January 2017 - Snow Caving Camp

Below is the plan for Friday's snow caving campout.

• Location: Kehl family cabin near Brighton Ski Resort

• Time: Friday, 2:30pm at Jason Kelly's home

• Packing:  When we meet on Friday we will conduct a pack check to make sure the boys are fully prepared with everything from the winter camping check list found on www.scouting230.com, it would also be helpful for the boys to bring avalanche style snow shovels (sturdy, small heads, short handles) if you have one for the snow cave building process.

• Food: The troop will be planning our meal and shopping for food right after the pack check on Friday (this is a cooking merit badge requirement). Your son may want to bring a couple dollars to buy treats.

• Volunteers: We could really use a few dads/grandpas to volunteer to attend this event, it is a good one to come to because you can sleep in a bed or on a couch (out of the cold and off of the ground)

For those of you who have sons coming for the first time on this event, I want to soothe your anxiety by giving you a few details about snow caves. 

1. The adult leaders will be providing training on how to build a safe snow cave and will be supervising and helping in the actual build process.
2. The adult leaders will inspect the caves for safety
3. Sleeping in the snow cave will be warm and fairly comfortable. It is probably bigger than you think. We'll try to make one big enough for all the boys to sleep together. See video from last year below.
4. If there are any issues the boys will be able to come sleep inside on the floor, although we will only tell them this if a real problem pops up.
5. Winter camping requires preparation to be fun, this is not the camp to let your son pack for himself for the first time. Please inspect his stuff to make sure he has a change of clothes, and all the items on the winter camping checklist. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to myself or Jason Kelly.

We'd love a confirmation if you and/or your son can attend so we can plan for food, etc..

Upcoming Troop 230 Camps and Merit Badge Pow Wows

Happy New Year! We are excited to get started with another year of great Scouting activities.

We wanted to let you know a couple of dates to put on your calendar.

1. January Snow Caving & Yearly Planning Activity Camp - Friday 01/20/2017

This camp will be held at the Kehl's cabin up Little Cottonwood Canyon near Brighton Ski Resort, we are so grateful that they have offered to let us have an activity there for the second year in a row. We will be leaving right after school and will be home in the afternoon on Saturday. Boys will need to be prepared to sleep in a snow cave, which just means that you should help the pack according to the winter camping checklist found on scouting230.com. The Troop will provide all the food for this camp. We will be planning our year of activities on Saturday morning - early afternoon. This will be one of the funnest camps of the year and every boy should attend if at all possible.

2. Required Merit Badge Pow Wow Nights - First one 01/25/2017

This year we are going to dedicate one Wednesday per month to working on required merit badges. These nights will start earlier than usual, 5:00pm, and will go until 8:30pm. Boys who attend and work hard during these Pow Wows, will achieve most of the requirements needed to advance to a Life Scout over the next 6 months. If your son has interest in achieving the Eagle Scout rank, this is the fast track program. We hope all the boys will participate.

3. Tentative 4 Day Spring Break Camp - Monday 4/3 - Thursday 4/6

The boys and adult leaders of the Troop would like to do a 4 Day camp over Spring Break this year in Southern Utah (Saint George / Zion National Park Area), which would take the place of the traditional week long summer camp. Details are still being worked out, but we are planning on hiking, biking, water sports and cool merit badges. This would be be an epic trip so we hope all the boys will be able to make it. We will be contacting parents individually this week to ensure most boys can come and getting approval from our Unit Executive before making a final decision but the initial survey has been positive so we would recommend you put this on your calendars now.

Jason Kelly and I will also be contacting parents over the next month or two to set up short meetings to discuss your sons' current advancement status, answer questions about our Scouting program and to help parents assemble an action plan that will enable motivated boys to progress toward the Eagle Scout Rank as efficiently as possible. So look forward to hearing from one of us soon.

As always please don't hesitate to reply to this email or give Jason Kelly, Matt Fawson or myself a call if you have questions or concerns.

November 2016 Campout

Our November campout is coming up this Friday. We hope all your boys will be able to attend.

