Spring "Winter" Camporee

            On May 13th Troop 321 set out to host their Winter, I mean Spring camporee. When they arrived they started to set up their tents and meet the other scouts coming. Until 10:00 pm the scouts ran around, and played some games. But, at 10:00 pm they started the events. At their first event, they had to set off 4 mouse traps from 5-15 feet away by lashing multiple sticks together and extending it to the traps. On their second event they had to knock down bowling pins with a tennis ball, and a tennis ball hand launcher. On their third event they had all the scouts blindfolded except one who would give directions to the others on how to set up the tent. On their fourth and final event they tested how prepared they were by seeing how many of the ten essentials they had.

On day two of their campout,  Willard K woke up last and earned "Hollywood" for the day. (Hollywood is a game they play where whoever wakes up last is called Hollywood, and must take out the trash.) For the rest of the day the boy scouts invited the cub scouts to their camp and hosted a bunch of games for them! The camp was getting so much attention, even TV6 showed up and interviewed a few scouts about it!  After the cubs finished their games they were served a wonderful lunch by the older scouts. At the end of the day everyone sat down for a campfire and a performance of skits. Following the camp fire Caleb H made a wonderful dinner for the troop, and Nick M made a perfect marshmallow for the first time and earned a package of bacon from Robert Lawton, and Nick M generously shared his prize with his fellow scouts for a perfect ending to the day.

On their last day, Danny P earned "Hollywood" and they had a breakfast of donuts and oatmeal. And at the end of the day the boys all left with a smile on their face, Gary had all his clothes, and surprisingly Darryl had all his arm hair.

Cub Winter Games

Now that we've (finally) shaken off winter... the Scouting tempo has picked up. Along with several other Troops, Troop 321 helped support the area's Cub Winter Games - and squeezed in a bit of fundraising, too.

Lots of happy Cubs!

Nick, Jacob, and DJ helped run a game for the Cubs. Darryl served as Master of Ceremonies. He does a fantastic job every year, though he's never worn a tutu.

Willard and Phoebe helped Grace run the bake sale table. The table was loaded with goodies, and we raised $200 to help buy new Pinewood Derby track parts (we could use a trailer to store it in, too).

Gary and Robert sold chili and Frito Pies (Fritos and chili with cheese) as a hasty Troop fundraiser (the Crew bailed out the night before). Robert also made Cajun cornbread, but he promised to try something the kids will actually like next year instead.

As for the "winter" games, we got our last sticking snow just in the nick of time to keep the event from turning into a "spring fling" instead. Lucky us.

Winter Campout

This year's winter camping was a blast. On the first day we arrived out to camp and those that had cars were almost submerged to because of the huge holes (lakes). Some of us had to wait for Darryl to come back and rescue us. We got to camp and stayed up for a couple of hours having a fire and eating pudgy pies. Then we all settled in for the night.

Saturday Night's Campfire

On the second day we got up and had some bacon, eggs, and toast. Then all of us campers started to build our winter shelters. After that we took a hike to Snowshoe Village and then back to camp. That night some kids slept in their shelters and the rest of us slept in cabins.

On the last day we woke up and had donuts. Then we began to pick up the campsite and left Camp without a trace. Although we almost burned the cabin down with a pair of socks, everyone had a good time. ~ Beau M

Winter Klondike 2016

We started the day by meeting at the United Methodist Church in Ishpeming at 0800 and stared off to Lakenenland. We arrived around 0830 and we got the sled ready to go. We were given a map and a decoder strip. At every event we received three letters to add to our strip.
The kids there were Nick M, Jake M, Robbie R, Gary L, and Willard K. They all had lots of fun going from event to event. At one we had to build a fire and melt as much  snow as possible in ten minutes. Darryl made sure to stand far back so he could keep his arm hair. At another event we carried Darryl in a stretcher that we put together in about one minute. We dropped him a few times, but he made it.

Overall, all the boys had a great time, even though Robby got them lost a few times. The Troop came home with many awards, including the "Laughing Patrol" award and Gary even won an award for solving the decoder strip the fastest!

We would like to say thank you to Lakenenland and the other troops that put it all together making it a very fun day!