Trail Talk 5/12/25

Last Wednesday we had three of our scouts go for their Eagle Scout Board of Reviews! As a troop, let us all congratulate Troop 244’s newest Eagle Scouts, Ethan Wadsworth, Elliot Anderson and Ryan Greene! These young men have done a fabulous job and are very worthy to hold the rank of Eagle Scout. Along with Ivan Kwigzile, we will look to hold an Eagle Court of Honor sometime later this summer! For now, make sure you congratulate them when you see them!

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

MAY CAMPOUT PIONEER SCOUT RESERVATION (Reminder/Signup) – May 16 – 18. The last day to sign up for this campout is THIS TUESDAY!! TOMORROW NIGHT! WE NEED YOU! We need you to sign up, turn in your permission slip and pay the $40 cost for this campout. Right now, we have about 24 people going on this campout but to clean a campsite the size of Klewer we need more help! We will also have specific free time on the campout as well as play capture the Flag at night! Please sign up for the campout tomorrow!

Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge REMINDER!! –  THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING IS THIS TUESDAY, MAY 13TH! If you are taking the Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge currently, please remember that you will be attending the City of Portage meeting THIS Tuesday  May 13th. The meeting starts at 6pm so you need to be there 5:45pm-5:50pm. We will stay at the meeting for approximately 50 minutes and then head to the church for opening ceremonies and after that to discuss the meeting.

Adelynn Beery Eagle Project – Adelynn is doing her Eagle Scout Service Project!! This is exciting, another Eagle Scout on her path to the Eagle Rank! She will be the second female in the girl troop to complete an Eagle Scout Project but to do so she needs YOUR help! Please see the details below. If you can spare a bit of time on Saturday, May 24th, she would appreciate it

ORDER OF THE ARROW! – For those of you who were elected to the Order of the Arrow this last spring, remember, this means that you are only a candidate for the Order. To completely be a member you must complete your Induction/Ordeal. The closest camp to us with an Induction coming up is Camp Gerber on the weekend of May 30th! Here is the link to register for that: https://scoutingevent.com/272-90600-214328

Portage Memorial Day Parade – Memorial Day, May 26th! We will once again be marching in the Portage Memorial Day Parade. We will gather at 9:00 a.m. in Crossroads Mall Parking Lot across from JC Penney. The parade starts at 10:00 a.m. and we will end at the Portage Bandshell behind the Police Station. Usually, the parade lasts about an hour. Parents, please plan to pick up your scouts behind the Portage Police Station!

June Campout – Pentwater – June 6 – 8th, Hill and Hollow Campground, Pentwater, MI. I am already putting information about the Pentwater campout in the Trail Talk so that you can all think ahead about this! This is one of the most FUN campouts that, in my opinion, we do all year! This is meant to be an end of the school year celebration for all the hard work that scouts have put in over the years. We have been doing this campout since 1995, and I want to make sure that we keep doing it! You can come to the campout and not have to worry about working on scouting requirements. You can come to completely have fun…swim in the pool, play at the arcade, ride the go-karts, go to Lake Michigan Beach and so on. You will have to bring your own money for arcade, go-karts and so on. The cost of campout is TBD but will cover the normal, gas, lodging and food. Put this on your Calendar now and plan on it! We have had lower numbers in recent years and if we get too low, then it will become too expensive to do this campout anymore. That would be sad! COME AND JOIN THE FUN!!

SUMMER CAMP 2025(Check-In) –Pioneer Scout Reservation the week of June 15 – 21st! Please make sure you are paying any outstanding balances due for summer camp and getting in the necessary paperwork that needs to be turned in for scouts and leaders! This is important! We have to have this done. Scouts, are you getting prepared for Summer Camp? Are you thinking about what you need to bring to be successful during that week? ARE YOU DOING YOUR PREREQUISITES FOR YOUR MERIT BADGES! Get those done!

BOUNDARY WATERS(URGENT/UPDATE) –July 11 – 20th Please continue to make payments. The cost is $900. Please pay any remaining balances and turn in any remaining permission slips! ALSO, I SENT OUT AN EMAIL LAST WEEK FRIDAY! This email was in regard to food for the backcountry for Boundary Waters. I have not received 1 single reply about this email at all. Check your email and let me know if it pertains to you at all!

Mini-High Adventure(UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE!) – August 2 – 6th the troop will travel to the historic battlefield of Gettysbury, PA. We have a final cost for this trip now. The final cost is $200 to cover lodging, food and transportation! Please pay the balance of this trip as soon as possible. A permission slip and further details of this trip are forthcoming. As soon as I have all of that I will send it out to the troop. If you have not signed up yet, there is still time to sign up. Questions, please contact Abby Withers.

