Sunday, February 8th. Please plan to attend 1 of the 2 church services at Pathfinder Church on Sunday, February 8th, which is Scout Sunday. This is one of our ways to thank the church for all the ways that they support us in scouting. We have things that many other troops do not have, and we are so grateful for it. Please wear your uniform and come at either the 8:45 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. service. Please be there about 15 minutes early. I may need some scouts for a flag ceremony.

 Pictured Rocks Backpacking Trip – Please look for a more detailed information packet to be sent out soon. I am hoping to work on this packet this week so that those of you going on the trip know as much as I can tell you now! The dates for the trip are set at July 9 – 15th.

 SWAMPBASE – SwampBase participants, please remember to pay your payments as we need to make our final payment to SwampBase by the middle of next month. ALSO, EVERY SWAMPBASE participant will need to have a Scouting American Physical Form filled out in order to participate. This includes ALL parts, Part A, B1, B2 and C. Make sure you take care of this sooner rather than later!

Updated TAX Information for Charitable Giving  – Starting in 2025, taxpayers who do not itemize can claim an above-the-line deduction for cash donations to qualifying charities, up to $1,000 for single filers and $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. This means that even those taking the standard deduction can benefit from charitable giving.

 Mackinac Service Contingent Dates – July 18 – 25th, 2026 You will need to submit an application by February 10th. Applications will be available at any of the Callout Nights for the 2026 Troop. Those nights are Jan. 27th and Feb. 5th at 7:00 pm at First Congregational Church in St. Joseph. There is also a Callout Night, specifically for Portage, on February 2nd at Portage Chapel Hil Church on Oakland Drive. Question, ask Mr. Carr.

 Troop 244 Payment Portal – Zeffy. Our Zeffy page remains open for you to make payments or by troop merch! Wanna pay for the campout, Pictured Rocks, SwampBase, Registration, etc. Go to the following link: http://bit.ly/pay244

For troop Swag/Merch you can click on this link: http://bit.ly/244swag

 Scoutmaster Minute  – I must tell you that this troop continues to blow me away event after event. This last weekend, with the issues that we had with the trailer on Sunday morning would normally be the kind of thing that throws me into super stressed-out mode. I am not saying it didn’t but because we have both adults and scouts that are willing to jump in and work as a TEAM to be helpful, loyal, kind and so on, my super stress mode was a little more chill than normal. When the trailer first blew a tire, not only did Jeremy Custer and Michael Clapp jump right into fixing the flat, but we also had scouts that jumped in to helping us unload stuff from the trailer to make it easier to get to things and to lighten the load. When I called upon the rest of the drivers to try to take personal gear out of the trailer and fit it into their cars, everyone responded right away! The scouts were there to help move things around. They carried things on their laps on the way home so that we could get all the personal gear home. The adults were there to help with anything and everything they could. Everyone worked together as a team to make sure that we could end up with the best results possible. We even have troop alum who are willing to jump in and problem solve for us. I am blown away by our troop and our scouting community and how AWESOME everyone is! I want to thank you all for being the absolute BEST TROOP anywhere in this country!

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244!!!