• Destination: Eden, UT or East Canyon (Will make final decision shortly)
• Date: Friday, Nov. 4th
• Meet-up Time: 4:00pm
• Meet-up Place: Church Parking Lot by the Trailer
• Return Time: One car will return before 9:00am, another will return 1-2 hours later.
• Food: Boys Should Bring Tinfoil Dinners, Breakfast will be Provided by Troop
• Scouting Purpose: Fun + Camping Merit Badge

It will likely be a cold camp so please help you son be prepared with the winter gear listed on www.scouting230.com. 

Dads/Grandpas are invited and encouraged to attend.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call or email Jeff Morgan.

Sept. 2016 Spruces Camp

After what felt like a prolonged intermission we are gearing up to begin monthly Scout campouts again which will include September, October and November dates. We will announce October and November dates soon but we are excited to announce that our next scout camp is scheduled for Friday Sept. 30, 2016.

We will be meeting in the church parking lot by the Scout trailer at 4:30pm to head up to Spruces camp ground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We'll plan to arrive back home close to 9am.

Not sure at this point what the weather calls for but boys should be prepared for a cold, rainy night. You can use the winter camping gear checklist on the right side of this page as a guide on what to bring, just adjust for rain rather than snow.

For food please bring a tin foil dinner and the troop will provide a light breakfast. Instructions for how to create a good tin foil dinner can also be found on the right side of this page.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at camp!

DEADLINE: 2016 Week Long Summer Scout Camp

A you know our week long scout camp is scheduled for June 13-18 at Camp Hunt on Bear Lake this year and is quickly approaching. 

Below is a list of the boys who have confirmed their interest in attending:

• Marcus Morgan
• Austin Morgan
• Christian Fawson
• Steven Fawson
• Austin Kehl
• Ben Edgell
• Owen Baxter
• Garrett Wilde
• Sam Friel
• Ben Friel
• LJ Matthews
• Jonah Matthews

We are also looking for Dads/Grandpas who can volunteer to attend camp for one or more nights this year, which will be a wonderful opportunity to make memories together in the great outdoors.

Unfortunately, at this point only Owen Baxter has turned in his paperwork. Please see the requirements to attend Scout Camp below...

1. Complete parts A,B and C of the medical form below: https://www.saltlakescouts.org/files/1025/Medical-Form
2. Complete the liability release form below: http://www.saltlakescouts.org/files/1758/Activity-Consent-Form
3. Photocopies of your health insurance card front and back
4. The cost of the Scout Camp will be $80 per boy this year. Checks should be made out to “Troop 230."
5. Swim Check (We'll be doing this as an activity soon with the boys, but if your son doesn't make it to the activity, you'll want to get the swim check completed at a local swimming pool before camp.)
1. Link to swim check paperwork: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/Outdoor%20Program/Aquatics/pdf/430-122.pdf

Please also note that Camp Hunt recommends each scout bring $60 in spending money for the week. This will cover snacks and special activity fees (such as Rifle/Shotgun Shooting, Leatherwork, Archery, etc...) 

Each of these items must be delivered to Jeff or Chelsea Morgan before June 1st in order to attend. If you have any questions please contact Jeff Morgan.

CANCELLED - Crystal Hot Springs Camp

This camp is going to be rescheduled for May. We'll let you know soon on the details for April's camp.

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We wanted to let you know about our campout we have planned. This is always one of the boys' favorite camps of the year!

• Destination: Crystal Hot Springs
• Date: Friday, April 1st.
• Meet-up Time: 5:00pm
• Meet-up Place: Mark Holt's Home
• Return Time: One car will return before 9:00am, another will return an 1-2 hours later.
• Food: Provided by the Troop
• Scouting Purpose: Fun + Camping and Cooking Merit Badges 

It will likely be a cold camp so please help you son be prepared with the winter gear listed on www.scouting230.com. We will also be swimming at Crystal Hot Springs so please bring the following as well:

• Swimsuit
• Towel
• Flip flops or water shoes
• $10 pool/slide entrance fee

Dad's are invited and encouraged to attend.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Court of Honor Video

Hello All, Here is a video of all the cool photos we have taken over the last few months in Scouts!

201511 Court of Honor from Jeff Morgan on Vimeo.