Historian

09/19/2009 – 09/20/2009

On a sunny Saturday September 19th, 18 kids and 6 adults arrived at The Scout Locker @ Deer Hill School at 7:00 in the morning.  Our mission was to load up cars full of gear and bikes and proceed to the Sweetwater campsite in Brewster to ride the Cape Cod Rail Trail.   The adults were Mr. Ackley, Mr. Thomae, Mr. Koropey, Mr. Marat, Mr. Clay, and Mr. O’Brien.   The scouts were Evan, Julien, Greg, Brodie, Derek, Luke, Andrew, Jack O., John C., John N., Adam K., Nick, Sam, Dylan, Alec, Robbie, Kevin, and Jack T.   Robbie had organized the trip so he took the lead in making sure everyone’s gear was placed into a car and that we had enough space for everything.

This bike trip is the first trip with our new patrol assignments.  The Stag patrol and the Python patrols are the older scouts and the Hiking Moose patrol contains the new scouts and is led by Jack O’Brien and Andrew Leighton as ‘trail leaders’.

On the first day without much trouble we biked the 17 miles to Marconi Beach and had lunch there.  Mr. Jackisch brought a Frisbee and a football.  When we were rolling down the sand dunes somebody complained so we had to stop so instead we played football. Robbie managed to get battered by all kinds of things including a pig pile started by Andrew.   After we finished up we started our trek home.  We made it back around 5:00 pm and the camp became a frenzy of tents being set up and food being cooked. The Staggypython patrol experienced a wonderful array of Sloppy Joes and burnt garlic bread.  The Hiking Moose patrol ate a fancy meal of pasta with meatballs and more burnt garlic bread.  After dinner there was a series of basketball games; there was also an abundance of our favorite Boy Scout dessert: smores, which are always eaten while sitting by the fire.  We all were in bed by about 9:30 pm.  Sadly Andrew didn’t feel well that night so his parents drove down to bring him home.

On Sunday morning everyone packed up their tents and prepared breakfast.  Breakfast was a mixture of egg burritos and bagels with cream cheese. Then we got most of the gear in the cars and biked down to the other end of the trail 7.5 miles away. At the end of the trail Mr. Jackish gave a bunch of kids with Mountain Bikes a little lesson on how to hop a log and then we were off again. We stopped at the general store about 2 miles from camp and the troop purchased everyone ice creams.  Shortly after this we were in our cars driving away from Sweetwater campsite with a sense of accomplishment because we had just biked with, more than 20 people, 50 miles in 2 days and no one was seriously injured (not that we expected them to be!)

Respectfully submitted,

Derek A. Benson

07/26/2009 – 08/01/2009

On Sunday July 26, 2009 scouts from many local southeastern Massachusetts troops arrived at Camp Squanto. All of the newer scouts – now fondly referred to as the “Hiking Moose” patrol, arrived early but we were all pretty much on time.  One of the traditions of Squanto is that the entire troop marches in to our ‘Delaware’ campsite together.  The day before, Saturday, all the scouts came with their lockers and duffle bags to Deer Hill School.  Mr. Brown met us there so we could load up our gear into his truck. He then kindly drove our gear down to Squanto and all the way in to “Delaware” campsite which is the farthest away from the entrance of all of the campsites.

This year was our largest attendance at Camp Squanto.  We had 21 scouts including, Adam B., Derek B., Greg B., Julien G., Kevin M., Jack O’B., Luke O’B., Nick R., John N., Reagan B., Alec H., John C., Sam G., Thomas F., Brodie J., Dylan M., Evan A., Robbie H., Sasha N., Hugh G-M, and Andrew L.  The adult leaders included Mr. Hillman, Mr. Ackley, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Lehr.

Another tradition at Squanto is taking the swimming test in the lake after all the scouts arrive the first day.  Troop 28 was way ahead of the curve, because we all had our swim test at the town pool a few weeks before.  Greg’s sister is a certified swim instructor and works as a lifeguard at the pool.  We were very organized and had fun swimming the laps required for the BSA-Squanto swim test.

