How to Pack a Pack for Camping

Here's an interesting quick article I found on Lifehacker that lined to Wired.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Pack_a_Backpack_for_Camping

This is geared more for backpacking, which unlike camping is all about hiking with your pack on, and not just setting up somewhere like a cabin, leantos or a cabin. It's not 100% how we do things, but has good tips.

Spring Update - Pancake Breakfast, Ice Skating, Advancement, Upcoming Events

I need to update this site more often, but that's why we're going to ask one of the boys to be the webmaster and do it instead of me!

Last I posted, we announced the Pancake Breakfast. Well I'm happy to report that it went off rather well and was a huge success. Combined with the included bake sale, we raised $767 to help fund trips, purchase new gear for the troop and pay for supplies for events, like our upcoming pinewood derby race. The Scouts, their parents, our Scouters, and the community who supported us are all to thank for pulling this fundraiser off so well. A very special thanks goes to Assistant Scoutmaster Brian Demmerle, without whose drive, financial wisdom, restaurant experience and expert schmoozing, we'd never have gotten the event off the ground. 

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In other news, this year has been a great one for recruiting so far, and at our last parent's night, just about all of our newer scouts earned Scout, their first rank on the climb to Eagle. Seven scouts earned the rank, congrats to you all! 

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This week, our troop went ice skating! For many of our guys, it was their first time on the ice, but everyone took to it well. I heard you guys asking that we do it again soon so remember to bring it up at the next Junior Leader Meeting! Also, since we've already started to learn, why not pursue the Skating Merit Badge?

Here's a couple of videos.

This is pretty much a whole lap of the rink. You'll see Joey, David L, Sebastian, Kevin G, Kevin K, Francesco and Stephano in this long shot.

And this is a short one of David S taking off like a rocket! I don't think he was a first time skater. The other guys will catch up by this time next year!

Here's a couple of pictures.

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Remember, next week is Good Friday, and being sponsored by St. Matthias church means we have no meeting that day. We'll be back on Friday, April 9, 2010 at our usual time and place. We'll be racing the pinewood derby cars that we started building two weeks ago, so be ready to race!

Pancake Breakfast on March 7, 2010

New Scouts & the Bake Sale!

It has been a few good weeks for Troop 327 as we get ready for our camping trip the weekend before Thanksgiving. We've had a number of new Scouts join up, brought in by their friends or family members or just asking when the meetings are and then showing up.

I'd like to take a minute here on the blog to welcome our newest Scouts, Dominik, Sebastian, Joe, David, Stefano and Jeffrey. Some of these guys are returning from time spent in the Cubs, but they're new to us.

Membership is going up, but we want it even higher. The more guys in the troop, the more activities we can plan and fund. Here's a picture from two weeks ago as the venerable Mr. Tom Dowd shows our guys some knot basics.  There's 11 scouts in this picture, and there were a few more there that night, the older boys were working on cleaning up the window outside.

The increased membership paid off well today, as we had our first fundraiser of the year, our bake sale. Every boy and adult brought at least two cakes, trays of cupcakes, cookies or brownies for us to sell. Everything looked really great and we managed to sell out of everything just in time for the last Mass from St. Matthias. Thanks to all the Scouts and especially to all of the parents who helped out today.

All in all, it was a huge success and we raised over $300 that will help to buy new camping gear for the troop, go towards our year end trip in June and towards efforts to repair or replace the Scout office store front windows.

Here's a few pictures from the bake sale:

Parents' Night 10/30/09

We are having a parents' night this Friday at 7:30 at the Boy Scout Office. All scouts, please invite your parents down to the meeting as we will have some awards to give out, announcements to make and we'll make sure to have some refreshments and snacks on hand.

All scouts, please wear your uniforms, as complete as you have. That means full uniforms if you have them, red shirts if that's all you've got.

I never leave home with these

As I prepare for our trip to Camp Pouch I go over my list of things to pack. The list is in your Scout Handbook. There are things on that list I never take out of my pack even though I've packed them with me all these years. But I think of the things I will not leave for camp without.

Extra socks. - my old Scoutmaster once said "a dry camper is a happy camper". And you can't be dry if your feet are wet or damp. I bring at least two extra pairs - on top of one pair for every day.

Hats - a wool hat and a baseball cap stay with me always. 30% of the heat that escapes your body leaves from the top of your head. Additionally the cap blocks my eyes from the sun and I use the wool hat as an eye mask when I sleep.

A cup - you need to drink and I think there is nothing grosser than having to borrow someone else's cup. I have the plastic folding one the troop gave away as gifts a few years ago. It takes up no space and I can keep hydrated.

Toilet Paper - this is the last supply you need to try to scavenge for in the middle of the night. I also keep this in a large Ziploc bag in my pack so it stays extra dry.

First Meeting!

Last night was  our first meeting of the 2009-2010 year and I think it was a pretty good one!

Here's what happened:

• After many years of hard work, Miguel decided to step down as Scoutmaster to take a break. He'll still be around as an Assistant Scoutmaster. I (Mike Vuolo) am now the Scoutmaster for Troop 327. All of the other guys are still going to be around as Assistant Scoutmaster.
• We elected a new Senior Patrol Leader and Assistant Senior Patrol Leader. Eryk G will be the SPL and Rafal will be the ASPL. Next week we're going to split into patrols and elect patrol leaders.
• We're looking at having Friday only meetings again. We'll let you know for sure by next week.
• We should be having a camping trip in October, date to be announced.
• We've got a web based calendar for all meetings and events, everyone in the Troop will get an email about it. Find it here.
• The guys took out some of our smaller a-frame tents and checked for pieces, then we practiced how to set them up. Then, we raced to see who could get them up fastest.

Check here for the next meeting info, I'll know by Monday as to what day it is.