Trail Talk – 11/10/25

Good Afternoon Troop 244!!!

Happy Monday! I hope you are all doing well! We had quite a nice weekend of camping this weekend. It is always exciting in some way shape or form when Troop 244 goes camping! I didn’t get a chance to get out there until Saturday evening but when I got out there, everyone seemed to be doing quite well, having fun and enjoying interacting with Troop 287! I think our scouts and their scouts had a great time of camaraderie and Scout fellowship, which is exactly what we were hoping would happen. We will look forward to hopefully seeing 287 at Summer Camp next summer and camping with them again next Fall.

SCOUT MEETING TOMORROW(TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11) NIGHT AT 7:00 PM! After a week off, we are back to meeting again. Please plan on being at tomorrow night’s Scout Meeting so you can continue to work on rank advancement and merit badges! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night!

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

MISSING ITEM FROM CAMPOUT – One of our scouts, Will Thornton, has misplaced a red Nike sweatshirt from the campout. He knows for sure he had it on the campout but came home without it. If someone on the campout mistakenly packed it into their bag or if someone saw it and knew what happened to it, please either bring it to our scout meeting tomorrow night or let me or Christy know what happened to it. We want to make sure to try to get this back to Will if we can! AGAIN, we are looking for a RED NIKE SWEATSHIRT! Please bring it to the troop meeting if you have it!

EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT – Yuna Sullins will be completing her Eagle Scout Project THIS Saturday, November 15th at Pathfinder Church from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. She needs YOUR help! She will be rebuilding and installing 6 outdoor chapel benches towards the back of the property, at the current outdoor fire pit and worship area behind the softball field. Please wear warm, old clothes that you are willing to get dirty. Bring hats, gloves and old shoes to wear. Please also bring work gloves if you have them and water bottles! If you have any questions or concerns about the project, please feel free to contact Yuna at 269-355-2528.  THIS IS A BIG DEAL FOR YUNA! Please come out and help her to complete her Eagle Project! Please see attached flyer about her project!

PACK 235 CROSSOVER – NEXT Monday, November 17th at 6:30 pm at Pathfinder Church. We have a couple of scouts who have crossed over into our troop from Pack 235 recently. They will do their official Arrow of Light ceremony and crossover into Troop 244 at their Pack Meeting on Nov. 17th. We NEED scouts from our troop there to welcome them to our troop! The more the merrier! Let’s really show Pack 235 how we welcome scouts to our troop and let’s make these new scouts feel how welcome they are. We want them to know what troop does more! If you can attend and help with the crossover on Nov. 17th, it would be much appreciated!

TWELVE BASKETS FOOD DRIVE – Starting Tuesday November 18th.  It is that time of year again, Thanksgiving is almost here and that means there are those people out there that need our help. We will once again be collecting non-perishable food items to donate to Twelve Baskets Food Pantry to be distributed to those that might be a little less fortunate than us this holiday season. We will start collecting food items NEXT WEEK Tuesday, November 18th! We will continue to collect food items until our Holiday Party on December 16th. That gives us 5 Tuesday meetings to bring in Food Items. We will put the shopping cart outside of the Scout Room and you can place your donations in the shopping cart. Often, this time of year, stores have sales on canned goods and you can go to the store and buy items for real cheap. Please consider purchasing goods and bringing them in so that we can turn around and donate them to Twelve Baskets!

Registration – DUE TUESDAY DECEMBER 9TH!! It is time to start paying your re-registration fee for another year of scouting. The cost for re-registration is $210 per scout and $100 per adult leader. WE WANT YOU TO PAY THIS DIRECTLY TO THE TROOP! You will most likely start receiving emails directly from the council or from national about re-registering. DO NOT REREGISTER ONLINE OR THROUGH THE COUNCIL OR NATIONAL. To streamline registration and make the least confusing as possible for you and for us, it is better if you pay the registration fee directly to the troop and then let us pay the national and council fees for you. You can pay the registration fee directly to Sherry or online at Zeffy (see below).

