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The season is a' coming. Soon, sons and daughters will be buying greeting cards to give or to send to their mothers and fathers as the months of May and June come near. Hallmark sales will once again go through the roof.
As I was looking online for a name of that Norman Rockwell painting mentioned in my last post, I came across a picture of a set of figurines based on six of his more popular Scouting themed paintings. I wish I had seen this sooner.
Yep. It is that time of year. Boy Scout councils are conducting their annual Friends of Scouting campaigns to raise money to support the local council and its program. Our district executive from the Central Minnesota Council visited our troop's court of honor on Monday, March 24th.
A friend of mine recently posted a link on Facebook to something called International TableTop Day which will be held on Saturday, April 5th. I have never heard of this but it caught my interest so I decided to check it out.
Cub Scout Pack 68 held their Blue and Gold Banquet last night, Tuesday March 25, at the American Legion in Melrose. Pizza was brought in with hot dogs, chips, and desserts provided by the families. The Cub Scouts were pretty excited to receive their achievements during the award ceremony.
I would guess that most Cub Scouts and many Boy Scouts receive the monthly Boy's Life magazine so they are probably familiar with the cartoon characters found within its pages. But which character is the most popular? Is it Pedro, the burro?
For the last 15 or 20 years I have been collecting videos of Scouting commercials and promotional films. I have a few dozen of them. Some of them are very good. Several not so much. A few are just plain weird.
Guess what. It is time for the Pinewood Derby! Has there ever been a more powerful comment that causes so much excitement for a Cub Scout and also creates a higher stress level for his father or mother? Cub Scout Pack 68 of Melrose, Minnesota, held its Pinewood Derby on Tuesday, February 25.
The Scouting program snuck up on me a little as this week became a bit busier than usual. I guess I knew of everything that was coming up, but I was not really paying attention. Oh well, I can not think of many other programs I would rather spend my time on.
I was looking around YouTube tonight and discovered an interesting video about the founders of the Scouting program. Hear is what is written on the page: Uploaded on Mar 6, 2010 Boy Scouts of America Centennial Tribute to the founders of the Boy Scouts of America (Lord Robert Baden-Powell, Ernest Thompson Seton, William D.
I had a hunch I would be receiving a phone call so it did not come as a surprise when the phone rang two days after the first meeting of this year's mystery dinner theater group. I had been in the play two years ago and probably would have been in last year's play if…
I admit it. Once in awhile I get bored. And when I do strange things sometime happen. Like the other week for example. I was listening to the Carly Rae Jepsen song, Call Me Maybe , when other words started popping into my head.
In my last post I wrote about the four displays that Troop 68 set up around town for this year's Scouting Anniversary week. I have collected quite a bit of Scouting related stuff during the past 33 years so it is not very hard finding items and photos to fill four displays.
It is that time of year to once again celebrate another anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. It has been 104 years since William D. Boyce was granted a charter by the Congress of the United States of America to begin this great institution.
Most of us involved in the Scouting program either know or have heard of the Philmont Grace, the official meal prayer for Philmont Scout Ranch. But did you know the Order of the Arrow has one now? This was recently posted on the Naguonabe Lodge Facebook page: The National Order of the Arrow Committee has…
It is that time of year again. Next week the Boy Scouts of America will celebrate its birthday. For 104 years boys and young men have enjoyed participating it the exciting program Scouting offers. I was one of those boys in the 1970′s.
It is that special time of year. Plans are being made. Special designs are being considered. Bodies are being formed. Weights are being adjusted. Tracks are being calibrated. No, I am not talking about your local Snap Fitness center or the local gym.
Let's face it. Many Boy Scouts would not become an Eagle Scout without their parent's support, especially their mother's support. She probably learns as much, if not more, than the young man does on his road to Scouting's highest award.
It is amazing the amount of stuff you can collect when you are a scoutmaster for thirty years, especially the paperwork. What should you throw away? What should you keep? What do you file away and than forget about? I played it safe and kept a lot of it.
I would be willing to bet that most young men who go before their council Eagle board of review are a little nervous. I know that many of the Boy Scout from Melrose Troop 68 were when it was their turn.
Melrose Boy Scout Troop 68 does not have a building or a room to call its home, so my basement family room is the place I have created a "Scout Room". It contains collections of Scouting coffee mugs, awards, and other stuff.
The National Capital Area Council, BSA, recently posted a new promotional video to YouTube. I thought you might enjoy watching it.
It is done! That is correct, the second of my patch blankets is complete. I picked up the last patches this morning from the Scout Shop. Now I am waiting for the glue to dry. This new blanket contains 144 patches.
I was working on my second patch blanket today and came up to a spot for which I needed a patch. Along the edge of the blanket I have been placing patches that do not really fit with an activity I have attended.
It is only five more weeks until Boy Scout Troops and Cub Scout Packs around the country celebrate B.S.A. Scout Anniversary Week. Local units will be setting up displays in their communities to promote their Scout programs. We will probably be doing the same here in Melrose.
