Troop 28 Historian

07/13/2013 – 07/25/2013

The first day, scouts depart McDonald’s in Hanover for George Mason University in Virginia, and toured Washington D.C. at night. They visited many war memorials and the Lincoln Memorial. The next day they continued to tour D.C. visiting Arlington National Cemetery and the Smithsonian museums. They continued on their long journey to the Jamboree. They arrived the next day. When they arrived a “creepy” guy explained the risks and hazards of the Jamboree. They set up camp after waiting on the bus for a very long time. (Old Colony Council had the patch theme of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’.) There were presentations at “the arena.” There were even celebrities at the Jamboree including Mike Rowe (from Dirty Jobs, and Ford commercials), Three Doors Down (a rock music group), and Carl XVI Gustaf (King of Sweeden). Throughout the trip, scouts could participate in high-adventure activities and merit badges. While they were there, everybody received food in boxes to bring to the campsite. At one point in the trip, scouts participated in a service project to benefit the community. C413’s service project was to go to a small town (near Beckley, WV) to scrape a fence and paint another. Afterwards they got ice cream. On the final night, there was huge fireworks display and C413 had its own popcorn. After the fireworks were over, many people sang the West Virginia folk tune ‘Country Roads.’ When they left the next day, they stopped by Hershey Park for two hours to go on rides at night. The following day, they could go again. Scouts headed back off to Hanover and “secretly” got off the bus to march and sing the song ‘Follow Me, Boys’ from the Disney movie of the same name. Everybody thought it was one of their best trips ever!

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph Suzedell
Troop Historian

06/22/2013 – 06/23/2013

This June, the troop went on a trip to the White Mountains. There were many scouts that attended as well as many adult volunteers including Nick Rosen, Brodie Jackish, Levente Haber, Amby Tierny, TJ Coffey, Joe Suzedell, Eoghan Casey, Jeff Rosen, Sam Franklin, Tommy Olson, Joe Donohue, Mr. Hillman, Mr. Ackley, Mr. Jackish, Mr. Haber, Mr. Suzedell, and Mr. Rosen. We met at the locker the prior Thursday, to plan the trip. On Saturday we made final preparations for the drive up to New Hampshire.

Day 1 we stopped about halfway at a New Hampshire rest stop. Some of us bought snacks, while others just got out of their cars to stretch their legs. In just a matter of minutes, we were back on the road. After about another hour of driving, we stopped in Lincoln, New Hampshire for a short, but enjoyable hike to Georgiana Falls. Before the hike, we ate lunch and put on sunscreen. It was a bit more arduous than some of us had expected, but we climbed up fine. The view was breathtaking. When we all took our pictures of the waterfall and the view from it, we headed back down. Getting down was more challenging than going up, but all of us made it down fine.

We headed back into our cars for one last drive to our campsite in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire; Sugarloaf 2. We set up camp soon after we arrived, which was lucky because it rained just a few minutes after. We all made dinner, and went into our tents to sleep. Most of us fell asleep quickly because we were very tired, but we had another exiting day ahead of us.

The next morning we made breakfast, packed our gear, took down tents, loaded up the cars, and left for a short drive to the trail to Zealand Falls. This trail was much less steep, but far longer. We saw lush forests, small streams, huge marshes, and tall mountain peaks on our way up. After about two hours of hiking, we stopped for lunch. When we were done, we climbed up the short remaining part of the trail to the AMC hut, where we found yet another breathtaking view. There was also a small gift shop were some of us bought snacks and souvenirs (I bought a hat). We made our way down and finally reached the parking lot where our cars had been waiting for us. It was at this point when we realized that our amazing trip was over. We climbed into our cars and drove off to Cohasset only stopping at an Ice Cream shop and a gas station. We started unloading our gear after the 3 hour drive and left for home.

Respectfully submitted,

Joseph Suzedell – Troop 28 Historian

07/22/2012 – 7/28/2012

Camp Squanto is an Old Colony Council Boy Scout camp located in Plymouth Massachusetts. This is where a ton of troops come to camp for a week and have the opportunity to earn a variety of merit badges. This year, Troop 28 attended Squanto during week four. Week four at Squanto was from July 22 2012 to July 28 2012.   During the day at this camp, your troop (or group) is encouraged to participate in a couple of fun games such as stock and camo, war canoes, and even troop swim! Almost every night in the evening, scouts had an activity called open areas. At open areas, you were free to roam around and participate in a wide variety of activities like free swim, canoeing, sailing, rowing, kayaking, archery, shooting at the shotgun range and doing sports.

Every year, Squanto has a different theme. The theme is really important because each troop has to design an entrance to their campsite fitting the theme. This year, the theme was Prehistoric Squanto. Our troop built for our entrance a dinosaur and a time machine.    Squanto eventually has a night called theme night. On theme night, everyone dresses in costumes to fit with the theme. After evening colors, there are a variety of games that your troop can participate in. In one of them, you had to tie a knot to carry logs through an obstacle course and see who could sweep up the fastest time. That night was really fun.

There were 2 other fun nights at camp. The first activity that happened was the Apache Relay. On that evening, the camp hosted a gigantic relay race. This year troop 28 did really well. We came in 4th place.   The second fun thing was the opening and closing campfires. These campfires happened at night on the first and last night. During the camp fires, the camp staff would act out very funny skits. The other thing they did was encourage everyone in the audience to stand up and sing songs like “The Turtle Song” These were very fun because it was entertaining and had a lot of audience participation.

My second final thing that I want to talk about at Squanto this year is the new mess hall. Last year, after the last week was over, the camp wanted to renovate the mess hall. Unfortunately, the old mess hall was built in the 40s and was in very bad shape. It was such in bad shape that, they decided to build a new one. That is what they did. Inside the spring time the construction workers got to work tore down the old one and started building that new one. It was a very hard change to go from the old mess hall to the new one. It was hard for most returning scouts because for almost 7 different centuries a lot of scouts were served food in that mess hall. It was sad to see an old historical building torn down and replaced with a new one. But then again at least the new one is greener than the old one. With the new one, they have reusable trays and silverware. Also in the bathrooms, those have blow driers instead of paper towels to dry your hands.

My last topic that I would like to talk about is the weather while we were at Squanto. The weather was ok. It was crystal clear at some times but at others, we had thunderstorms forming. Like for example one day that we were there, we had four thunderstorms in one day. We had thunderstorms at night, thunderstorms during the day, and thunderstorms on theme night, we had a lot of thunderstorms. Another weird thing about weather is that the week before our week (during week 3), there was a very big and bad thunderstorm that rolled through camp. This thunderstorm was so bad that they get runners to run around and escort all of the campsites over to the mess hall. During this process in the campsite we stayed in 2 years ago before our troop got too big for it (In Delaware) a bolt of lightning hit one of the trees. After hearing this really freaked me out. At least no one got hurt in this awkward thing. Overall, summer was great at Squanto and I would love to come back next year because not only do you enjoy yourself but Squanto also gives you an unforgettable experience every year.

Respectfully submitted,

Adam Koropey, Troop 28 Historian