PHYSICAL FORMS!(Reminder) – NO PHYSICAL FORM, NO SUMMER CAMP, BOUNDARY WATERS OR MINI-HIGH ADVENTURE. Every Scout and Leader MUST have an up-to-date BSA PHYSICAL FORM with all parts of the form filled out, Part A, B1, B2 and C if you plan to go to Summer Camp, Boundary Waters or the Mini-High Adventure. You must get a new one for this year. No Form, No Trip. WE NEED ALL PHYSICAL FORMS TURNED IN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Starting NEXT Scout Year(September), we MUST have a physical form on file for your scout for that scout to be able to go on ANY outing with the troop. This is Scouting America policy.

 TAX EXEMPT DONATIONS(Important) – Now that we are back under the charter of Pathfinder Church, we once again have a 501c 3 status which means that we have an EIN number that allows for tax free donations! If you have been wanting to donate money to the troop for such things as our Campership Fund(help, send a scout to camp) or for other areas of troop need but haven’t wanted to be taxed on it, NOW is the time! Please talk to Sherry about donations to the troop!

JERKY!(Reminder) – We only have a few weeks left in our Jerky stick sales this year! Typically, we run this sale until the end of May. Sell, sell, sell! Each stick sells for $1.00 and for each one sold, the scout earns 24 cents into their individual scout account. You can make payments for jerky at any time here – https://bit.ly/244Jerky

Scoutmaster Minute – SCOUT MOTHERS – The year was 1986 and the place was Cincinnati, OH. I was in 2nd grade and my mom thought it would be a great idea to get me involved in something since I wasn’t all that interested in sports. I tried baseball, basketball and soccer. I didn’t really like any of them, especially when that baseball hit me on the back and another one on the elbow. Ouch! Not for me, I guess. But my mom, like all good moms, wanted to see me involved in something else so that I could meet other kids and not sitting around the house all day. Back then, my dad worked a lot as he was the Store Director of a Meijer store(1 of 3 in Cincinnati) at the time. My mom happened to find out that there was a Cub Scout Pack that met not too far away and even better there was a Den for my age that met right down the street from our house. I can still picture it to this day. Now, as an 8-year-old boy who already had bad experiences with these sports things, you can imagine that I just did not want to try something new. However, my mom made me go. I quickly earned my Bobcat and then worked on my Wolf that year. Back then, 2nd grade was where you started Cub Scouts. I will never forget drinking what they told us was “Bobcat blood” when I was awarded my Bobcat. It was really V8, but it was still disgusting. I wasn’t a huge fan of cub scouts at first, but MY MOM MADE ME DO IT! That is what parents did back then, they made you stick things out and not quit halfway through. I am so, so, so thankful to my mom for this. As I remained in cub scouts for 3 years, I still have very fond memories of raingutter regattas, pinewood derby’s, my Arrow of Light award and my crossover to BSA. Looking back, I realized that I was just a kid who didn’t really know any better, but my mom did! Recently I have gotten to share some of these experiences with my own kids. In fact, tonight we are doing our last Raingutter Regatta race! I still have my old Cub Scout uniform in my closet, my handbooks and my neckerchiefs. It is a time that I will never forget.

I will forever be grateful to my mom for making me stay in Scouting. Scouting has absolutely changed my life for the better. It is an integral part of my life. It is who I am. Between my faith and scouting, it is what guides me as a parent, a teacher, a leader, a volunteer and so much more. I often tell people that I treasure my Eagle Scout more than I do my college degree. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my dad in all this too. My dad started to get a little involved towards the end of my cub scouting. He went with me to the campout where I crossed over from cub scouts to boy scouts.  I moved into boy scouts officially when we moved back to Michigan that summer/fall of 1989. I joined Troop 244 and never looked back. My dad was “conned” into helping drive on my second campout with the troop and from that point on he never looked back either. As I was reflecting on Mother’s Day this year, I couldn’t help but think of Father’s Day and how different that is going to be for me and my sisters this year. I am used to celebrating Father’s Day by going to Summer Camp with my dad. I am not going to lie here; I started tearing up when I thought of Father’s Day for this year. It is going to be a hard one. He won’t be there physically this year, but I know that he will be with me and all of Troop 244 in spirit on that first day of camp! I am thankful that I will have YOU, Troop 244, to surround me this Father’s Day!

You might be asking “Why is Brian telling us all of this?”. Why is this a Scoutmaster Minute(or two)? It is simple. Scouts, listen to your parents, they know things that you don’t know yet. Take advantage of the opportunities that you are given because you never know how they may pay off for you later in life. We can’t see the future, we can only trust in the present and those around us. Cherish your mother, father, siblings, family and friends while you can!

 “What Troop Does More!!” – 244