Trail Talk – 11/3/25

Good Afternoon Troop 244!!!

Happy November!! I want to once again give my sincere thanks to all of you who came out and participated in cleaning out the troop sheds on Saturday! It was a lot of hard work put in, a lot of memories(for me at least) and a lot of purposeful progress on helping to make the space a better and more usable space for the troop. You all certainly helped to show your scout spirit on Saturday! Thank you!

Couple of quick things to make sure you pay attention to below:

• NO TROOP MEETING THIS WEEK, TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4
• NOVEMBER CAMPOUT, NEXT WEEKEND.
• YUNA SULLINS EAGLE PROJECT

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

TOMORROW, Tuesday, November 4 –NO TROOP MEETING due to election day at church. All church activities are cancelled, and the building is closed except for the election.

November Campout – NOV 7 – 9TH!! AT CAMP TAMARACK  (Woods Lake Scout Reservation). The cost for this campout is $45, and the permission slip is attached.  You can still pay for this campout up until tomorrow night(Tuesday) at 8:00 p.m. on Zeffy(see below). We will be taking the Zeffy Link down at 8:00 p.m. tomorrow. You can bring in a signed permission slip on Friday night. However, we NEED to know if you are going because of food and transportation!  If you want to go on this one, don’t wait until the last minute to sign up on Zeffy. Sign up tonight!

EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT – Yuna Sullins will be completing her Eagle Scout Project on 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! You can also earn Service Hours for helping out!

PACK 235 CROSSOVER – 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!

Registration – DUE TUESDAY DECEMBER 9TH!! It is time to start paying your reregistration fee for another year of scouting. The cost for reregistration 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 reregistering. 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

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 NEXT week’s troop meeting, November 11th. We will also be asking for drink orders ahead of time so that the theater can have that already! They have Pepsi Products.

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.

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.

Pictured Rocks Backpacking Trip – More information coming soon. All information will be tentative at this point until more firm plans can be made in January. Thank you for your patience.

 Scoutmaster Minute – Everyone receiving this troop trail talk is a part of our scout troop or scouting community. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question “Why am I in scouting?”. Seems kind of like a weird question to ask if you are already a part of the organization. I am sure that most scouts might answer with something like “my parents made me” or “it is something my parents wanted me to try”. Most of the time, the answers are external, meaning that someone else is the reason why you are in scouting. That was my reason for joining scouting…my mom made me. However, think about that question again and maybe rephrase it…”Why am I still in scouting?”. You might get some different answers this time around. Some scouts might say “I like the things we learn”, others might say “I like going on the campouts and trips”, and yet others might say something along the lines of “It is where I feel I belong”. Stop, take a minute to think of that. This could mean 2 different things. It could mean that it is a place where I feel that I should be. It could also mean a place where people accept me for who I am, and I fit in. Most of the time, in my eyes, those two things go hand in hand. You feel it is where you should be because people accept you for who you are. I hope that we are a troop that accepts people for who they are and we help them to belong. That is the reason I am still in scouting. I tried other things in my life but nowhere did I feel like I belonged more than in scouting. It is where I have my place and my people. Does that mean every scout will reach the rank of Eagle Scout. Absolutely not. However, it can mean that it can be a place where every scout will find a place to be who they are and want to be. Keep that in mind when you think about how we treat each other, and we welcome new scouts into the troop. Let’s help everyone to find a place in Troop 244.

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244!!!