Central heating, a roof over their heads, modern plumbing, and electricity--unusual ingredients for scout weekends, but (just like every year) the boys certainly seemed to enjoy their annual sleep-over at the church.
Our standard Lock-In intinerary includes a service project, movie, gym sports, card games, and video games. But this weekend also included an Eagle Scout Court of Honor (congratulations Max Miller!!) and outdoor cooking by grubmasters.
The service project on Saturday went smoothly. The boys removed the labyrinth near the church playground. That labyrinth was created during a Troop 1916 Eagle Scout project many years ago. But it has been problematic to maintain more recently. The boys dug/pulled up the staked barriers, chopped them into short pieces, and loaded them into the dumpster. The church would very much like us to replace the labyrinth soon. So we are in search of a design. Please let me know if you have ideas.
After the service project, some of the older guys (with guidance from Mr. Zahniser and Mr. Johanson) ran sessions on fire building and camp stove usage. And we enjoyed a hot lunch courtesy of the grubmasters (Joshua J., Kael O., Patrick S., Scott S., and Tim J.).
Next up was Max Miller's Eagle Court of Honor. Max deserves many accolades for his many years with our troop (he turned 18 last fall--and has become one of our adult leaders). And of course, when the rest of the boys see one of our guys become Eagle, they are all motivated to aim for BSA's highest achievement. It was a great moment for the whole troop.
Saturday evening we had another hot meal (with desserts!) from the fine grubmasters. And after cleanup the boys had a few hours to play games (basketball, cards, video games, etc) before bedtime in the gym.
Sunday morning kicked-off with a musical 6AM wake-up (as in past years, Mr. Salt had a powerful sound system deployed in the gym). And the boys did a quick pack-up, breakfast, and readied for pick-up or the church service.
At the 8:30AM church service, Pastor Sandra Kessinger (everyone calls her "PSK") talked to the whole congregation about our troop. She is a huge fan of our program and is proud to be our sponsor. Redeemer offers us all kinds of support to run the troop as we see fit. It's hard to imagine a better partner for us. So when we have the chance to be present as a group at one of Redeemer's services (which we only do 2 or 3 times a year), please do consider it. The service runs about 45 minutes. (And I'm sure PSK will be happy to sign for your excused absence from any other church if needed ;)
We have a regular Tuesday meeting hosted by Mario M. tomorrow evening. And the PLC will be next week (on Jan 31). And the ski trip is less than 2 weeks away!
-Mike
p.s. If you've had a chance to enjoy the boys' dutch oven cooking or if you enjoy working with well-seasoned cast iron (or if you're simply looking to help me out), I really need help on the outings overseeing the cleaning of our dutch ovens and iron frying pans. The cleanup is simple and we always involve the boys. But it takes a little while and we need to work with hot iron, so adult supervision goes a long way. This has been my role for the past many campouts. But it's not a great fit with my other responsibilities as Scoutmaster. So please let me know (mtforrer@yahoo.com or at meetings) if this might work for you.