Trail Talk – 8/18/25

Happy Monday! 1 Week Left of Summer Vacation for most of you! Scouts, if it makes you feel any better, this old teacher went back to work today. My summer vacation is over. However, notice that I said summer “vacation” and not summer. Summer is not over yet! Make sure that you go out and enjoy it while it is still here!

Yesterday, we had a wonderful Eagle Court of Honor, where we got to celebrate the achievements of 5 of our scouts on earning the rank of Eagle Scout. I want to thank all of the scouts and adult leaders that came out to help celebrate these fine young men!

Last week, several adult leaders and scouts met to plan out the next scout year. It was a great gathering of adult leaders who are willing to give of their time and of scouts who are interested and engaged in the direction of the troop. I want to thank the scouts that came last week for their input on what we should be doing for the next scout year! I want to thank the adult leaders who came as well, not just for your input but for your continued willingness to volunteer with Troop 244 and to help these young scouts become well-rounded young people. For this week’s Trail Talk, you will see just a few specific announcements and then a tentative list of the plan for the year. Please keep in mind that our troop is youth led and so this plan for the scout year still needs to be approved by our Patrol Leader’s Council. We will present this to our Patrol Leader’s Council after new elections have taken place to get their input and their ok.

Dates and locations are subject to change due to availability and changes in other schedules. Please keep this in mind as you look at the plan for the year below.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

New Things to Take Note of for this New Year: There are 2 items that you should take note of that are a little different for this upcoming scout year:

Permission Slips – the permission slips for outings have a little different look to them. They are now 2 pages. The first page is the regular permission form that must be turned in. The second page is the medication page. The top portion of the second page can be torn off and kept by PARENTS so that Parents know the time and location of departure and return. This way you don’t have to constantly ask what time we will be back at the church at the end of a campout. You will have that slip to let you know. The bottom half of the second page is to be filled out and then included with any medication that you send along with your scout. Please put the medication and this part of the page in a Ziploc bag and send with your scout when they come to a campout or other outing.

Medical Forms – medical forms are now required for ALL outings for BOTH Adults and Scouts. Medical Forms are good for 1 year, so if you have a medical form that was filled out by a doctor last January, that form will be good until next January. If you had a form filled out prior to a year ago today, it expired, and you need to get a new medical form filled out. Scouts and Adults must have up to date medical forms filled out and on file with the troop to go on outings. If we don’t have an up-to-date medical form on file, then you or your scout cannot go on a campout.

American Heritage Merit Badge – For those of you who started American Heritage Merit Badge, either at Gettysburg or at Mackinac, but were unable to complete it, Abby Withers is standing by on Tuesday to help you complete it! Don’t let this badge stay a partial!! See Abby about completing this badge if you got it started! Get it done!

Pack 235 Needs Some Help – Monday August 25th(next Monday) at 5:30 p.m. at Pathfinder Church. The pack is having a Water Fun Day and Hot Dog Cookout! They would love to have some of our scouts come to help out! This would count as service hours! This is a great way for scouts from 244 to interact with cub scouts in 235 and help make sure that those scouts come to Troop 244 when they crossover! If you are available and can help for a couple hours, please do! Thank you!

SwampBase Participants – Please be making your payments for SwampBase now. For the month of August, you should have paid a minimum of $125. We need another payment of $125 due by September 15th. Starting in October, payments will be made in increments of $160 per month through February.

LAST SUMMER MEETING – This next Tuesday(tomorrow  night, August 19th) is our last “summer” meeting for the summer. This is your last chance to work on any summer merit badges or to continue to work on partial Eagle required merit badges. We will begin regular School Year meeting NEXT Tuesday, August 26th

TUESDAY AUGUST 26TH – First “official” new meeting for the new scout year. I need as many scouts to attend as is possible! We will do a little orientation/talk, introduction of SPL candidates, introduction to new or partial Eagle Required merit badges and we will end the meeting with our Senior Patrol Leader Election. CLASS A UNIFORMS ARE REQUIRED FROM THIS POINT ON!

SEPTEMBER CAMPOUT – Yankee Springs September 19 – 21st. Subject to Change. This is tentative at the moment. I have a call in to the Recreation area but am waiting to hear back from the person that makes group reservations. The goal for this weekend is to do some Fishing and Hiking. We are going to make this a Fishing Weekend and if you don’t like Fishing, then the alternative will be Hiking. In order to make it a good Fishing Weekend, we will be bringing 8 canoes with all the equipment with us so that you can go OUT on the lakes and fish! We hope that we have some of you “expert” fisherman handy to help teach the rest of us novices how to fish. Other people that have boats are more than welcome to bring their own. You just have to tow it yourself. I won’t ask for a payment or permission slip until I have the details set in stone but please plan on signing up for this as soon as I send out all of the information!

ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY –   September 27 at 9:00 a.m. at the Speedway Gas Station in Schoolcraft. Please bring gloves and wear long pants. We have adopted this section of 131 now for 30 years and we clean it up every September and April. These are SERVICE hours! We need as many people as possible to help! The more we have, the quicker it gets done. It usually takes about 3 hours. We need adults who can drive alongside the highway to supervise and keep scouts safe. Sean Harrigan will be leading up this event.

