Our First Eagle Scout! - Congrats to William O'Leary

Last night Troop 4 reached an important milestone when William O'Leary passed his Eagle Board of Review and became Troop 4's 1st Eagle Scout.  I am so proud of William for his effort and determination, but I am even prouder thinking back to 5 years ago when William was still 12 and he took a leap of faith and helped start this brand new Troop.  Many of the traits of the Troop that we take for granted were forged by William and his peers and have left a stamp on the culture of the Troop that many who will never know William will benefit from.

William graduates this June from North Salem and will attend Connecticut College this fall as part of their Class of 2022.

On Saturday, May 19th we will hold a public Eagle Ceremony to celebrate William's achievement and I hope you all can join us to celebrate this milestone.  An invitation with details will be available soon.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/T68tE2fB4tVzJTJt2

Environmental Service Project

Last weekend Troop 4 spent the day battleling the invasive vines threatening the health of the trees at the Open Land Foundation's Baxter Preserve.  We had a good crew to start the day with three additional members of the community helping out plus a few more scouts who arrived later in the day to lend a hand.

Thanks to the NSOLF for providing a pizza lunch to fuel our efforts.  It's a never ending battle but we know we are making an impact and fulfilling our scouting obligation to help both the community and the environment.

To see all the photos of the day's effort check out our picture page at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/VinecuttingBaxterRoadNovember2015?authkey=Gv1sRgCMvHhqyw9eTMuwE

Vine Cutting Recap

A little late, but I wanted to make sure I got this out.  We had a fantastic and productive day cutting vines and freeing trees from the death clutches of the invasive vines choking our forests.  I hope all the scouts and our non scout volunteers felt their time was useful and productive.

The volunteers broke into 3 groups and worked three different areas of the Preserve.  Over the course of the day we had 26 scouts and volunteers helping.  I would like to thank our new scouts for a tremendous effort and for getting Mrs. Tate to come out and help us.

I ran into the property steward this week and she was really impressed with our effort and said she thought she needed to rent a wood chipper to dispose of all the vine cuttings we made around the property last Sunday.

The full photo record of the day can be found on our Troop album on line at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/BaxterRoadVinecuttingApril2015

Vinecutting

Last Saturday we again set up camp at the Open Land Foundation's Baxter Road Preserve to continue our environmental project of battling the invasive vines choking the trees in the Preserve.

I was unable to attend so the following is a synopsis of the day provided by ASM Scott Jeffery:

"Vinecutting worked out great.  Charlotte was there from the Open Lands and drove the boys to where the conservatory wanted them.  Think the boys got the biggest kick out of riding in hers and Dr V's trucks.  They worked in the way way way back, straight past the pond and beyond in the far reaches, about a 10 minute walk from our base camp. 

Michael's set up worked out great.  He had the water, stove, snacks and tables all ready so we had a great camp.  We had a great scout turnout with 12 boys there for most of the day, and one bonus boy that I never got the same story twice on how he arrived.  The pizzas were devoured, and hot chocolate and soup always in demand (though lighting the stove proved tricky in the wind).  Henry SPL did a really great job of keeping boys together and equipment accounted for.  I presume everyone got their stuff back as I was not there for the conclusion.  He was really organized.

Weather was great for the time of year, reasonably warm with brisk breeze. 

All in all it was a great day.  The lessons from the past ones made this one successful and the lesson learned on this one is to get the word out on a broader scale and earlier.  Still seems we now have another great template for the next scout to build further on for this event."

And the Orienteering winner is:

Henry, who completed both the 1K and 2K courses with the fastest time on each course.

While the weather was cold and damp we still had 4 Cub Scouts and 4 non scouts take part in the competition, and a total of 11 teams of racers on the course, most trying both courses.

Overall a fun afternoon and a well planned activity.  Thanks to Quinn and Aiidan for the work they put into making this happen.

UMC Tag Sale Set Up

Troop 4 pitched in this past Sunday to help our chartering organization, the United Methodist Church of Purdys, set up for the tag sale.  We had 9 scouts and several parents pitch in to help the Church set up their tag sale today.  The many hands made quick work of the task and we had the entire contents of their garage set up in under an hour and a half.

If you get a chance, stop by this week and help support the people who made Troop 4 possible.

Anyone who can help the Church take down the tag sale please meet at the Church at 3pm next Saturday 10/4.  The tear down should take under an hour.

Scout Sunday at the Purdys UMC

We spent a wonderful morning attending our Chartering Organization's Sunday Service where we presented the congregation the annual Charter from the BSA.  After the services we spent some time sharing cookies and coffee and getting to know our sponsors.  When we were done we spent the rest of the morning working with the Church helping them set up for their annual tag sale.

It was great to see our Scouts give back to the organization that gave Troop 4 life and provides us meeting space, committee members and helps us with our Boards of Review.

Vinecutting at Baxter Preserve March 2014

We completed our third Vinecutting project at the North Salem Open Land Foundation's Baxter Road Preserve.  We had 11 Boy Scouts, 3 volunteers from the school earning community service credit, and 4 parents who helped give us a hand.  This is the largest group we have had working and the results with the extra hands were clearly visible in the areas we worked.  The scouts and volunteers spent over 4 hours each working on saving the trees from the invasive vines destroying the forests.

Our Troop 4 scouts were fantastic, they all worked hard and I think they enjoyed themselves.  They should all be proud of the service they provided to the community and the environment.  I am proud of their effort and commitment.

Thanks to Gloria Stein from the NSOLF who brought our hungry crew pizza and cookies to fuel up on.

We will be back next November in this ongoing and never ending project.

For more pictures of the day check out our photo gallery here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/VineCuttingMarch2014?noredirect=1

Vinecutting

Saturday was a perfect day for our vine cutting project at the Baxter Preserve.  We ended up with over a dozen people pitching in and helping out which is more than twice as many people as we had working last time.  As a result we were able to cover a much bigger area than last time.  Looking forward to next time.

Here are some pictures from our day.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114081196567743974684/November2013VineCutting?noredirect=1

Dates approved for vine cutting project

The NSOLF approved our two dates for the vine cutting project.  The Fall date is Saturday 11/16/13 and the Spring date is Saturday 3/8/14.

Both dates have been updated in the Troop calendar.

Troop 4 in the news

Our community service project at the NSOLF Baxter Road Preserve made the local news:

North Salem Daily