A Scoutmaster's Blog

If you follow The Buckets comic strip you know that the youngest member of the household, Eddie, is a Cub Scout, and his father is a Pack leader. A few times a year Greg Cravens, the creator of the strip, uses his comic to share a humorous look at the world of Cub Scouting. Mr. Cravens obvious knows a little about the Scouting program because his comics can hit very close to home. I am sure many Pack Leaders and families can identify with the situations he shares with us. ( I sometimes wonder if Mr. Cravens is not a Cub Scout leader in his community.)

Mr. Cravens recently featured a weeklong series in which the Cub Scout Pack goes on a camping trip. If you have ever taken Scouts on a camping trip I am sure you will find these hitting the mark. Here is a quick rundown of the comic strips and the links:

A trip is announced / A pocket knife is needed: Click HERE.
The first rule of camping: Click HERE.
My last dry clothes: Click HERE.
How to gather the Scouts: Click HERE.
Texting while hiking: Click HERE.
A tick is on me! : Click HERE.

While these comic strips feature Cub Scout age boys, many of them could also apply to Boy Scout age youth. Enjoy.

The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 spent a week at the Buckskin Camp of Many Point Scout Camp this summer. They had an awesome time at camp. The Buckskin staff was terrific and very helpful. The dining hall staff provided great meals in a friendly atmosphere. Even the weather cooperated by not being too hot or too rainy. The biggest complaint was the sparrow-size mosquitoes that made camp their home. Overall though, it was a fantastic week.

The Many Point Blog recently posted some interesting numbers from the 2011 season. I found them to be quite interesting:

4139 Boy Scouts and Venture Scouts camped at Many Point.
1451 Adult leaders watched their troops and crews grow while here at Many Point.
37 CITs spent 5 weeks learning and practicing the essential skills needed to be a staff member. (Including one from Melrose Troop 68.)
152 Scouts and Venturers participated in the Water Sports Outpost and had the opportunity to ride personal watercraft, a truly rare opportunity in the BSA.
8606 Merit badges were earned.
2830 Merit badges were started, to be completed at home.
479 Certifications such as Kayak BSA, Snorkeling BSA, Boardsailing BSA, BSA Lifeguard and BSA Aquatic Supervision were completed. (Five boys from Troop 68 earned the Snorkeling BSA.)
124,000 meals were served either “for here” or “to go” by our Dining Hall and Commissary, to fuel all the fun.

How were the numbers at your summer camp?

The Many Point Blog can be found at
http://manypointscoutcamp.wordpress.com/ .

The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 had an opportunity to do two service projects in one day for the Melrose Riverfest celebration. The event was held last Saturday, August 20th.

The first project took place before the parade which was scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm. The Boy Scouts were set to distribute two thousand 3″ x 5″ plastic USA flags along the parade route. The funds to purchase the flags were provided the the local VFW and American Legion clubs.

This was the third year the troop did this project. Two years ago were started with 1000 flags that only covered about half of the parade route. Last year we ordered 1500 flags that covered about two thirds of the route. This year we ordered two thousand flags and had a couple hundred of them left over. Even though we began handing out the flags at the beginning of the route 30 minutes before the parade began, the parade was only three blocks behind us when we reached the end. The flags were very popular.

At midnight, the Boy Scouts met in downtown Melrose for the second of the projects. The Scouts, and their fathers, assisted the Melrose Chamber of Commerce with taking down a few refreshment tents, and packing up dozens of tables and hundreds of folding chairs. We finished this project at 1:45 in the morning.

Unfortunately, only two of the nine members of the troop were able to help with the day’s projects. Fortunately, the boy’s fathers were able to assist us so had doubled our manpower.

The troop’s next service project will be held tonight, August 22nd. We have a three mile stretch of highway south of town which we have adopted to clean the ditches of trash. Hopefully, we will have more troop members show up then we did on Saturday or it is going to to take awhile to clean those ditches.

What do Jack and Jill, Mother Hubert, Spiderman, Justin Bieber, Barney, Lady Gaga, Chuck Norris, Rebecca Black, Bob the Builder, and Barbie have in common? They are all part of the fun one afternoon as the Boy Scouts of Buckskin Camp at Many Point Scout Camp sing Throw Them Out The Window before entering the dining hall for lunch. Bob, the dining hall guy, did a great job of leading the boys in this loud and hilarious rendition of this campfire favorite. It is the next video of the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast. Just see if you can watch this and not walk away without humming this song.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
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What was your favorite song at summer camp this year?