October Campout – TENTATIVELY Cranhill Ranch. October 24 – 26th. Horseback Riding. This is very tentative right now. I have a call in to Cranhill and am still waiting to hear back from them. Once I hear back, I will share more information. The cost for this campout will most likely be a little higher than a regular campout. That is why I am announcing this now, so that you can a be prepared. The idea for this campout is that scouts would ride horses and earn the Horsemanship Merit Badge. More Information to come.

Philmont 2027 – I sent an email out on Saturday with a bunch of information about Philmont 2027. Please refer to that email for the information. The newest piece of information not in that email is that I found out the cost of Philmont itself increased by around $200 per person(2027) compared to what we paid last year(2024). Right now, I have set the price at $2,200. However, that may have to go up at some point to cover the cost of the price increase. I suspect it probably wouldn’t go up more than $50 per person. This is simply a reminder that I will be putting an “interest” sheet up at tomorrow night’s meeting and I will also be giving an official “signup” sheet to Sherry tomorrow night as well. If you are merely interested in Philmont tomorrow night you will put your name on the interest sheet. If you want to officially sign up for Philmont you will sign up with Sherry and there is a $150 deposit due upon signup per person. I must have people SIGNED UP with the deposit no later than September 23rd so that I know to make the proper reservation. Thank you!

More activities for the Year:

  • September 9 – Troop Open House to Recruit New Scouts. Invite people to join the troop!
  • September 30 – Fall Court of Honor
  • November 7 – 9 Campout at Camp Tamarack with Troop 287
  • November 18 – Begin our Holiday Food Drive for Twelve Baskets
  • December 16 – Troop Holiday Party in place of regular troop meeting
  • December or January MOVIE night – at a movie theatre. We rent the whole theatre out and watch a new movie together. This is still being worked out right now.
  • December 23 and 30 – NO MEETINGS OVER WINTER BREAK
  • January 16 – 18th Campout at Pioneer Scout Reservation.
  • February 8 – Scout Sunday
  • February 20 – 22nd Campout Anthony Wayne or old Rota-Kiwan.
  • February 24 – Winter Court of Honor and Dinner
  • March 21 – Day Trip to Climb Kalamazoo
  • March 21 or other date – Girl Troop Lock In. TBD
  • March 31 – NO MEETING SPRING BREAK
  • April 7 – Summer Camp 2026 Meeting
  • April 11 – Adopt-A-Highway Spring Cleanup
  • April 24 – 26 Campout Lincoln Pilgrimmage, Springfield Illinois. Walk a 20-mile hike in Lincoln’s Footsteps or visit the Presidential Museum.
  • May 15 – 17 Campout at Pioneer Scout Reservation
  • May 25 – Memorial Day Parade
  • June 5 – 7 Pentwater Campout
  • June 21 – 27    SUMMER CAMP 2026
  • July 9 – 18 Swampbase High Adventure
  • July 25 – 29th Mini High Adventure Mammoth Cave National Park

Scoutmaster Minute – Do you ever feel like things are moving too fast? That there is too much going on all at once? That there are changes happening and you don’t even notice them because of all the other “stuff” that is going on? I do. I feel this way all the time. I constantly feel overwhelmed by things. Yesterday, we celebrated 5 of our young men who earned the rank of Eagle Scout. I loved it. I loved doing the Court of Honor. I loved being there with these young men as well as all the other scouts, adult leaders and parents. I live for those things. However, I am not going to lie, I was exhausted afterwards. I drove home and still had to make a trip to the store for some groceries. After that, I just sat on the couch doing nothing until I went to bed. I often feel like I have a lot of things thrown at me or a lot of information thrown my way, much like you might feel after reading this Trail Talk. When I have those moments, I tell myself to take a minute. Step away for a minute, slow down, breathe and come back and read some more of something or delve into whatever information is being sent my way a chunk at a time. I then think about how I can best handle all of this. For me, that means getting organized. I put things on my phone. I put things on my Google Calendar. Even if those things are just simple reminders and so on. I find ways to make sure that all the information I have thrown at me is at my disposal, without necessarily having to memorize it all. I find ways to organize my schedule so that I know what the “next” thing is and the thing after that and so on. With the new school year starting up as well as the new scout year, there is A LOT going on. My kids have school, sports, scouts and other outings. Scouting has a lot going on as we delve into another year and that is a lot to keep track of. Changes are constantly made throughout life, and I will be completely truthful with you, I hate change. I always have. When my old black lab dog passed away, I got a new dog, who is also a black lab. Change is not something I am a big fan of, but it is something I fear but I also recognize that it is a part of life. Changes were mentioned in the Trail Talk above. We have two choices, we can either embrace them, or we can choose not to participate. I would rather embrace them and enjoy what life has to give rather than turn them down and not get to do what is offered. I challenge you to two things: 1. How do you deal with things when you get overwhelmed, feel like there is too much or feel like things are moving too fast? Do you find a way to cope with this, or do you let it overrun you? And 2. How do you embrace change? Do you fight it, or do you accept it?

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244