Troop 24′s annual summer camp will be held at Camp Mach-Kin-O-Siew (Camp Mach) in northern Wisconsin. We will leave Riverside at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, July 31, and return about mid-day on Saturday, August 6.

If you register before February 24, you are eligible for a discount of $25, for a reduced price of $265 (less any popcorn credit you may have earned). The cost is $290 if paid after February 24. For scouts who have popcorn credit, the amount of the credit should be deducted from your cost.

Webelos 2 scouts have until March 24 to register and receive the discount.

To sign up: Camp Mach Form

The upcoming RB referendum will affect the high school experience for most of our scouts. At 7:00 p.m., on Thursday, February 24, we invite Troop 24 and Pack 24 parents (and any interested friends, neighbors, etc.) to attend an informational session in the Social Hall at RPC. Dr. Bonnette and Jim Landahl will be making the presentation, and can answer any questions you might have. (In addition to being an active parent, Jim’s sons are scouts in Brookfield.)

A document showing the cuts necessary in the RB budget, if the referendum does not pass, can be found on the RB website at: http://www.rbhs208.org/2011-12BudgetGuidlelinesTentative11-1-10%20.pdf More information about the referendum can be found here: http://www.yesrbhs.org/. For specific information on what additional tax you would pay, based on your house’s assessed value, visit “The Cost” page on this website.

Since you will be dropping off your scouts at RPC anyway, please come in for the presentation!

Thursday, February 24, 7:00 p.m.

This is your last chance to sign up for the ski trip to Sunburst (February 25-27). We advertised this as a “family outing,” meaning that parents and siblings are welcome to attend. However, scouts (other than Webelos 2 scouts) do NOT need to have a family member sign up in order to go. We still have space left in the cabin. We will accept registrations through Sunday, February 20 at 8:00 p.m.

Sign up online.

The deadline for turning in Pancake Breakfast ticket money is fast approaching. Please bring your money to the troop meeting on Thursday night if you have it ready. Reminder: all scouts are required to turn in $75 each for their allotted tickets. Thank You!

Fourteen people have registered for the Ski trip (4 adults, 9 scouts, and 1 sibling). The camp at which we will be staying on Saturday night needs a tentative count for the meals. If you have been considering going, please sign up ASAP. More information is available here: http://troop24riverside.com/2011/01/sunburst-ski-trip-february-26-27/

For scouts who signed up for the Klondike Derby (tomorrow, February 12), please be at RPC by 7:15 a.m. One of the purposes of the Klondike Derby is to to prepare scouts for cold weather and adverse conditions. It’s very important that scouts dress for a full day outside. Scout should bring the following items:

Drinking cup
Scout Handbook
Boots – NOT low-cut athletic boots – they will be walking through snow
Adequate layers of clothing: long underwear/undershirt, shirt, liner coat, winter coat;
NO JEANS or cotton pants; double socks – ideally synthetic next to the skin and wool outer socks
Headgear that COVERS THE EARS
Scarf for face and neck OR stocking cap with face cover
Lined gloves/mittens (bring an extra pair)
Complete change of clothes (will be transported by sled and only used if needed)
One can of NON-CREAM soup – to be dumped into a communal pot and made into “garbage can soup”
Sack lunch to supplement the soup

All members of Troop 24 are required to work a shift at the Pancake Breakfast which will be held on Saturday, March 5. Sue Jones, the Pancake Breakfast Chair, is in the process of making the scout schedule for this event. She will need to know if a scout has any timing conflicts on that date by this Friday, February 12. Please email her at sue_jones@designpac.com if you have a time conflict, so she can accommodate you. After February 12, the schedule will be finalized and will be sent out to the troop membership. After this date, if a scout can not make the shift that he is assigned to, it is the responsibility of the scout to arrange to switch with another scout and also to email Sue Jones to inform her of the switch. Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this important scheduling project.

Younger scouts (and any others who still need this) will continue working on the First Aid merit badge at the February 10 meeting. This is the same night as Hauser’s family dinner and book fair. The dinner runs from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., so scouts may want to plan to attend the dinner early.

At the Troop meeting on February 17, Mr. Culloden will begin the Personal Finance Merit Badge with our older scouts. Scouts who want to work on this merit badge should see Mr. Payne to obtain a blue card prior to beginning work on the badge. This is an Eagle-required merit badge. More information can be found here: http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Personal_Management

Troop 24 has 3 different camp opportunities for our scouts this summer:

Philmont Scout Ranch – July 13 to 27 – for scouts 8th grade and above. It’s not too late to sign up for Philmont! For a description of the trek: http://troop24riverside.com/2010/12/philmont-this-summer/ For more information, please contact Asst. Scoutmaster Jim Ringbloom at jrringbloom@sbcglobal.net.

Kayaking in the Apostle Islands – July 10 to 16 OR July 16 to 25 – for scouts 13 or older. We planned this outing before we were selected for Philmont. We will participate only if we have enough scouts and leaders sign up. If you are interested, please contact Michael Payne at pain08@comcast.net ASAP to let him know which week you prefer. We will cancel this outing if we don’t have enough interest.

Camp Mach – July 31 to August 6 – for all scouts. For more information and to register: http://troop24riverside.com/2011/02/camp-mach-july-26-august-6/