Merit Badge Update

Well, in the last month, we've had two merit badge counselors come and introduce themselves to the scouts so they can move forward with earning two merit badges; Personal Management and Coin Collecting. Bob Shaffer and Todd Banner, both residence of our Ward's troop boundaries spoke to the scouts and invited them to make appointments to pass off these merit badges.

Klondike Derby

Our troop participated in the district Klondike Derby for the first time in several years. There was plenty of snow at Camp Kiesel, where the Snowhorse District has been Klondiking for several year
s. Eric Tuttle and John Sorensen headed up the troop, while Patrik, Cory, Moab, Noah, Connor, Landon and Tyson enjoyed increasing their winter survival skills. We met at the church at 3:30 and were off by 4:00. We were setting up camp immediately. The challenge was that one of the scouts had a tent which wouldn't stand on its own. Therefore, we had the 7 scouts bunk in 2 tents. The leaders dug snow trenches, which were covered with boards and tarps and snow. Scouts had fun that evening eating chili and hotdogs, along with lots of hot chocolate. Morning brought pancakes, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate (again) and bacon. Nobody went hungry! We packed up some of our gear before we headed out for the Klondike Games. We headed down the road with our new sled, which was built by our scout master :) . Then, down to the lake, which frozen with 14" of ice. The problem was that we've had so much snow that there was a slush and snow on top of the ice. We would be walking and we would sink 10" into the slush. Thank goodness everyone had waterproof boots. In the sled race, it looked like our sled took second place. The 1st place sled had mush dogs with snow shoes!

We participated in a compass course, first aid, fire building, cooking and ice rescue.

Back at camp we had great submarine sandwiches, soda and chips. When it was time to leave, none of the scouts were ready to go! The leaders had to threaten the boys to pack up and go, but they were having too much fun throwing snowballs and having fun. To the amazement of all, our troop was one of the last troops to leave Camp Kiesel.

Next year, maybe some of the scouts will build snow caves so they can be as warm as the leaders were!

February 2008 Newsletter

Cedar Bench Troop 933 Blog - We have created a Troop 933 web page using Google Blogger. This is a web badge where scouts, parents and leaders can view different things going on in the troop. We're starting simple with past newsletters, a few pictures and web links to fun scout pages. You are welcome to visit the site and leave comments regarding different items posted. See http://cbtroop933.blogspot.com

Swimming and Life Saving Merit badges - Almost all of the scouts in our troop are ready to earn the swimming and life saving merit badges. Good luck to all the scouts in their desire to sharpen their skills, especially these life-long skills that we all need. Lauri Drean has coordinated the car-pooling to this activity. Please coordinate issues with driving conflicts with the parents of the scouts participating in this event.

Troop Meetings - We'll continue to have troop meetings during February from 7:00 until 8:30. Parents, please bring and pickup your scouts at this time. Opening exercises for Mutual begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. Your help in getting the scouts to troop meetings on time would be appreciated. This Tuesday we'll be discussing the Klondike.

Merit Badges - reminder for scouts working on Personal Management; It's been 13 weeks since we started discussing this merit badge, which is also the required amount of time to keep track of income and expenses. We'll be having a counselor from the ward come in to talk to our troop next week. We'll hand out blue cards to the boys who would like to move forward with this merit badge.

Winter Klondike Derby – Camp Kiesel - Snowhorse District Klondike Derby
February 8 - 9, 2008

The second winter camp out will be Friday, February 8th. We'll be meeting at the church at 3:30 p.m. and final packing there. We'll be eating supper and setting up camp Friday night. Saturday, we'll be participating in various Klondike events, eating breakfast and lunch and coming home in the early afternoon. Fathers are welcome to come with us. Please let us know if you are interested in coming. If you have some lumber or wood you can donate to keep the boys warm, please let me know.

Staying warm - Boys should have multiple layers when dressing. A coat, sweatshirt, heavy shirt and t-shirt should be worn on top. Long thermal underwear, sweatpants, pants and snow-pants may be worn below. Boys may be building snow caves to sleep in. If so, extra clothes, gloves and socks may be required. Snow bennie caps or various head gear must be worn too. Check your scout books for winter camping ideas. Also, check the scout field book in preparation for this event.

Pre-pack – We'll pre-pack Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at John Sorensen's home.

Camp Out - Meet at church at on Friday at 3:30 for final packing and travel.

Packing List:

Heavy duty winter sleeping bag
Extra blanket for inside of sleeping bag – It's winter. Temperatures could be in the single digits.
Bed pad
Small pillow
Flash light
Fold up chair
Bennie cap
Winter Coat
Sweatshirt
Winter snow gloves
Extra work gloves for building snow cave
Long pants
Snow pants, long underwear
Tent for 2 scouts, ground tarp
Waterproof tarp to wrap sleeping bag in (Burrito)
Snow shovel
Snow cave building supplies: water proof tarp, 10' x 10', etc.
Extra gloves
Extra socks
Extra pants
Hand warmers

Troop will provide food for supper, breakfast and lunch.