Trail Talk – 9/8/25

Good afternoon Troop 244!!!

The correct dates for the September Campout are Sept. 19 – 21st NOT Sept. 17 -19th!! I think you would rather camp on a weekend than on a Wednesday – Friday! 😊

Did you know that after last scouting year, we lost approximately 8 – 10 scouts from Troop 244 simply because they “aged” out. This means they turned 18 and could no longer be registered as a youth member of the troop. A few of these scouts turned around and got their registration changed to adult members but we still have lost some of our youth numbers! It is time to do what ALL of us can to replenish the troop numbers AND get more youth into the scouting program! Do you know someone who might be interested in doing some of the activities we do in scouting or learning some of the skills we learn? Do you know someone who has a sibling that might be interested? Or maybe someone you know of at your church, sports team, or other youth program! Invite them to come check out the troop! They are welcome any night we have a meeting!

ORDER OF THE ARROW – Over the weekend Christy Szekely and Eli Szekely completed their Ordeal and Induction into the Order of the Arrow! Make sure to congratulate them when you see them! They are now considered Ordeal Members in the Order of the Arrow!

IMPORTANT NOTES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THIS WEEK:

Troop Open House Meeting – THIS Tuesday, Sept. 9th starting at 6:00 p.m. and going until 8:00 p.m. Please note the time changes. Our meeting will end at 8:00 p.m. next week because that is when it starts to get dark and we will be outside. BRING A FRIEND!  This is a great chance to bring some youth who you think might be interested in the scouting program. Bring them out to the open house! Spread the word and let’s get youth into scouting! Give them a chance to come and talk to other scouts. Invite them to come and interact with other scouts so that they can hear more about the scouting program. There will be games and information! Plus, there will be food! Hot Dogs and Chips! Please remember that I will not be able to make it to the Open House on Tuesday due to a personal family commitment, but Christy will be there and be taking the lead on things! Find her or Sherry if you have a question!

SCOUT RECRUITING IN PORTAGE – Another chance to get youth into scouting! We have been asked to help with the pack join scout night/open houses along with Troop 287. We will be meeting September 22nd at 6:30 PM to make sure that we are effectively promoting the events.  Here is the list of locations we have committed to helping at:

• Amberly Elementary Cafeteria (6637 Amberly St, Portage, MI 49024)
• Lake Center Elementary Cafeteria (10011 Portage Rd, Portage, MI 49002)
• Moorsbridge Elementary Cafeteria (7361 Moorsbridge Rd, Portage, MI 49024)
• 12th Street Elementary Cafeteria (6501 S 12th Street, Portage, MI 49024)
• Central Middle School Commons (Just inside of Door 13, 8305 S Westnedge Ave, Portage, MI 49002)

We will need 1-2 scouts per location to help entertain the prospective scouts and cub scouts while their parents sign up their kiddo. Bring something fun to share, along with you such as stories about your time as a cub scout, favorite merit badge, favorite camp out, scout skills!

Please email Christy, send her a text, or sign up through the link HERE. This will count as service hours for your scout!

Helping bring kids into scouting is good for all of us and will help keep a strong program locally.

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 scout year:

1. Permission Slips –Permission slips are now 2 pages. The first page is the regular permission form that must be turned in to Sherry. 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. The bottom half of the second page is to be filled out and placed in a Ziploc bag with your child’s medication that is sent along on the activity.
2. Medical Forms – medical forms are now required for ALL outings for BOTH Adults and Scouts. Medical Forms are good for 1 year. For activities under 72 hours, we need Parts A, B1 and B2 on file. For activities over 72 hours, we also need Part C filled out by a doctor. This is Scouting America policy.

SEPTEMBER CAMPOUT – Yankee Springs September 19 – 21st. We will be camping at the Deep Lake Group Sites. The cost for this campout is $40 per scout and $20 per adult leader. The permission form for this campout is attached.  Right now, we only have 12 scouts signed up for this trip. We have 0 adults signed up! It would be great to see more scouts on this campout, and we need to have more adults! Please sign up for, turn money and permission slip in for this campout to Sherry as soon as possible!! SIGN UP THIS TUESDAY! The goal for this weekend is to do some Fishing and Hiking. 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 need to tow it yourself. If you are 17 years old or older you need a valid Michigan Fishing License for this year.

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.

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.

