Tower Climbing and Rappelling

During the same weekend of our new scouts first campout at Echoockotee, our older scouts were doing tower climbing and rappelling. Here are the pictures. 

New Scouts Campout

Our new scouts were to their first campout at Echoockotee. One of the objectives were to learn basic camping skills including how to build a fire and to cook with it. Troop guides and other older scouts were available to teach new skills. Some of them also had their own activities climbing and rappelling. See all pictures here.

2009 03 Court of Honor

Here are the pictures of the Court of Honor

TROOP CAMPING UPDATES

March 27th - 29th - New Patrol Campout at Echockotee along with Saturday Climbing Wall opportunity for Troop - See Mr. Swindling or Mr. Lepervanche

April 17th - 19th - Caving in Florida State Caverns State Park - so..bring your dirty grubby clothes and be prepared to get down and dirty~~ Mr. Halpin for details.

April 24th - 26th - New Patrol Campout - Mr. Swindling

May 1st - 3rd - District Camporee - Echockotee - Mr. Lepervanche

May 23rd- 25th- Memorial Weekend and New Patrol Campout - Mr. Swindling

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN EARNING YOUR RELIGIOUS EMBLEM?

A class of the AD ALTARE DEI Catholic Religious Emblem will be starting soon. All ages of Catholic Boy Scouts are eligible to do this program.

An informational meeting will be held SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009, 2:00pm at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, Social hall in the school.

This meeting is for parents and youth to learn about the program and decide if they would like to participate.

For more information or to sign up for the meeting, please contact CATHERINE WEIDE, Religious Emblem Counselor. cweide@comcast.net, 221-3717.

BSA has religious emblem programs for several religions. See Mrs. Weide for details.

Pope Pius XII Religious Awards

Six of our Scouts attended the 29th Annual Bishop's Scout Recognition Ceremony at the Cathedral Basilica in Saint Augustine. They received the Pope Pius XII award which is given to Boy Scouts who have been involved in serious though and discussion with qualified adults about spiritual concerns in their lives and about matters that will contribute to their maturity as Catholic adults. 

In the same ceremony Mrs. Weide received the St. George Boy Scouts Award and Mrs. Grodell received the St. Anne Girl Scouts Award. 

See all pictures here.

Welcome new Scouts and parents to Troop 182 !!!

Welcome new Scouts and parents to Troop 182 !!!
Here is the link to Troop 182 calendar

This month of March has been memorable with the arrival of new 17 scouts and their families to our troop. We had been planning with our older Scouts and Scouters to handle the new wave and I am glad to see that we have had a good fast-paced start for our new scouts during their first two meetings.

As I told new parents during my presentation about how our troop operates, we were a large troop with 36 scouts and now we are a larger troop with more than 50 scouts!

This number requires a lot of organization, management and leadership, specific planning, excellent coordination, and active participation of experienced Scouts, trained Scouters, and committed parents. I like this kind of challenges. We have been weathering many storms since I joined this troop in 2005 and together we have found the sun after the storms. The most important point about our volunteer "job" is to do it with fun for the best of our boy scouts. We all learn from our mistakes to bring the best Scouting program.

Now that we have a larger group of scouts and parents I will use more emails and this blog to post important events, tips, and needs to help your transition from the Pack culture to the Troop methods. Get familiar with this blog, see previous events and pictures, print your calendar, sign up in the meeting board for upcoming events, and keep track upcoming activities.

As a large and successful troop, we are proud of our active scouts, including a large number of active Eagle Scouts, our campouts and trips, our rank centered programs (New Scouts, First Class to Life, Trail to Eagle, Beyond Eagle), our trained adults, our Brownsea trained SPL and youth leaders who do their best to use the Patrol Method, and our multi-tasking parents. As a new scout, you are already experiencing the benefits of our structured program. As a parent, you are welcome to find your spot as committee member, driver, merit badge counselor, assistant scoutmaster, or just as a committed parent willing to support meetings, activities, campouts, and fundraisers.

I am convinced that we are the best troop and I need you to believe it and to be an active part of our success!

Welcome aboard and God bless you and your family.

Jose G. Lepervanche
Scoutmaster Troop 182
www.troop182jax.org

We attended the OA Spring Fellowship

Order of the Arrow members of Troop 182 attended the Spring Fellowship camping in Camp Shands. Four new Ordeal members, four new Brotherhood members, and five old Brotherhood members had a great weekend for a total of 8 scouts and 5 adults. Our Saturiwa Chapter brought 62 campers to this fellowship. We also had the Wood Badge beading ceremony of our Committee Chair.

The Order of the Arrow is the National Honor Society of the Boy Scouts of America. OA members are elected by scouts from their troops. The OA promote camping and the maintenance of BSA camps by providing numerous hours of service. OA members are usually staff for Summer Camps and other youth leadership activities.

As a troop with a numerous number of OA members, we are proud of our extra service to Scouting and we should plan accordingly to be able to accomodate our attendance to troop campouts as well as OA campouts. Camping with the troop create a big bonding and friendship with our patrols and scouts. Camping with the OA bring the benefits of serving other troops and camps, as well as expose our scouts to make lifelong friends in other troops. Scouting is a world movement and we should encourage any opportunity to learn from others and to serve others.

Here are the links to the photo albums (Fellowship 1, Fellowship2, Woodbadge)