Please keep in mind that for scouts or adults to attend activities that must be registered paying members of Scouting America. We are not allowed to have scouts attend activities if they are not a registered paying member of the organization. Please do not wait until the last possible moment to take care of this. This is a lot easier if we can get it done sooner rather than later. Take care of this TODAY!

Troop 244 Payment Portal – Zeffy. To make paying for campouts, registration, and other events a little easier, Troop 244 utilizes an online payment site. You can even purchase Troop 244 swag on the site and the pick it up at a troop meeting. Right now, you can make payments for the November campout, Swampbase, Philmont deposit and your scout registration on our site. Just go to this link here to use it: Troop 244 Zeffy

Pack 287 Crossover – Monday, December 15th at 7:00 p.m. at Amberly Elementary. Just like we have scouts that are crossing over from Pack 235 next Monday night, we have at least 1 scout and possibly more that will be crossing over from Pack 287! We need to have our scouts on hand to welcome these new scouts to Troop 244. We are looking for scouts to attend the Pack 287 Crossover on Monday, December 15th at 7:00 p.m. We have at least 1 girl(Frederick Thurn’s sister) and possibly more will be joining Troop 244. Let’s make them feel welcome. If you are able, please plan to attend this Pack crossover and welcome these new scouts to the best troop around!

SwampBase Participants – SwampBase participants! You know who you are! Please continue to make monthly payments for your SwampBase Trek. $160/ month with the balance due by February 15th.  Questions about SwampBase, please see Mike King.

Philmont 2027 – More information coming soon! I still have 3 spots open right now. You can secure those spots by paying $150 deposit. This is due by November 15th. If you have not paid your deposit yet, you need to pay by Nov. 15th. We need to pay Philmont by December 1st.

December Movie Event – December 14th at 2:00 p.m. at M89 Cinema in Plainwell! Cost is $10 per person and includes ticket, small pop and small popcorn. We will be seeing Zootopia 2 by popular vote. We will have a sign-up and permission slip available starting at THIS WEEK’S troop meeting, November 11th. Permission Slip is also attached to this trail talk. We will also be asking for drink orders ahead of time so that the theater can have that already! They have Pepsi Products.

Pictured Rocks Backpacking Trip – More information coming soon. I should be sending out an information sheet within the next week. All information will be tentative at this point until more firm plans can be made in January. Thank you for your patience.

Scoutmaster Minute – This last weekend, camping with 287, really got me to thinking about how scout troops within and organization can operate very differently from one another. I have known that for years. One of my favorite things to do whenever we are at a large scouting event, such as a camporee, or the Haunted Woods, or a Klondike, or Springfield, is to walk around and observe how different troops do things. I get a kick out of seeing how they set up their dining flies or how they cook their meals. I love to see how their adult leaders interact with the scouts and so on. One thing I have noticed over the years though is that scout troops can be very, very different from one another. Something else I have noticed is that troops being different from one another CAN BE OK!! I think that scout troops doing things differently from one another is a good thing. In doing that, a youth can find a scout troop that matches their personality, schedule and/or what they want to get out of scouting. Troop 244 has long been criticized for how we do things because we don’t do scouting, necessarily, the way that “fits the mold”. I am not going to say whether that is better or worse than other troops, it is simply different. It works for us. What I think a lot of people lose sight of is the ultimate goal in scouting. Are we helping to mold youth and create leaders of tomorrow WHO FOLLOW THE SCOUT OATH AND LAW in their everyday life. Some troops do this by sticking very closely to the rules and following the “letter of the law”. Other troops do this by following the rules but maybe in a different way, seeking the “spirit” of the rule rather than the strict verbatim way the rule is written. Some troops do this by attending local council activities frequently while other troops come up with their own activities to do. The point is IT DOESN’T MATTER…if we are all working towards the same goal! We want scouts to go out into the world to make the world better and they can do so by being role models, following the scout oath and law. Yes, Troop 244 has long been criticized for doing things differently but so have other troops for doing things the way they have done them. Critics don’t often keep the big picture in mind and that is what each one of us must strive to do. As long as no one is breaking the rules or doing anything legally, morally, or ethically wrong, then it is ok that troops are different from one another and do the scouting program differently.

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244!!!