15 scouts went to the overnight ski trip and only 15 came back! While at Wintergreen this year, several scouts who never skied before, challenged themselves to do the best they could. All the scouts, including scouters had a blast! When skiing was over, the scouts had pizza for dinner. Everyone stayed overnight at a local church and had breakfast at IHOP the next morning.
The Knights of Columbus, Council #5480, held their annual Run for the Heart, scouts from both Troop 242 and Pack 242 volunteered to work water stations to provide thirsty runners with hydration. Even though it was really cold, the scouts did a great job supporting the runners while keeping them motivated with cheers and clapping. When the race was finished, the scouts returned to York High School and celebrated with the runners eating pizza, chips, and Gatorade as awards were given out to the top runners.
Throughout the morning and early afternoon on Saturday, February 19th, Troop 242 Scouts assisted at the Pack 242 Pinewood Derby held in the gym and cafeteria at OLMC. The Scouts from the Troops assisted in several ways at the event. Some of the scouts worked rotations in the cafeteria serving concessions while others assisted with a STEM activity involving testing gravity and building bridges. Fun was had by all ages at the event!
The Boy Scouts celebrated. At the Mass the Scouts served as the greeters, ushers, and altar severs. Also present at the Mass were the Cub Scouts from Pack 242. Scout Sunday is where the Cub Scouts are awarded their Emblem of Light Awards. They also get awarded their duty to God Awards. The Boy Scouts of America annually celebrates its founding on February 8, 1910, based on the program started by Lord Baden Powell in England on August 1, 1907. Scout Sunday was added to the Scout celebration in the middle 1940s. Scout Sunday is always the Sunday proceeding February 8th, unless the 8th is a Sunday, in which case the 8th would be Scout Sunday. The Saturday following February 8th is Scout Sabbath. If you want to learn more here is the link http://www.nccs-bsa.org/index.php/scout-sunday.
December Court of Honor
At the court of honor many rank advancements were announced, and more than 200 merit badges were awarded. Go Troop 242!!! The master of ceremonies was Donovan and ranks/awards were handed out by the SPLs – Keekoh and Lois. Pizza and drinks were enjoyed by families and scouts prior to the awards portion of the night.
The following is a list of the different merit badges:
American Cultures, Animation, Archery, Architecture, Art, Astronomy, Automotive Maintenance., Backpacking, Basketry, Camping, Canoeing, Chemistry, Chess, Citizenship in Community, Citizenship in Nation, Citizenship in World, Climbing, Communication, Cooking, Disabilities Awareness, Electricity, Electronics, Emergency Preparedness, Energy, Environmental Science, Family Life, Fingerprinting, Fire Safety, First Aid, Forestry, Geocaching, Hiking, Home Repairs, Indian Lore, Kayaking, Landscape Architecture, Leatherwork, Lifesaving, Mammal Study, Metalwork, Model Design, Nature, Nuclear Science, Orienteering, Painting, Personal Fitness, Personal Management, Photography, Plumbing, Pottery, Public Health, Reading, Rifle Shooting, Robotics, Sculpture, Signs Signals Codes, Space Exploration, Sustainability, Swimming, Traffic Safety, Weather, Welding, Wilderness Survival, and Wood Carving.
The following ranks were earned:
Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star Scout, Life Scout, Eagle Scout, and a number of Eagle Palms were earned by our Eagle Scouts.
And last but not least we also welcomed a new scout to the troop, Alexander. Welcome to Troop 242!
During our Thanksgiving in the Woods campout, the troop stayed at the Northwest Riverpark & Campground. During the meal preparations the adults fried the turkey. Eagle patrol had “mashed madness” with the mashed potatoes. Panther made “in-pasta-bly delicious and in-cheddar-fully delightful” mac and cheese. Lightning made “super” stuffing. Phoenix made “gratefully great” green beans and “kernelled” corn. Once all the food was prepared, everyone gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving in the Woods. After dinner there was a friendly Dutch Oven dessert contest with Spartan winning 1st place with their Banana Bread, Eagle did Dutch Oven Smores and Phoenix did brownies. But in the end, it just provided everyone with a delicious way to close out the wonderful campout.
P.S. Thanks to Mrs. Marcy, Mr. Major, and Will for their invaluable intel on the campout.
During the wilderness survival campout we went Merchants Millpond State Park for one night. We canoed into the campsite and made shelters out of tarps and rope. There was a Wilderness Survival merit badge course by Mr. Grieme where we purified water in three ways and started fire in three ways among other things. Saturday night we had a campfire program even though it was raining, where we had skits and a lot of fun. On Sunday morning we canoed back out of the campsite then packed up the canoes and did our normal retinue.
The weekend of September 24-26 , we had a camping trip at Newport News park. We used this weekend to work on merit badges, including a 6 mile hike with loaded packs to help with the camping merit badge. We had several of the adults come to lead other merit badges during the day on Saturday, and enjoyed perfect weather for camping all weekend. We had one scout make rank over the weekend, and enjoyed having a couple new scouts join us for their first camping with Troop 242. We’re looking forward to our Wilderness survival campout next weekend!
On Saturday August 21st, we did a fundraiser for the troop! During the fundraiser we washed cars at a McDonald’s parking lot. We washed nearly twenty cars and with the help of donations, we raised over three-hundred dollars. We has good turnout from both troops. A big thank you to all the families who helped advertise and came by to get their car washed. A special thanks to Mrs. Williams for organizing our carwash fundraiser!
This year Troop 242 went to Devil’s Marble Yard. While we were there we hiked up a mountain, went bouldering, and had a campfire program. The elevation gain of the hike was up to 1,000 feet. Then bouldered another 500 feet. Every scout made it to the top of the boulders, including two new scouts who have just joined and are still Scout rank, all of the adults who wanted to did as well. During the campfire program hosted by Able, each patrol did a skit and it was lots of fun.
One important thing we learned this year is that hiking in hot weather takes much more water than we thought it would. Temperatures on this campout were very warm and with no shade on the rocks, a lot of us were thirsty by the time we finished bouldering. Thanks to the adult leaders who got ice water ready for us at the bottom of the trail. We had one scout make rank this trip, and had a Sunday morning interfaith service led by our Chaplin’s aids, Billy, and Lois.
Troop 242