October Campout – After much discussion and going back and forth with Cranhill Ranch, I have discovered that going to Cranhill to do the horseback riding is just not financially feasible for us this year. Unfortunately, the cost they want to charge us would not be being a good steward of your finances and would not be being a “thrifty” scout as the Scout Law teaches us. We have a couple of other ideas in mind and because I won’t be at the meeting on Tuesday, Christy is going to bring these ideas up to the troop. We are going to get YOUR INPUT on what you want to do in October: Do you want to go to the Haunted woods? Do you maybe want to do our own campout where we go to a cider mill/farm, get donuts, do a corn maze or whatever, someplace like Gull Meadow Farms?  Be ready to tell Christy your thoughts on Tuesday night and vote for what YOU WANT TO DO!

Philmont 2027 – I need you to sign up NOW for Philmont. I need to know how many people are not just interested in this trip but are going to commit to it. Right now, there are exactly 12 people signed up which is exactly enough for 1 crew! At this point in time, that is all I can reserve for which means that unless other people sign up, NO ONE ELSE will be able to go.  I know it is a long way out, but I will make reservations for us in less than 3 weeks!! If we want more people to go, then more people have to sign up! There is an “interest” sheet on the activity board if you have interested in going to Philmont in 2027. SHERRY HAS THE OFFICIAL SIGNUP SHEET! If you are merely interested in Philmont 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!

Fall Court of Honor – September 30th at 6:30 p.m. We are planning to have our annual Fall Court of Honor on Tuesday, September 30th. This court of honor is always a big one because of all that has been accomplished over the summer months. There will be announcements and awards galore! This includes merit badges, rank advancements and more! In addition, we have a special ceremony for one of our adult leaders that will be a part of this court of honor! You don’t want to miss out! Make sure that you attend with your scouts! Tuesday, Sept. 23 will be the last day for any merit badges or rank advancements to be completed if you want them to be awarded at this court of honor. This is only a few weeks away, so if you want an award earned by the court of honor, you had better start finishing it up now!

Scoutmaster Minute – SCOUTING – It was 1985/1986 and my family was living in Cincinnati, OH. My dad had been transferred there to become the Store Director of a new Meijer store. We were living in typical suburban neighborhood; we even had our own community pool. At some point, my mom must have found out information about cub scouting and even found out that there was a Den in a Pack that met right down the street from our house. She signed me up. She didn’t ask me; she just did it. She made me go. I didn’t like it at first. I didn’t really want to do it but a part of that is because I was a very shy, introverted kid. I would rather spend my time reading. I did not get my way. After a little while though, something changed. I began to enjoy myself. I began to have fun with the things we were doing in cub scouts. My family moved to Columbus, OH and I got put into Cub Scouts there and again we moved to Findlay, OH and again a new Pack. Finally, we moved back to Columbus, OH and I got put into my last Pack, Pack 200 of the Central Ohio Council. There I finished up my Webelos Rank and then I earned my Arrow of Light. My crossover was really cool. I can’t even really describe it in words. I did check out some scout troops down there but then my family moved again and this time we moved up to Portage, MI, right before I began 6th grade at Portage Central Middle School. We found a troop for me to join that met at a church called Portage United Methodist Church, which you all now know a Pathfinder Church. The troop? Troop 244 and I have been a member of this troop ever since the Fall of 1989. Scouting is something that would shape my life much over the years to follow. I would have experiences that I probably would never have had otherwise. I would get to go to Philmont, Boundary Waters, Rota-Kiwan and many other places. Eventually I would go to Alaska, Florida, Colorado. These experiences would determine my interests and my joys for the rest of my life. I would meet friends in Troop 244 that would become LIFELONG friends. These weren’t guys that just came and went in my life, they were people that I surrounded myself with and continued to surround myself with as I got older. I had kids, they had kids. I put my kids in scouting(thankfully when it was opened to girls) and they put their kids in scouting! We get together every year because scouting brought us together, but our friendships kept us together. Most importantly of all, I would work towards the rank of Eagle Scout. Working towards the rank of Eagle Scout would teach me not only LIFE skills that I could use throughout my life, but it would also help me to understand teaching others, which would later lead me to my career as a teacher. Working towards the rank of Eagle Scout would also teach me the Scout Oath and Law and not just the words but the meanings of the words. It would teach me not just memorizing those words but how to LIVE the three parts of the Oath and the 12 points of the Law! Scouting shaped my life from a very young age until this very day and for days to come yet in the future.

Why do I tell you all this story? Why do I repeat some of the things that many of you have heard before? Because this isn’t just limited to me. Scouting is for you too! Scouting is for all the scouts we have in the troop. These kinds of things can happen to YOU! In addition, scouting isn’t just for the scouts in the troop, it is for ALL YOUTH! All youth deserve to have the same sort of experiences and growing up that we all get! It is our responsibility to see that it happens! Let’s do our best to bring other youth into scouting and into Troop 244!

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244