Upcoming Troop Meetings
Troop meeting plans are posted on the website.

9/5/2013            Rope Making
9/12/2013          ePrep
9/19/2013          Civil War Speaker/Jeopardy
9/26/2013          Merit Badges
10/3/2013          Engineering/Chunkin
10/10/2013        Orienteering/Geocaching
10/17/2013        Merit Badges
10/24/2013        Party/Murder Mystery
10/31/2013        No Troop Meeting - Halloween
11/7/2013          Knife Making

Upcoming Events
9/20-22 Pond Meadow Park, Braintree MA
Zombie Apocalypse Campout
This weekend will take Emergency Preparedness to a whole new level! The scouts will be learning how to treat lacerations, broken bones, shock, and other emergencies while having some fun pretending they are zombie bites and wounds. During the weekend, an ongoing game will run where a small number of zombies will try to take over the human’s last safe zone. Who will win?

10/18-20 Camp Cachalot, Plymouth MA
Geocaching/Orienteering Campout
We will be running both orienteering and Geocaching events this weekend. If you don’t have the Merit Badges, you should get a blue card!

10/24 Murder Mystery Party
Our Halloween meeting will take place the week before and Gavin is busy planning the events for the night. We will have costume judging, snacks, and will be playing a “Who Dun It” murder mystery that night. More details coming soon!

10/26 and 11/2 Scouting for Food
The annual food drive will be on these two weekends. Patrols will be assigned sections of town to distribute and pick up the bags. Patrol Leaders will coordinate this event for their patrols.

11/9 Punkin Chunkin 2013
This year we will be running our Chunkfest after our Thanksgiving dinner. The parking lot at Wompatuck is perfect and we have plenty of time after our meal to toss the fruit. Patrols should resurrect their machines and improve the designs!

11/8-10 Wompatuck State Park, Hingham MA
Thanksgiving Weekend
Our annual Thanksgiving weekend will again take place in November. Each year we serve approximately 200 people a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner. This is a great opportunity for scouts and parents to learn how to cook outside. We use fryers, stoves, Dutch ovens and more to cook. Sign up to help for the weekend!
New this year will be the Punkin’ Chunkin’ contest Saturday after the Court of Honor!

11/14 Knife Making Begins
This year will be making our own knives at the November meetings. The sign-up form is posted now. If you have NEVER made a knife before, please plan on a beginner kit. There is a lot of skill and PATIENCE required to make a good knife. For our older scouts there are challenging kits that produce a really special knife. You may use your Scout Account to pay the cost of the kit.

11/17 Native American Pow-wow
Bridgewater State University will be hosting a one day Pow-wow on November 17^th. Some of the scouts are building dance clothes and for the rest it is a nice day event, close to home!

2/7-9 2014 Camp Sayre, Milton MA
Gold Rush
We are planning our 7^th Gold Rush on February 8th, 2014 at Camp Sayre. Invitations will go out this summer. Our Governors this year are AndrewN and Gibs. They will be looking for a staff to run the event

10/13 Halloween FundRaiser!!!!!
We are again going to work at Barrett's Haunted Mansion as a fund raiser. We will be working with the Abington Police Union and will split all monies earned that night. Last year we brought in $500 for the Troop in one night. We need 20 people for this fund raiser on Sunday 10/13/13 from 6 pm until at least 11pm. Only those 18 years old and older can participate and last year we had a blast. This is open to family and friends to get the 20 people we need. Mr McCollem will have a sign-up sheet at each meeting. If you have any questions please ask.

Potpourri
2013-2014 Annual Calendar
The annual calendar has now been distributed. It is also available on our Troop website www.t22whitman.org and our Facebook page. If you see something that you can help with, please let us know, we are always looking for assistance with our program. We have a lot of fun and learn things too!

Gillette Fund-raiser
We have again signed up to run a booth at the stadium. We have been very fortunate with this and we use the funds with the 80/20 split allowing the individual scout accounts to pay for a lot of program features for those scout families who participate. If you are willing to commit to working the booth this coming year please contact Mrs. Mills and Mr. Moss who are leading this fund-raiser. We have some dates now and more are being confirmed.
Thu, Sep 12            8:25 PM
Sun, Sep 22            1:00 PM
Sun, Oct 13             4:25 PM
Sun, Oct 27             1:00 PM
Sun, Nov 3              4:25 PM
Sun, Nov 24            8:30 PM
Sun, Dec 8              1:00 PM
Sun, Dec 29            1:00 PM

New England 2014
We are beginning plans for a summer trip next year and thought we would look around us! We live in a very historical part of the USA. The week will be tenting at local camps to reduce costs and running day trips.

Sat 8/17 Travel to Boston
Bunker Hill, Constitution

Sun 8/18 State House, Aquarium

Mon 8/19 Travel to Plymouth. Adams houses
Mayflower and Plymouth

Tues 8/20 Plimouth Plantation

Wed 8/21 Battleship Cove

Thu 8/22 Newport Mansions

Fri 8/23 Travel to Groton CT
Submarine museum

Sat 8/24 Pequot Museum
Travel home

Stay Connected
Don't forget to visit the troop website at www.t22whitman.org and our Facebook page at Troop 22 Whitman, MA. News and calendar events are kept there and updated frequently!

Japan 2015
In 2015 the troop is hoping to head to the World Scout Jamboree in Japan, running from July 28th to August 8th 2015. While we are on our journey, we will see many sights and taste cultures unknown to the scouts except through books and movies. This is a huge event and will require a lot of planning and work to accomplish. Our tentative itinerary is:

Fri 7/31 Leave Boston

Sat 8/1 Arrive in Osaka Japan
Shopping at Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori for Dinner

Sun 8/2 World Jamboree, return to Osaka

Mon 8/3 Osaka Castle, Shitennoji Temple, Hozenji Yokocho

Tues 8/4 National Bunraku Theater, Osaka Boat tour

Wed 8/5 Day Trip to Nara. Todaiji Temple, Toshodaiji Temple

Thur 8/6 Travel to Kyoto Nijo Castle

Fri 8/7 Fushimi Inari Shrine, Golden Pavilion, Gion for dinner

Sat 8/8 Eikan-do, Toji Temple, Kiyomizu-Zaka Street

Sun 8/9 Return to Osaka and depart Japan

We will begin planning meetings this fall. Please see Mr. Warner if you are interested.

Scoutmaster’s Corner
The Chinese have a saying, "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." There's a lesson for us in that saying.

I'm thinking of advancement. If you come to troop meetings without ever looking in your Boy Scout Handbook all week long and if you never ask how to pass a test or who to see about a merit badge, you'll never advance very far in Scouting. In Scouting, and in life, the rewards don't come to those who sit back and wait for something to be handed to them on a silver platter.

I would like to see every one of you set the Eagle Scout badge as a goal in Scouting. As a step toward that goal, I hope that most of you will receive some award at our court of honor in November.

Whatever the goal you set for yourself, remember that only you can take that first step toward it. No one can do it for you. Once you've taken that first step the next step becomes easier. And the ones after that will be easier still because you're on the way along the Scouting trail.

Thank you