A Scoutmaster's Blog

The carnival came to Melrose during the weekend of September 8-9. It was not brought to town by the Chamber of Commerce or any local service groups. It was brought to town by a group of of people in town who felt Melrose needed a fall event to bring its citizens together for a weekend of fun and excitement. The two day event also included several vendor booths, live music, and a classic car show.

The parents of one of the Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 were two of the people who organized this event. They asked the troop to assist with one of the activities in which children could purchase a ticket for 50 cents to play one of several games to win a prize. The money raised would go to the local food shelf. It looked like it would be a fun service project for the Boy Scouts.

There were five games the Scouts would be in charge of running. One was a Hot Wheels toy car race track. The other games were bottle ring toss, a bean bag toss, a bottle set up challenge, and a disc golf putting challenge. Early on it appeared that we may have trouble finding enough Scouts to work the games but when the day arrived we had plenty of help, along with a few parents.

The games were only open for four hours Saturday afternoon but they did very well. The Scouts had fun along with the children who played the games. Even a few parents got into the spirit of trying their skills. Over $120 was raised for the local food shelf. It was a pretty good, and pretty fun service project.

The Scouts of Melrose Boy Scout Troop 68 have begun selling tickets for their 2017 spring fundraiser. The Pancake and Sausage Breakfast will be held at the Melrose American Legion on Sunday, April 30th. As always, it is an all you can eat breakfast. Contact a member of Troop 68 if you need tickets.

Friends of Scouting. The annual visit of a council representative to troops and packs throughout the country. The annual visit for the council to ask parents and families to help with the expenses at the district and council level. Some units welcome the council representatives with open arms. Other units, not so much.

I do not mind the F.O.S. visits. I understand the need for the council to visit the units. Oh, there have been a few times over the last few decades that I was upset with the council for one reason or another and almost told them they could forget coming to our troop court of honor, but I never denied them the opportunity to talk to the parents.

There is one thing I look forward to seeing whenever it is time for the Friends of Scouting campaign. I am always curious to see what the incentives will be to entice people to donate at the various levels. The right incentive could just boost that donation up to the next level after all.

The Central Minnesota Council offered a different framed Normal Rockwell print for several years in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. I collected them all. The mugs and tumblers really did not grab my attention very well.

This is the tenth year the the council has offered a special council should patch (csp) for meeting the first level of incentives. Each year has featured a different point of the Scout Law. This being the tenth year so the patch features the theme Brave.

As a collector of shoulder patches this FOS patch has always had my attention. I like the look of this year’s patch. The red color will really stand out on the Boy Scout uniform sleeve, and I like the action picture of Scouts white water rafting. I do not wear these patches on my uniform. I place them in a three ring binder with the other council patches of the Central Minnesota Council and the Noguonabe Lodge that I have collected over the past 40 years.

What does your council offer during its annual Friends of Scouting campaigns? Do they offer any special patches?

Many Boy Scout councils use incentives during their Friends Of Scouting campaigns. During the last several years, our council has used special council strip patches to entice donors to give a little more. Each year’s patch features a different point of the Scout Law. Of course, since I collect patches, I am one of those people who end up giving enough to get the patch. Or two.

Before there were patches, our council used a different Norman Rockwell Scouting themed print each year as an incentive for the upper tiers of giving. These framed 11″ x 17″ prints were fairly popular. At least they were with me. I own all 15 prints. (I own doubles of a few of them after a family that used to be involved with Scouting decided to clean house and offered their collection to me.) Actually, 14 prints were of Norman Rockwell artwork. The one for 2010 used a painting by Joseph Csatari created for the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

All fifteen prints are found in my home office. The doubles I have on the wall of my office at work. Did I use these in Scouting displays as I did with the print sets I wrote about in the previous articles? Yes, I did, but not very often. After all, these are framed and contain glass, so I had to be more careful of were they would be used.

The photo shows the prints on the wall. They are hung in the order as I received them, from left to right, top to bottom. At least I am pretty sure that is the order. There have been a couple times they have all been off the wall so I may have a couple mixed up. If you don’t tell anyone, I won’t either.

Has your council ever used framed prints as incentives in its F.O.S. drives? How many have you collected? Leave a comment below.

