Good evening,
This past weekend more than a dozen of the troop gathered to assess and repair our fleet of T648 canoes. After a morning of wrenching combined with elbow grease, we had cannibalized a couple of rickety canoes, and using their spare parts, had completed three seaworthy green vessels to join their silver sister on the trailer. Once we repair a crack in the side of a fifth canoe, we will be ready to head out on our next canoeing outing to Roosevelt, one of the desert Salt River lakes the weekend of June 7-9. Many thanks to the scouts and adults who joined young Mr. Conrad in his project to refurbish our armada just in the nick of time!
This is another busy week, as we have the troop meeting on Tuesday night, with another Personal Management sessions with Mr. Turner at 6PM for those of you taking the merit badge class. On Friday night, we will have a service project opportunity to assist Blessed Sacrament in set up, serving and cleanup for their spaghetti dinner and talent show. Come help out our charter organization, and receive a spaghetti dinner as a bonus! The evening will be from approximately 4PM (or as soon as you can get there) until 7PM. On Saturday we have the first of two Eagle Courts of Honor this month. Scout Eric Lara became an Eagle Scout in late 2011, and will be having his COH Saturday, May 18th at 5PM at the Mountain View Presbyterian Church at 8050 E. Mountain View Road in Scottsdale. Later in the month, Scout Clark Williams, who completed his Eagle board early this year, will have his COH on the evening of Thursday, May 30th. Start time is still to be determined, but will likely be around 7PM, at the Elks Club, 14424 N. 32nd Street in Phoenix. I hope that you will make it a point to join these young men as we celebrate their excellent achievements in attaining their Eagle ranks within T648.
For those of you who have not yet had an opportunity to assist with the Miracle League baseball games on Saturday mornings, they are still in need of volunteers during May. Please contact Mr. Turner for details. This month is also the Memorial Day weekend flag planting at 7AM on May 25th at the National Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery, north on Cave Creek Road off of the 101 freeway. Someday I would like to view this event from the air, as the hundreds of scouting volunteers fan out with their flags, and stand up flags over every one of the 50,000 graves in about 45 minutes. It is an amazing sight to behold. This is always held the Saturday before Memorial Day, and we have often had upwards of 40 members of our troop participate.
For those of you working on advancement or merit badges, we are approximately a month away from our next troop court of honor. It will be held at 7PM at Scottsdale Worship Center on June 18th. Please continue to work on your skills and/or activities, and go into summer camp with your new rank! Our glorious out-of-council summer camp at Camp Alexander in Colorado is a mere 2 months away!   Mr. Benyi worked his magic, and was able to obtain almost 90% of the merit badges that attendees most wanted – we can review the details upon his return from Italy next week. In the meantime, schedule your medical exams if you do not have a current one on file with the troop. And start to get fired up!!
See you tomorrow night at the troop meeting!
Mr. Cole