November and December were busy times for the Troop!
On a crisp, sunny day in early November a group of us headed up to West Point, NY to watch Army beat UMass 63-7. We wondered who our ASM, Mr. Gibbons would cheer for…since he’s an Army veteran and a graduate of UMass! (his choice was Army!). We toured the grounds and had a great time.
Meanwhile, back closer to home, another ASM, Mr. Maslanka took Nate and Owen (and Mr. Nemeth) out on Round Valley to earn requirements for the Motorboating Merit Badge. It was seriously cold, but the scouts did a great job on a significant portion of the requirements and hope to finish the badge up in the near future.
On November 11th Jeff C. got his name added to our ‘rank achievement’ board and Owen passed his Board of Review and became Troop 200’s most recent Scout to achieve Star rank. Well done, boys. Your hard work is paying off.
In mid-November, a several scouts from the Council of Ricks patrol volunteered at the Pack 901 rocket launch at Round Valley Youth Center. Scouts also sold/delivered wreaths at our annual Holiday Greens sale.
On November 18th we held ‘Turkeybowl ’19’ and invited Webelos to join us. We collected over 65 lbs of non-perishable food items for the food pantry, we helped the Webelos on requirements (e.g. knot tying, whipping and fusing ropes and more!). And, we had a great time bowling with a frozen turkey!
We finished out the month with our annual family Thanksgiving dinner at Immaculate Conception Church. We thank everyone who donated items for us to share, especially Clinton Shop Rite.
In early December we participated in the Clinton Christmas Parade. We decorated Mr. Maslanka’s pontoon boat with lights and garland. While we were waiting to march, a transformer fire broke out on Center street and we had front row seats to the first responders and fire trucks. It was a lot of fun listening to the crowd saying ‘hey, look, it’s a pontoon boat.’
We also officially welcomed Christian into the troop, too. He jumped right in and participated in everything! Welcome Christian!
We also had our annual caroling night followed by a pizza party (thanks to the Lebanon Reformed Church for hosting us!). This year we went to Country Arch in Pittstown to spread some holiday cheer. The residents seemed to enjoy our singing and even yelled out requests.
In mid-December, we headed off to our Camp & Climb event in Doylestown, PA where we got in a lot of climbing. The older scouts from the Border Patrol and Venomous Cobras came here in the spring to earn the climbing merit badge and raved about it, so the rest of the scouts were happy to try it out too, since some of them were Webelos when we visited here as a troop a few years ago.
On December 17th, as we were winding down the year, Nate passed his Eagle Board of Review. It was the perfect way to end the year. We are looking forward to spending time with our loved ones over the break and wish you all a happy, healthy 2020. #Troop200 #HunterdonCounty #65Years