Tonight kicked off the ticket sales for Boy Scout Troop 68’s fall fundraiser. The spaghetti supper will be held at the Melrose American Legion on Saturday, October 29th. Serving will be from 5:00 to 8:00 in the evening.

The troop usually does pretty well on its meals fundraisers. In the spring we held a pancake and sausage breakfast that did very well. The spaghetti supper will be done in the same manner. The Scouts will have three and a half weeks to go out and sell tickets. Adult tickets will cost $7.00 in advance, and will be 50 cents more at the door. Children’s tickets are $5.00 each, also 50 cents more at the door. Children age 4 and under eat for free. Presales are the key to having a great fundraiser so we encourage the Scouts to do they best the can.

The parents will be in charge of the food preparation the day of the meal. The Boy Scouts will set and clean tables and wash some of the dishes. We do require at least one parent or guardian from each family help out the day of the meal. We often have other family members helping out also.

The meals do require everyone to work hard that evening (or morning) but the results at the end of the day make it all worthwhile. Not only does the troop earn money for the costs of the program, but the Scouts also earn credit that they can apply to camp. It is a win-win all around.

Several years ago the Central Minnesota Council added a new incentive to the annual Friends Of Scouting (FOS) campaign. If you met a certain donation level you would receive a specially designed council shoulder patch (CSP). Each year would feature a different point of the Scout Law. Twelve points meant twelve patches that could be collected. Being the patch collector that I am, I was hooked from the very first year.

This year marks the ninth year of this promotion so the 2016 patch has Thrifty as its theme. The csp features a vintage Boy Scout at the bank, ready to add some money to his saving account. There is a “ghost” design on the left side of the patch of a squirrel ready to store his acorn for future use. Even the animal kingdom practices being thrifty.

This means there are only three years left of the Scout Law council shoulder patches. I wonder what the design of the next one, Brave, will look like.

Other incentives of this year’s Central Minnesota Council FOS drive included an electronics cleaning cloth, a Ripley Rendezvous water bottle or frisbee, and an Eagle Scout statuette.

Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? I watched the first thirty minutes and the last two hours. I thought Chris Rock did a pretty good job as the host. His opening monologue was funny and had a nice bite to it. I can not say I agree with most of the awards during the evening because, to tell the truth, I did not see most of the movies that were nominated.

It seems that each year the host has to do something out of the ordinary to put his or her mark on the show. Ellen did one of the best ones when she posted the celebrity selfie. I like Chris’ little stunt this year. He had his daughter’s Girl Scout Troop sell cookies to the millionaire stars of the Academy. Talk about a great night for cookie sales. How can a millionaire say no to buying cookies when they are live on television? The girls sold over $65,000 worth of the treats.

So here is my question. Do the Boy Scouts get to sell popcorn at next year’s Oscars celebration? Think about all the caramel corn and chocolate covered popcorn they could sell. Think of the p.r. the Boy Scouts could get with over a billion people watching worldwide. It would be awesome.

Of course, I know it will not happen. Unless, maybe, next year’s host has a son or two who are Boy Scouts. I have to give Chris Rock a thumb’s up. It was a great way to sell a lot of cookies.

It is that time of year. Units in the Central Minnesota Council are being visited by council representatives for the annual Friends Of Scouting (FOS) campaign. Families are being asked to contribute what they can to the council to assist in providing a quality program for the boys.

Like many councils, the Central Minnesota Council offers gifts for donors who meet certain levels of financial support. For many years they offered a framed Norman Rockwell Scouting print as an upper level gift. I am proud to say that a wall in my home office is covered with these prints collected over a decade.

During the last several years a special council should patch has been offered as a gift. Each year has been a different patch featuring a point of the Scout Law. I happen to be one of those Scout leaders who like to collect patches so yes, I have every one so far. This year’s patch feature the law point of Cheerful, especially cheerful service. By the way, when you think of cheerful service don’t you think of the Order of the Arrow? Did you know this year is the 100th anniversary of the OA? Can you guess what else is featured on the 2015 patch?

Once again, I like the design of the shoulder patch. I will not be wearing it on my shirt though. It will go straight into my three ring binder of council patches. This is number eight of the twelve patch series. I wonder what the next four will look like.

What do you think of this year’s patch design? Does your council do something similar?