Trail Talk – 5/5/25

Happy May!! Wow, it is May already! Crazy! So much going on! Can you believe that we are down to 1 month and 10 days until Summer Camp! That is just plain nuts! This last weekend we had a great weekend of scouting activities! Girl Troop 244 had its first every lock-in at the church on Friday night! We had 13 scouts, and 5 adults attended. It was a great time with plenty of food, fun, games and laughter! It was the first time in 35+ years that I have ever slept at Pathfinder Church overnight AND slept in the Scout room! What a milestone! On Saturday and Sunday, we had our Wilderness First Aid class for adults that are going on Boundary Waters! Troop 287 joined us as they are going to Philmont this year! It was a great time of learning and preparing ourselves to be ready for any emergency that might arise on these trips!

We have more activities coming up in the days and weeks ahead. There are some specific announcements below concerning THIS TUESDAY! Please take note of important signups, permission slips and payments needed below:

Several announcements about this Tuesday:

  • May Campout
  • Portage Memorial Day Parade
  • June Campout
  • Summer Camp
  • Boundary Waters
  • Forms! Forms! Forms! We need those Medical Forms and more!
  • Tax Exempt Donations!
  • JERKY SALES! JERKY SALES! JERKY SALES!
  • Mini-High Adventure

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

MAY CAMPOUT PIONEER SCOUT RESERVATION(Reminder/Signup) – May 16 – 18. The May campout at Pioneer is now less than 2 weeks away! WE NEED YOU! We need you to sign up, turn in your permission slip and pay the $40 cost for this campout THIS TUESDAY NIGH! Yep, that’s right, get it done TOMORROW NIGHT!! Please, please, please, please do not wait until next Tuesday. When you do this, you make us must do things at the last minute. That increases my anxiety level through the roof! We need to have plenty of help on this campout to clean up Klewer campsite. 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 UPDATE!! – NOT THIS TUESDAY. THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING IS NEXT TUESDAY, MAY 13TH! Part of the requirements for the merit badge are that we attend a meeting of elected officials. We will be attending the City of Portage meeting next Tuesday  May 6th. The meeting starts at 6pm so I am asking the scouts 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 and go over any other requirements the scouts have made throughout this past week. It should be relatively quick and if scouts want to leave early or go to the gym for other activities before closing ceremonies they can do that.

PLC Meeting – Our next Patrol Leader’s Council meeting is THIS TUESDAY NIGHT, MAY 6th! All Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders, Patrol Leaders and Assistant Patrol Leaders as well as Troop Scribes and Quartermasters and Troop Guides, need to attend this meeting. If you are a Patrol Scribe or Quartermaster, it is optional. We need to look at the week’s ahead and plan accordingly!

Girl Troop elections – THIS TUESDAY, MAY 6TH!! As I explained to the girl troop back in January, we are doing election terms a little differently this year because of events that threw us off track. We will get back to normal things next year. So, the first term of Patrol Leadership is now done, and it is time for scouts to take up new Leadership positions within their patrols. We will do this AFTER class time, during game time. We will meet in an available space, either the Community Room or the Fellowship Hall at 7:50 p.m. to get our elections taken care of!

Pathfinder Church Cleanup Workday – The church needs volunteer help with some cleanup projects. The project will be this Saturday, May 10th. You will earn service hours for this. The day will start at 9:00 a.m. Please remember, the church supports our troops in so many ways, and we have so much available to us that other troops in the area do not. It is important that we find ways to give back to the church!

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. I do not know yet where we will line up in the parade, still waiting to hear back on that. I am looking for someone that might be willing to pull the yellow trailer in the parade! 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.

June Campout – Pentwater – June 6 – 8th, Hill and Hollow Campground, Penwater, 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(Reminder) – Pioneer Scout Reservation the week of June 15 – 21st! If you still owe money for Summer Camp, please make sure you are making those payments to Sherry or on Zeffy. If you are having issues please talk to Sherry, myself or Christy.  Don’t forget that there is a ton of paperwork that must also be turned in; Informed Consent, Release Agreement and Authorization, Scouting America Physical Forms Parts A, B1, B2 AND C, Troop Summer Camp Permission Slip. Merit Badge schedules were handed out last week. If you were not at the troop meeting, you can get yours this week. If changes need to be made, please talk to myself, Sherry and Christy.

BOUNDARY WATERS(Reminder) – July 11 – 20th Please continue to make payments. The cost is $900, and we have been asking you to pay $200/month since January. Make sure that you are preparing for this trip both physically and with the stuff you need to get!

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

Mini-High Adventure(Reminder) –The trip will take us to the historic battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This trip is taking place August 2 – 6th. A day of travel, 3 days in Gettysburg and a day of travel home! The mini-high adventure sounds like it is going to be loaded with fun and some awesome things to see. Sign up now! The final cost is to be determined but could be somewhere around $150. That is a STEAL for a trip like this. We are going to ask for a $50 deposit currently to secure your spot. Sign up for this and pay the deposit with Sherry in the office. Questions, please contact Abby Withers.

Scoutmaster Minute – COMMUNICATION – I know that I have spoken on this topic before, but I am going to be straight up honest with everyone, despite speaking on it before it is something that we all need to work on! In a time where communication is made so easy for everyone with computers, cell phones, texting, email, social media etc. it appears to me that we tend to communicate less. At least we communicate with our closest ones a lot, but we struggle to communicate when it comes to things that we might not feel are as important. However, I believe that we must remember that those things that we might not feel are as important ARE important to someone! Part of being a Scout is learning to do our duty to others and to be “courteous and kind”. I know what it is like, you get a text from someone, you don’t feel like responding so you say to yourself “oh, I will just respond later” and then later comes around and you have forgotten. The same goes for an email or some other communication. The problem arises when someone doesn’t hear from you and the situation is important to them. Their anxiety rises causing more stress in their life. It might not mean much to you, but it means a heck of a lot to that person. I know that a lot of parents read the Trail Talks, but I also know that a lot of the scouts don’t. I need to encourage parents to share the information in the trail talks with their scouts. I need to encourage scouts to read their email or join Discord and look for the information there. We, as a troop, try to communicate as much information out as we can in the hopes that it will be helpful to you in your planning and general knowledge of what is going on. I am sure there are ways that we could do better. However, on the flip side, we need communication back. Are you going on a campout, don’t wait until the Tuesday before to sign up? Are you going on the campout but not going to get there until later, let us know that!! If you are going to attend something, make sure you sign up! Don’t just assume that you can show up there. That is not how we keep things safe for everyone. My marriage failed because of poor communication between me and my ex-wife. I know what poor communication can do to relationships and to organizations. I know what it can do to people. I hope that all scouts are reading these trail talks and emails and getting the information either through their parents or on their own systems. It isn’t just enough to read it all though, you need to turn around and respond as well. Going on that campout, the very next Tuesday, sign up with Sherry. Having trouble in a merit badge or having a question about camp…don’t wait until Tuesday to ask it, email me! Let’s make communication one of the best strengths of Troop 244!!

 “What Troop Does More!!” – 244