Trail Talk – 5/26/25

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

June Campout – Pentwater – June 6 – 8th. Hill and Hollow Campground, Pentwater, MI. Please sign up, turn in the permission form and pay, THIS Tuesday night!! See Sherry! 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. BRING YOUR OWN MONEY FOR THE GO-KARTS, ARCADE, MINI-GOLF AND ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF THE NORMAL CAMPOUT COST! The cost of campout is $45 but will cover the normal, gas, lodging and food.

VFW Post 1527 WorkDay – On Saturday, May 31, VFW Post 1527, will be having an all hands on deck workday at their post. Tim Davis, the father of Timmy Davis in our troop, is a member of this VFW Post. They are requesting any help they can get for their workday and would love to have a few scouts out to help. The VFW post is located at 1920 E. Kilgore and they will be working from 9 – 5:30. Lunch is provided. Bring shovels, rakes and other tools! Any help you can give is appreciated.

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! THERE ARE STILL SOME MEDICAL FORMS THAT WE DO NOT HAVE YET! WE NEED THOSE ASAP AS SHERRY WILL BE TURNING THEM IN TO CAMP IN A WEEK’S TIME! 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(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! I will be submitting the menu requests THIS week so if you haven’t gotten back to me yet, please do!

Mini-High Adventure(SIGNUP! SIGNUP! SIGNUP!) – 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 for this outing is attached to the email. If you have not signed up yet, there is still time to sign up. Questions, please contact Abby Withers.

PHYSICAL FORMS!(URGENT! IMPORTANT!) – BY TUESDAY, May 27th. Sherry will be going to a pre-camp meeting on Tuesday, June 3 and bringing the physical forms with her! We need your form before she goes! 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 – REMEMBRANCE – The idea of remembrance has been weighing heavy on my heart this weekend. As I have said in my various emails about the Memorial Day Parade, this is a day where we REMEMBER the sacrifice that the men and women who were a part of our Armed Forces made so that we could be free! Thankfully, I have not had anyone close to me end up with that ultimate sacrifice although I have known many of these brave souls who have served in the Armed Forces. I had a grandfather who served in WWII and an uncle(my dad’s brother) who served in Vietnam. I still have a recorded interview with my grandfather on a cassette tape for a project I did back in 9th grade. My uncle would never really talk about the war a whole lot. We have also had many, many scouts of ours from Troop 244 serve in the military. Again, thankfully, none have passed away or had to give that sacrifice. However, these are gentlemen that I respect more than you can possibly imagine. We have had scouts in the military who served in Afghanistan and in various other parts of the world. Most of these scouts are Eagle Scouts although, not quite all of them! They are men and women of astounding character because they live by the Scout Oath and Law even in their service. We have parents and adult leaders in our troop who have also served in the armed forces and proudly at that! Finally, this weekend in particular was hard as I remember my dad. My dad never served in the armed forces, but he was extremely proud to be in a country where men and women would step up to protect the rights we are granted. My dad respected military members more than most people I know. This was my first Memorial Day Parade without my dad around and it didn’t feel right. I know he was there in spirit, and he is always with me but it just feels different. Someone in the crowd today, while we were marching, yelled out “We miss Hank!” and I immediately yelled back “I do too!”. I am not sure who they were, if they were related to scouting or something else, but it goes to show the impact that one person can have on a community. I miss my dad each and every day, but I believe that today, he would be proud of Troop 244 for showing up and honoring the men and women who sacrifice. Thank you all!

 “What Troop Does More!!” – 244