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Sponsored by Killearn United
Methodist Church Gary VanLandingham, Scoutmaster
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The Trooper
July 2000
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We
had a very successful week at Wallwood summer camp the week of June 18 – 24th. A total of 13 scouts from Troop 23 attended the camp, plus 3
scouts from another troop who were unable to go when their troop attended the
camp. The scouts earned “a whole bunch”
of merit badges and several younger scouts attended the Pathfinder program that
taught scouting skills up through First Class.
Thanks to Mark Snyder and Alan Null who served as in-camp scoutmasters
for the week. Also, thanks to James
VanLandingham and Chris Rivers of the troop who served on Wallwood staff for
the entire 4 week period.
As
a note to parents, several scouts earned partial merit badges at Wallwood and
need to complete a couple of requirements in order to receive the badge. Please remind/nag your sons to finish these
requirements. The odds of them
finishing the merit badges go down dramatically if they don’t finish the work
on them soon after the camp.
Scouts
needing Scoutmaster’s conferences and Boards of Review for rank advancement
need to remember to make appointments for these ahead of time. Scouts should also call the adults Sunday
night before the meeting to make sure that the adults that will serve on the
Board of Review will be able to attend the meeting.
In July we will attend camp Daniel Boone in North
Carolina as our major troop event. We will
leave at 8 AM on Saturday, July 22th and will return late (probably
around 6 PM) on Saturday, July 29. We will stay Saturday night at Daniel Boone
and then visit the Devil’s Courthouse and Sliding Rock on Sunday before
check-in. Mike Sneed, Frank Rivers,
Glen Lillibridge, and I will be the adult leaders for this trip. Mike and I will be staying in base camp
while Frank and Glen go along with 4 scouts who are doing the 54-mile
hike/canoe trek (which is further than they have hiked for a LONG time….).
A parent meeting will be held on July 10th
for scouts attending Daniel Boone. At
this meeting we will be signing the boys up for their merit badges and/or high
adventure treks as well as passing out information on what they should bring. This meeting is critical for parents to
attend if this is the first time that a scout has attended Daniel Boone.
Upcoming Events
Please note a couple of schedule changes. The next Troop Committee will be held on
July 13, rather than the 6th.
Parents, if you haven’t attended one of these meetings I urge you to do
so. These meetings discuss issues
important to the Troop and it gives you a great opportunity to learn how the
Troop operates and how you can make a difference.
In August, we will be working on the Cycling merit
badge. A major requirement of this badge is to go on
a series of long-distance bike rides.
These include two rides of 10 miles, two rides of 15 miles, two rides of
25 miles, and one ride of 50 miles. We
will do the long rides over three Saturdays at the St. Marks’s Trail. We will do 25 miles (from the concession on
Woodville Highway just south of Capital Circle to St. Marks and back) on August
12. If enough scouts sign up, we will
do a second 25-mile ride on the 19th.
We will then do a 50-mile marathon ride on August 26th. Scouts will need to do the 10 and 15 mile
rides on their own and bring in a note from their parents stating that these
rides have been made.
We will have transportation along the way of the
trail in case the scouts can’t make it all the way. We need parents to help out on this and volunteer to be at one
of the transportation points, which will be at the trailhead south of
Capital Circle, at Woodville, at Highway 98, and at the trail end in St. Marks
(people can serve at more than one of these points). More details on times and transportation will be in next month’s
newsletter.
New Scouts
Five new scouts have joined the Troop over the past
two months. These are
·
Andy
Dennis
·
Spencer
Klay
·
Ryan
Kung
·
Brian
Sanders (transferred from another troop at Star rank)
·
Marc
Webb
Welcome!
An updated troop roster is attached that shows these
new scouts and removes scouts who have moved away.
We will make patrol assignments for these new scouts
at the July 10th meeting, so it is important for the patrol leaders
(Daniel Wilcox, Chris Rivers, and Casey Lillibridge) to attend as well as the
troop officers – James VanLandingham and Kevin Yon.
E-mail list
We
are still compiling an e-mail contact list for scouts. This will be used to send important notices
and reminders to scouts and their parents.
Please send me your home (or office) e-mail address at gvanl@yahoo.com.
Troop Schedule (updated)
July 3 – no meeting (4th of July weekend)
July 10 – regular meeting (parent meeting for
scouts attending Daniel Boone)
July 13 – Troop Committee
meeting (note date change)
July 17 – regular meeting
July 24 – no meeting (Daniel Boone)
July 31 – regular meeting (patrol leaders/assistants
come 20 minutes early for PLC)
August 10 – Troop Committee meeting
August 7 – regular meeting
August 12 – St. Marks’s Trail ride (25 miles)
August 14 – regular meeting
August 19 – St. Marks Trail ride (25 miles)
August 21 – Honor Court
August 26 – St. Marks Trail ride (50 miles)
August 28 - PLC