Pool Kick Off Party Saturday

Hello Troop 12 Scouts, Parents, and Families,

I look forward to seeing you all at Troop 12's Pool Party and Cookout on Saturday to start the new scout year. I hope all scouts and their families can attend. Bring your bathing suit and a towel if you like to swim.

The troop will provide veggie burgers and meat for the grill, rolls, drinks, and paper goods.

Scouts with a last name beginning with A-K please bring a salad or main course type dish.

Scouts with a last name beginning with L-Z please bring a dessert.

Bring a lawn chair/folding chair if you have one.

Date: Saturday, September 8, 2012
Time: 2pm - 5pm
Place: 250 Maynard Road Framingham (between Grove St and Pleasant St, near the Edgell Grove Cemetery) at Duncan Fitts house.

Duncan tells me that there is plenty of parking at the top of the driveway so pull up and pull onto the grass on the left. There are some spots on the street but it is a busy cut through so the driveway is your best bet.

Matt Hugo EAGLE SCOUT

Troop 12 is proud to introduce our latest Eagle Scout Matt Hugo

Here are more pictures click here.
Congratulations Matt from all of us at Troop 12

Catchalot tomorrow

On Saturday morning at 7AM we are to meet at the shed, we will ride our bikes around some of the roads and trails in the Miles Standish State Forest, which is located in south eastern Massachusetts, near Plymouth. Please let me know if you don’t have a bike or if you don’t want to ride for some reason. We will return to camp for lunch. You will need to bring your own lunch. In the afternoon, we will paddle our canoes in the camp’s lake. We will practice our paddling techniques and how to empty a canoe if it gets filled with water. We will probably spend a lot of time in the water. Scouts will get the opportunity to tip over canoes and then demonstrate how much buoyancy remains, even though there is water in the canoe. Everybody will be wearing PFD’s whenever we are on the water. The intent of this trip is to help scouts gain confidence in handling a canoe and dealing with emergency situations. Please remember to bring your own bag lunch for Saturday.

Three Mile Island 2012

Troop 12’s 2012 Three Mile Island Canoe trip began on Saturday May 12 in the church parking lot. Scouts arrived between five thirty and quarter of six, with the departure time planned for six o’clock sharp. After everyone arrived, the Scouts were divided into vehicles and the trip was underway.

            Roughly two hours later, the troop arrived at the marina on Lake Winnipesaukee and promptly unloaded their gear. After a short wait for Mr. Blue to fetch the canoe trailer, paddles and life vests were distributed to the troop. The Senior Patrol Leader, Tim, did a fantastic job of organizing the logistics of gear and fitting everyone into the canoes. About half an hour later, the troop took off towards Three Mile Island.

            Upon arriving at the island, the troop gathered on the small beach while the other canoes landed. It took about an hour to get all of the gear out of the canoes and assign cabins to everyone, but soon enough, everyone had a place to stay for the night. The troop had a quick lunch of cold cut wraps, and Mr. Blue explained the use of the buddy system and other rules for the day. After that the scouts were turned loose to do their own thing for the day.

            The troop had a blast. Many of the younger scouts went fishing to great success, and several unfortunate fishes were cleaned and cooked up for second breakfast. The older scouts canoed over to the smaller island across from the boat dock, and discovered a sort of fort that had been built by previous campers. They set about improving and extending its walls for an hour or so, until they grew bored of the work. Back in their canoes, they then devised an ingenious “triple canoe”. Three canoes would line up side by side, and the two men in the middle canoe would hold the contraption together. By means of commands shouted in their best pirate imitations, such as “full on the right!” or “half speed all, quiet”, the giant vessel could be maneuvered with some maneuverability. Later, they also found that they could aim the whole boat at a target and launch the middle canoe at great speed like some sort of missile.

