Trail Life Families,
It’s hard to believe that our regular Troop season is coming to a close…with tomorrow (Tuesday May 2nd) as our Final regular troop meeting of the season. What a fun and exciting season this has been— and I’m so very thankful for both the Trailmen that make up this troop and the awesome Dad’s (and surrogate dads, and uncles, etc) that make this program happen. With our troop season coming to a close, we will be having our End of Season Awards ceremony and celebration on May 16th @ 6:15pm— and I want to make sure you and your family have the date so you can be part of this fun, rite-of-passage for our boys.
While we will be recognizing the Awards earned by our Trailmen, purchasing of awards are optional— and order forms will be available tonight based on the awards your Trailmen have earned. We would love to see *all* of our Trailmen and families attend awards ceremony regardless of awards status— so please plan on being part of this fun event. (And as is tradition, we will have a pot-luck style dessert time on the lawn after the ceremony...so stick around for some sweet treats).
Specific details below based on the age / grade of your Trailman:
Woodlands Trailmen
We’ve had a very successful troop season with many of our Trailmen attending a majority of our troop meetings…and some of our hit the Trails. As a reminder— the Woodlands Trail program is really based on program participation of both our Meetings AND our Hit the Trails / Campouts. For our Trailmen to succeed in earning all the skills (and thus Steps and Branches) for their various areas of learning— attending consistently is the key! A full list of awards earned, as well a list of STEPS towards earning those branches, will be made available at our troop meeting this Tuesday night. Dads (and Moms)— please review those, and let us know if there are any missing meetings, or mistakes that need correcting. If your trailman is "close" to earning an award (with just a single missed step in that particular branch of learning), a Family Home Activity (FHA) can be substituted to make up that missing step. Please see your Trail Guide for more details at our meeting, and report FHA’s using our Troop attendance form»
Navigators & Adventurers
At our meeting this week, we will be conducting board of reviews to discuss your achievements and badges earned thus far in the season. Many of our Navigators and Adventurers have worked *Very* diligently to complete several required and elective badges this troop season— great work Trailmen! If you have been working on elective badge work, it must be finished and submitted for review by our Trail Guides and Troopmaster tomorrow night to be eligible for our upcoming awards ceremony. With several of our first year Navigators earning their TROOP STANDARD, we will need to have those orders in Tuesday night to ensure we have enough available for those wanting the Standard for our Ceremony.
Additionally, we will need Trailmen and/or parents to report any Service Stars earned by our Navigator/Adventurer trailmen since our last Awards Ceremony. We believe that our Trailmen should be Servants in their local churches, and community serving organizations— which is why these service stars are so important for our troop. Navigators earn a service star when they’ve successfully accumulated 15 hours of service, while our Adventures at the 20 hour mark. Please communicate service stars earned to your Trail Guide at our next meeting, or use our Reporting form here »
That’s all for now— see you tomorrow night, and let’s Walk Worthy!
Pastor Brian Fox
Troop Lead