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

This weekend

Hello Troop,

I would like to remind everybody going on the trip this weekend that they should have eaten supper at home or bring something to eat at the camp site. We will not be providing supper tonight. Please arrive at the church at 5:30pm.

I urge everybody to attend the troop meeting on Monday night. It will start at the usual 7:30pm. I am very excited that a very special person has volunteered to speak about his experiences. He is back in Framingham very infrequently, but he has agreed to give up some of his precious time to talk to the troop. I will not divulge too much, but I will say that he has a special job. He is an Eagle Scout from Troop 12. I am proud to say that he was my first SPL. I consider it a privilege to have been part of this young man's development. Scouts and parents, please attend the meeting on Monday night to hear this young man speak. Everybody is welcome to attend. You will be able to see the results of some of tax dollars at work.

Scoutmaster Clarke

First night with our crossed over Webelos

Colonial Knox era games

Matt's Eagle Project

Hello Troop 12,

Matt M. has been given the approval to start his Eagle Project. He will be building a number of "Duck Boxes" that will be located at various locations around town. Apparently ducks like to nest in boxes and it helps protect their young from predators.

He would like volunteers to meet at 10 am in the lobby of the library downtown to research some topics for his Eagle Scout Project. You will be researching local duck species, their preferred habitats, and suitable locations along the Sudbury River and in local ponds. If scouts could  help Matt's research for half an hour, an hour, or  any time, it would be greatly appreciated.

If we meet in the lobby at 10 am we can find a nice quiet place to base ourselves for the morning.

If scouts have any questions, Matt's email address is not in this blog due to spam. Contact Scoutmaster Clarke for his email!

Matt is the current Troop 12 Senior Patrol Leader. He has done a lot of work on behalf of the troop this year. Please help him on Friday morning if you have the time.

Thank you,

Dick Clarke

Scoutmaster, Troop 12

Scoutmasters Update 4/4/2012

Hello Troop 12,

It was great to see all of those new Scouts crossing over into Troop 12 last Monday night. The night was memorable because we are now starting to see the results of all of the hard work done by many people to help Pack 12 prosper. The growth of Pack 12 is beyond my wildest dreams. I still remember that first meeting night with the newly reformed Pack 12.

Pack 12 had disbanded a year or two earlier and had no members. That first meeting we had about seven boys. Five years later we have 75 boys. That is quite some growth. The pack grew because we offered excitement, fun and lots of opportunities to go camping. Success breeds success. Other packs in town complain about the growth of Pack 12, but who can deny that boys want to go where they can have fun?

Troop 12 has the same philosophy. We want all scouts to have fun, have adventures, go camping and learn useful skills. We have some good trips lined up for the upcoming months and don't forget that we have summer camp scheduled for July 1st to 7th.

New parents will probably notice that Troop 12 has some older scouts, some of whom are approaching 18, a bit too soon in some notable cases. We are proud that we can hold onto these young men. Two of these young men will earn their Eagle rank at the June 11th Court of Honor. This is the pinnacle of Scouting. Troop 12 is proud that we have nurtured over 110 Eagle Scouts over the last 88 years.

Troop 12 is a lot of things, but perfect is not one of them. We try to let the scout run the meetings as much as possible, so things do not always go according to plan. We learn from our mistakes and move on.

Thanks,

Dick Clarke

Scoutmaster, Troop 12

11 Webelos Cross Over

Congratulation to the 12 new Webelos

2012 Pancake Breakfast

            Troop 12’s annual Pancake Breakfast took place in Plymouth Church on Saturday, March 24. The Scouts arrived at the church at about seven in the morning, which had already been set up the previous evening by the dedicated adults (by some accounts Mr. Blue was in the kitchen by five thirty!). Customers started arriving at seven thirty, and the scouts got busy serving and bussing tables. Continuing until eleven, the breakfast was a huge success. Lots of people from around town came to the event. Our guests found it enjoyable talking with the Scouts about their activities, and they left happy and full. Enough people came that the troop made a profit from the food for the breakfast itself. Usually the real profit is made from the placemat advertisements sold to local businesses. A thanks to all of the people who helped make the 32^nd annual Pancake Breakfast such a success; especially Mr. Blue, who supervised the work in the kitchen, Mrs. Demali, who organized the advertisements and designed the placemats and table ads, and all the guests who came to support Troop 12.

Troop Scribe Tim     

Church Clean Up Saturday and Webelo Cross over on Monday

We have our traditional Plymouth Church grounds clean-up scheduled for this coming Saturday, March 31st. We will try to make the church property look neater in preparation for Easter Sunday.  We will pick up leaves and fallen branches, sweep up the pathways and whatever else we can find. We will start work at 9:00am and work until 12:00pm. We have just held a successful fundraiser in the church hall, so it is fitting that we do something for the church in return.

Please bring along gloves, rakes, stiff brooms and anything else that might come in useful. All Scouts are expected to participate in this service project.

Don't forget that next Monday evening we will be participating in the crossing-over ceremony for the Senior Webelos from Pack 12, all of whom earned their Arrow of Light Award.  This means we will be welcoming 11 new members into Troop 12. They are looking forward to many adventures and forming friendships with the Scouts in Troop 12. They have lots of enthusiasm, so let's give them a rousing welcome. Please arrive by 6:45pm. The Crossing-Over ceremony will start at about 7:00pm.

Dick Clarke

Scoutmaster, Troop 12