starting a fire with a flint and steel is harder than it looks!

Troop 35 had a great time this past weekend at Starved Rock State Park near Utica, Illinois. Twenty scouts and seven adults enjoyed the adventure, which for nine of our new scouts – their very first outdoor camping experience as a Boy Scout.

It was an awesome time and the new scouts learned scouting skills while the older scouts used their scouting skills and developing leadership ability to manage the campout beginning with planning and execution of the plan. The scouts cooked two hot meals – breakfast and dinner on Saturday. There were pancakes, sausage, French toast, chicken pot pie, spaghetti, and the Old Goats (the adult leaders) – had pizza courtesy of the ‘Oracle’ (aka Assistant Scoutmaster Carl).

We had great weather, even though it was cool Saturday morning when the mercury dipped down to 34, and it was sunny and dry all weekend long. The scouts took a five-mile hike through Matthiessen State Park, cooked, and practiced their fire starting skills. Additionally, they learned that many hands make light work! As well as – for a few new scouts – why the Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared.”

Our next adventure is in two weeks and we will visit Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin to rock climb and continue developing our scouting skills, leadership, and having a lot of fun! Stay tuned for a picture update this week!

Stay tuned for updates!

We have cooked, cleaned, and hiked! It has been a blast.

Help keep the United States a strong and fair nation by learning about our system of government, your responsibilities as a citizen and future voter, as well as the history of our country and the people who made it strong for future generations – just like you will.

Here is a quiz from Microtrains, a model railroad manufacturer….

Question for February: Which President was a Yale boxing coach, was the first president to have been an Eagle Scout, served as a gunnery on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and was never elected President or Vice-President?
CLICK HERE TO ANSWER!

Test your knowledge – do you know who it is? Send a message to me and if your answer is correct, I’ll reward the winner at Tuesday night’s meeting.

What you do and what you know about our country can make a difference! 

A Scout is Reverent

Scout Sunday is generally observed on the first Sunday in February, however the United Methodist Church - Troop 35′s sponsor organization observes Scout Sunday on the second Sunday in February.

Scout Sunday is set aside to recognize the contributions of scouting to the community and to recognize scouts and scout leaders for their contribution to the community. In keeping with the Scout Law and its mission of doing a good turn daily, Troop 35 prepared dutch oven cobblers for the congregation for sharing and fellowship between services at 10 AM. The morning began with scouts preparing the cobblers in the parking lot and serving them to the congregation in the common area. The day concluded with the scouts enjoying a bit of cobbler and cleaning up, after all a scout is clean, too. The congregation enjoyed the cobblers and we were told about a long-time parishioner who normally gets a ride to church for the 11 o’clock service. She had called the church office to let them know she would be driving this week because she wanted to make sure she got cobbler! Check out the pictures below!

The troop’s next outing will be Klondike at Catigny on Saturday, February 4th. They will be running the fire starting competition – hope to see you there!

Top 10 Reasons you should go to Tomo Chi-Chi this weekend:

10.   Younger Scouts need to come and work on advancements!
9.    Older Scouts are needed to use the EDGE method to help younger Scouts!
8.    Take a hike to “The Rock that Know All”!
7.    Practice your Polar Bear skills or sleep outside if you want!
6.    Play baseball in the snow or go sledding if there’s enough snow!
5.    Carve a new neckerchief slide!
4.    Enjoy some famous Troop 35 cooking!0
3.    Make a fire in the beautiful Tomo Chi-Chi fireplace!
2.    We’ve lowered the price to make it an even better value than before!

And the #1 reason you should camp at Tomo Chi-Chi this weekend…..

1.  You won’t be left out when you hear the rest of YOUR  troop talking about how much fun they had at Tomo Chi-Chi!

-Plus-
It’s close to home so there’s no annoying long car ride!
Even the name is fun to say!

You can click here to get the permission slip in MS Word or Adobe pdf format.

Hope to see you there!

Your Scoutmaster,
Mr. Cat

Each December and June, the troop holds leadership elections and scouts run for office. They hold elections and the scouts elect who will be their next senior patrol leader (SPL). After the SPL is elected, the scoutmaster, the outgoing SPL, and the SPL-elect meet to discuss which scouts will fill out the remainder of leadership positions – ASPL, troop guides, quartermaster, and other positions. Once they have been selected the troop holds a leadership seminar to train the new leaders – much like a company or corporation would for incoming managers and executives.

Troop 35 held its Winter Troop Leadership Training Friday (1/20) night and into early Saturday at Winfield Community United Methodist Church –an affiliate of our sponsor church Gary United Methodist Church. It was snowing and the grounds were covered. Most of the scouts were more interested in shoveling and playing outdoors, but once we had uncovered the driveway and sidewalks it was time to get down to learning about leading. It all starts with a vision and Mr. Whitlock opened with a question – What do you want your troop to look like?

Friday evening was spent with the vision and what each scout was expected to do as their part in moving the troop to that vision. Of course, we stopped and played, too. Friday was our area’s second snowstorm and it dropped about 6-8” depending on where you were. It left plenty of snow outdoors and the scouts constructed a quinzee – pronounced quincy – a snow shelter. It was great fun. We began Friday night and finished Saturday.

As you can see from the pictures below, being outdoors was more fun than being inside – but that is the way it for most of us. Most importantly, the scouts shared their vision and when the new leaders take office in February, they will be ready to guide the troop for the next six months. During that time, we’ll welcome new scouts, go camping, go rock climbing, earn merit badges, celebrate our 100 year anniversary, and attend summer camp. Mistakes will be made and lessons learned – and that is what scout-led means.