So because we didn’t need to take swim tests on Sunday afternoon, we had time to relax and set up our campsite.   We all went to dinner at 6pm and then at 8:00 we went to the ‘opening camp fire’ where they have skits, songs, and welcome us to camp. The next day we started our merit badges ate some “camp food” and did some more merit badges. Tuesday was pretty much the same thing as Monday.  Wednesday night is reserved for ‘Apache Relay’ where the various troops race against the clock to compete in several skill areas, including swimming, canoeing, burning rope, archery and running.  Your historian is proud to announce that Troop 28 finished a very close 2nd!  All the scouts enjoyed the competition and were happy with our performance.  Mrs. Fogarty and Mrs. Benson drove down to Squanto with coolers full of drinks and snacks for all the scouts.  Mr. Hillman and Mr. Ackley made us all take showers after the relay and we sure slept well on Wednesday night!

Thursday was theme night and the theme was ‘Men In Black’.  The camp staff dressed up as aliens and special agents.  Our job was to decode the alien messages and find the mother ship. On that same night, ‘Order of the Arrow’ elections were held and every single boy who was at least First Class rank who ran for election, got in.

On Friday we finished up our merit badge classes.  Then at 7:00 pm when we would usually have open areas, (when a scout can go to the rifle or archery range or other area skill area without being scheduled) Troop 28 went to the waterfront for a game of ‘War Canoes’.   In this game, you need to sink the other scouts’ boat by throwing water at the same time they try to sink yours but you cannot bail your own boat. After a brutal game of War Canoes, we had the traditional Friday night ‘Closing Campfire’.  At the campfire, all present and past members of the armed services – Mr. Ackley represented Troop 28 — place unfolded American flags into the campfire, blue star field first, then folded the rest into the flames.  For all who watch,  it is a solemn event.  We all sang some more songs, and then went to bed.

Saturday, our last day in camp, we got up bright and early around 6:00am.  We loaded all of our gear on to Mr. Fogarty’s truck – Thanks, Mr. Fogarty for getting up even earlier than the scouts so you could be at Squanto at 6 am! – we did a last check for trash around the campsite and made sure everything looked neat.  After final cleanup, we had ‘colors’ which is the morning flag ceremony, and then we ate breakfast for the last time.  At the closing ceremony, Alec donated the traditional troop plaque, which lists the name of each scout attending camp from our troop.  The plaque goes on permanent display in the dining hall.  After the ceremony, we were all happy to pile into the waiting vehicles and go home to Cohasset!

Respectfully submitted,

Derek Benson, Historian

06/20/2009

The last day of school was Friday, June 19, so we were all really excited to be starting our summer vacation.  Our canoe trip was the perfect start to the summer!

We met outside of Deer Hill School by the Scout Locker at 8 am.  Scouts who participated:  Nick Rosen, Andrew Leighton, Derek Benson, Adam Benson, Jack O’Brien, Luke O’Brien, Evan Ackley, Sam Greenip, Robbie Hillman, Reagan Butler, Jacob Gainey, Ethan Avotins, Hugh Murphy, Tucker Oddleifson, Dylan Marat, John Clay, Wyatt Dominguez

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomae reviewed the different parts of the canoe.  They talked about how to pick up a canoe, how to carry it, what materials it can be made from.  They then led a discussion about some of the things you NEVER do in a canoe, like standing up.  Then we had a demonstration of various paddling strokes, like the J-stroke. We divided up into teams, mixing up the new scouts from Pack 38 that had recently crossed over to scouting and the senior scouts.   We then loaded the canoes onto a boat trailer and we all headed off to Stanton Road in Cohasset.

Mr. Murphy and Mr. Thomae had organized the trip.  Other adults on the trip were: Kim Ackley, Kevin Butler, Tim O’Brien, and Rob Hillman.  Some of the houses on Stanton Road, which is off of South Main Street on the way to Scituate — Mr. Thomae took the scenic route!  Some of the homes back up to the Gulf River, which is nice and quiet and no strong current.  One of the home owners was a friend of Mr. Murphy and he gave the troop permission to cross his property with the canoes and launch off of his really nice dock.

We took the canoes off the trailer and walked them the distance through back yards down to water. When all the canoes were in the water, we handed out water bottles, put on bug spray and sunscreen and set off up stream.  After we got comfortable paddling around, we had a little race but when one of the canoes flipped, we stopped racing.  After that, we practiced maneuvering on a little course set up by Mr. Thomae.  The course consisted of two buoys and you had to maneuver your canoe around the buoys faster than the other canoe. Once we were finished with practicing maneuvering the canoes we headed back.  It was a warm and sunny day and we were paddling for about two hours.  It took us a bit of time to get our canoes up on the dock because we could only do one at a time.  Eventually we all carried the canoes up to the cars and trailer then drove back home in time to have lunch.

Respectfully submitted,

Derek Benson