            After a day on the water, the scouts returned to the campsites and cooked dinner. Marcus’s patrol had meatball subs with pudding pie for dessert, and Johnny’s had Philly cheese steaks and Hostess rolls for their supper. A campfire with skits and performances by the scouts and Mr. Blue himself followed, which was a huge success. As the campfire continued, Dan relived his entire Scouting career for the amusement of the troop, as it was the last official trip that he and Cam would attend. Eventually, even Dan got tired of telling his best stories, so the scouts retired to their cabins for the night around ten thirty.

            The next morning, the older scouts arose to their dismay to find that the younger scouts had been up since five, and had used all of the peanut butter for the breakfast bagels. Following a thin breakfast, the troop packed up and brought their gear down to the beach. The troop was able to use the canoes and go fishing for another hour before they had to leave. With all of the gear already on the beach, it was an easy matter to load the canoes and be off on the way.

                 Once the troop arrived back at the marina, the gear was quickly loaded into the cars and the canoes put up on the trailer. On the drive back, the troop got pizza from local restaurant for lunch, and ate on the bank of the lake. After another two hours of driving the troop arrived back in the church parking lot at about four o’clock, tired but happy.

            Thanks to Mr. Blue, Mr. Demallie, and Mr. Weber for running the trip, as well as all of the drivers who gave up their weekend to shuttle the scouts to the island.

The Boston Skyline Trip April 20-22

The Boston Skyline Trip was a trip to the Blue Hills Reservation near Boston, where we would hike, camp, and have fun. We arrived around seven o’clock on Friday evening, and brought our gear up to a set of four lean-tos we had rented for the weekend in Camp Sayre. After we had settled in and after a quick game of manhunt, we retired to our respective lean-tos to rest for the next day.
​Most of us woke up around six-thirty the next morning and began preparing for the hikes ahead of us. After a slightly chaotic series of events involving boiling water, unorganized gear, and an exploding stove, we set off on our separate hikes. The younger Scouts embarked on a quick, 2.5 mile hike that took them to the top of Great Blue Hill so that they could look at the Boston skyline from atop an old stone watchtower, while the older scouts set off on a 9 mile trek along the Skyline Trail that took them across the entirety of the Blue Hills Reservation. As the older scouts continued their journey, the younger scouts returned to the campsite to work on advancements so that one day, they could be considered the ‘older scouts’.
​When the older scouts came back from their hike, the troop enjoyed a meal of crunchy, undercooked, yet tasty freeze dried meals. Later, as we began to prepare our skits for a fireless campfire, a strange and ominous local scout leader delivered a warning, telling us to beware the possibility of heavy thunder showers, and foresaw the leakage of our lean-tos’ roofs. We heeded his warning and evacuated to a different set of lean-tos on the other side of the camp. After having been working like slaves for several hours until well after dark to set up the new camp, a number of scouts had to leave due to prior engagements. The few that remained decided that that night was not the best night for skits as we were tired after hiking, advancing, and hiking some more throughout the entire day. So with nothing else to do, we went to bed.
​The next morning, we awoke around seven-thirty, and having been cheated out of our heavy thundershowers, but being in the imminent path of another one, we barely managed to return home before the rain arrived in our wake.

Church clean up & trip plans.

Plymouth Church will be having a clean-up day on Saturday, May 12 between 9:00am and 12:00pm. There will be lots of mulch to spread around and other assorted tasks. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated if you were able to help out. Please bring along work gloves and any gardening tools that you might think would be useful. We will need a few wheelbarrows, rakes and other implements to move and spread the mulch.

We get lot of use out of the church's facilities, so please make an effort to show that gratitude.

Don't forget the canoeing on Sunday afternoon, May 6th. We will meet at Lake Cochituate at 2:00pm. We will canoe until about 4:00pm. If the weather is bad, we will move it to Monday night at 6:00pm, also at Lake Cochituate. Please remember to bring a towel and a change of dry clothes. You might want to consider bringing along a long sleeved shirt to wear while you are canoeing. Please don't bring a cotton shirt.

Thanks,

Dick Clarke

A couple past member showed up as guests

An Eagle and a committee chairman