Merry Christmas everyone! It is time for my favorite Scouting themed Christmas story – The Christmas Scout . In spite of the fun and laughter, 13-year-old Frank Wilson was not happy. It was true he had received all the presents he wanted.
Near the end of this month's Scenic District roundtable meeting I asked the Scouters if many of them had any of the digital copies of the old Boy Scout themed novels written in the early 1900′s. I had noticed that many of the Scouters owned smart phones and tablets and that they used these during…
The 2001 National Jamboree may be ancient history to today's Boy Scouts but it is not to me. Not yet anyway. That is the Jamboree I attended as a scoutmaster of one of two troops sent from the Central Minnesota Council.
I was looking for a way to further excite the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 to attend troop activities and earn their advancement when I came up with the idea of having a troop auction for prizes at the end of the year.
Some of my favorite Scouting memories are from my trips to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I have been lucky enough to attend Philmont six times: once for scoutmaster training and five times on a trek with the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68.
Do your Youth Protection Training online, they tell us. Take your position specific training through the website, the council promotes. You should be doing your troop advancement through the internet, not through paperwork, I am told. How the hell am I suppose to do anything online through MyScouting.org when the website does not even recognize…
It is finished. I have set up my Scouting Village for the 2013 Christmas season. What do you think of it? The village fills a 2.5 foor by 3.5 foot sheet of plywood. It contains the 2012 and 2013 collection pieces.
I screwed up. I took out all my Scouting Village pieces this afternoon to set them up for Christmas. I was kind of excited because not only was I able to get all of this year's pieces but my local Scout Shop was able to find the piece I missed from last year, the lighted…
One of the things we are doing a bit different this year at the monthly Scenic District Boy Scout roundtable meetings is to break up the meeting, near the half way point, with a game, song, or skit. The goal is to introduce a new game or teach a new song or skit to troop…
Christmas at Philmont If you have been on a Philmont trek that included the northern and central portions of the ranch, then chances are good that you have hiked through Santa Claus Camp. The camp is located in Santa Claus Canyon, north of Bear Canyon and southeast of Head of Dean Camp.
I recently completed my first Scouting patch blanket. I have received several positive comments about it already. One Scouter even wrote to say he may start his own after seeing the pictures of mine. I say, go for it. It is a great way to display the patches collected through the years.
It is time for for the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 to add another skit, or is it a song, to the list of videos on the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast . The video comes from the troop's Laughs for Lunch Show performed in January 2000.
It is hard to believe that it is nearly three years since I first seriously began thinking of taking thirty years of patches from various Scouting events and sewing them on a blanket like so many Scouters have done. In the summer of 2012 I laid out one of my Scouting blankets on my ping…
For the last several years Boy Scout Troop 68 of Melrose was holding on to life with a small group of Scouts, only about 8 of them. The Cub Scout Pack has also had a rough time recruiting members which meant that the troop has only had 2 Webelos Scouts transfer to the troop during…
I do not know about you, but I hate sewing. Maybe one reason for that is I am not very good at it. And it takes too long. And I keep sticking myself with the needle. That is why when I decided to take the Scouting patches I have collected over the last 33 years…
Many Scouters will tell you that Wood Badge is like the college course of training for adult Scout Leaders. Not only is the course fantastic for any branch of Scouting but participants also receive training which they will find useful in the field of work and life in general.
A scoutmaster took out his phone at the roundtable Tuesday night to show me something that was written many centuries ago about the younger generation, but seemed to be written about many of today's youth. After reading it I had him email it to me so that I could share it with all of you.
Tuesday night was the Scenic District roundtable at the Scout Service Center. Al and I make up the staff for the Boy Scout roundtable. We have been trying to make them fun and informative. I think we succeeded last night.
If you have been involved with the Cub Scout or Boy Scout program for a year or longer you have probably seen a group of Scouts perform the I Wish I Was A Boy Scout skit. Or maybe you have already participated in performing the skit already.
The phone call surprised me Saturday night. The disc golf Tri-O was completed and the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 had left my house for their overnight camping trip. I was sitting at home watching television, thinking about going out to the campsite for a little while.
I think the first time I ever played disc golf was in 1981 at Crow Wing Scout Reservation near Nevis, Minnesota. I was a 20 year old assistant scoutmaster attending camp with the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68. It was their first time at a week long summer camp.
I have been giving the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 a small Christmas present each year for 30 years. It is not a very big present, just something to make the season a little more fun, and to give the Scouts a little something to look forward to during our troop Christmas party.
Remember last year? Scout Shops around the country and scoutstuff.org sold the first(?) three pieces of the Scouting Village collection. Those pieces were the Ranger's Cabin, the Camp Chapel, and the Trading Post. I never heard anything whether this was the start of a new yearly collection or if this was a one year deal…
Yes, I know it is not even Halloween yet, but Christmas commercials are already on television and the stores have already begun decorating for the season, so I thought now would be a great time to tell those of you who have completed their Wood Badge training to check out the scoutstuff.org website for this…
I saw this picture online and it brought a huge smile to my face. I could not help but picture a Scout Leader standing up in front of a council or district training session and yelling this to all the attendants.
