The Forest Preserves of Cook County and our Scout Council are offering a merit badge program at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs.
Scouts can earn Environmental Science, Soil and Water Conservation and Citizenship in the World merit badges. See the flyer for more information.
One adult from our troop must attend if any of our scouts participate. Let us know if you plan to attend – you can email committeechair@troop24riverside.com.

Please register now if you are interested in participating in the campout this weekend. Click HERE for the original post about the campout, which includes sign up links.
You may choose to attend just for fun or to participate in the Water Sports and Motorboating merit badges.
If you want to attend but cannot depart at 11:00 am on Friday, reply to this email to ask about other options.
If you want to participate but still need to complete the swim test, reply to this email about options.
If you will be working on the Motorboating merit badge, remember to do your online boating safety training! See the original post for the link to training.

Troop 24 is offering Motorboating and Water Sports merit badges at a Troop campout August 12 – 14, 2022. The merit badge class is limited to 8 Scouts so that 4 can work on Motorboating and 4 can work on Water Sports then switch activities. The cost of the outing will be $50 per scout.

We will leave from RPC on Friday, August 12 at 11:00 am. We will be staying in tents at the Staubus property on Shafer Lake in Hartford, Michigan. Please click on the links provided here to see the requirements for both merit badges. Please review these with your scout.

Motorboating
Water Sports

This Merit Badge event is only open to Troop 24 Scouts who already have the Swimming merit badge and who have passed the BSA Swim Test this year. Scouts who want to earn the Motorboating Merit Badge need to be at least 12 years old and complete the online certification class at https://www.boat-ed.com/michigan/ which has a cost of $29.50. Scouts may sign up for this campout if they will be working on both merit badges OR just one of the two badges. Scouts under 12 years old can do Water Sports, and scouts who already have one of these badges may do just the other. Please indicate that in the “Notes” when you sign up.

The campout is also open to additional scouts who previously started or completed these merit badges. The campout is also open to scouts for camping only (but not merit badge instruction). You can check on the Troop 24 Website “Upcoming Events” page to make sure your registration was fully submitted and accepted.

If you have a PFD that your son likes to wear please feel free to send it with them. If not we will have PFD’s for everyone. Make sure that they pack a swimsuit that they can tie, towel, and sunscreen.

In addition to our merit badge instructors Mr. Hartwig and Mr. Flaherty, we are looking for adult drivers, preferably adults who will stay for the entire event and participate as chaperones. Please sign up on the Adult Form if you can help with this event.

Here are links to the forms:

SCOUT FORM – DOING THESE MERIT BADGES FOR THE FIRST TIME
SCOUT FORM – CAMPING ONLY OR PREVIOUSLY STARTED THESE MERIT BADGES
ADULT FORM

Troop 24 will be offering a Swimming Merit Badge class at the Pav YMCA on Sunday, May 22 from 3 to 5 pm. The class will be held at the swimming pool at 2947 S. Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn. The Swimming Merit badge is required for any scout to participate in other water activities such as scout boating outings. Scouts will need to bring the $15 class fee (cash or check made out to Pav YMCA), swim trunks and a towel to this class. Goggles are recommended.

Please let us know if you will attend – Sign up HERE.

Troop 24 will provide the opportunity to earn several merit badges this spring. During Troop meetings, we will work on Art and First Aid merit badges. On Sunday, May 22 from 3 to 5 pm we will have a troop Swimming merit badge class at the Pav YMCA.

For general information about how to earn merit badges, click HERE.

Our Council is offering an upcoming program for scouts to earn several merit badges and the World Conservation Award. Click HERE for a flyer. Troop 24 will have a leader present so don’t let that requirement stop you from signing up. This is a limited enrollment program so please call the number on the flyer ASAP if interested.

Three Fires Council has a merit badge day on May 7 at Camp Big Timber in Elgin.

See our previous post for other local and online classes. We highly recommend the Oak Brook Trout Unlimited Fly Fishing merit badge and the St. Louis Chess Club online Chess merit badge. Both are free and very good!

Merit Badge classes are not Troop events and you will need to provide your own transportation.

Troop 24 will be offering merit badge instruction at Troop meetings over the next few months in Electricity, Gardening and First Aid. The Troop is planning to offer merit badge classes on weekend days in Swimming and Aviation. More details coming soon!

For scouts who want to earn additional merit badges, check out these programs:
DuPage County Forest Preserve Merit Badge Classes
Rolling Meadows Park District
Fly Fishing MB at Oak Brook Trout Unlimited
Burpee Museum in Rockford
Morton Arboretum MB Classes
St. Louis Chess Club Virtual Chess MB (also offered as a summer program)
Railroading MB at Illinois Railway Museum
Daniel Boone Council Virtual Programs (Eastern time zone!)
Triton College MBU
Please be aware that some of these programs do conflict with planned Troop events.

Troop 24 will be offering a Swimming Merit Badge class at the Pav YMCA on Sunday, January 16 from 3 to 5 pm. The class will be held at the swimming pool at 2947 S. Oak Park Avenue in Berwyn. The Swimming Merit badge is required for any scout to participate in other water activities such as scout boating outings. Scouts will need to bring the $15 class fee (cash or check made out to Pav YMCA), swim trunks and a towel to this class.

Please let us know if you will attend – Sign up HERE.

Hello Troop 24! Winter is a great time to work on your scout merit badges. The troop will continue to offer instruction at our Thursday evening meetings, but you may want to work on merit badges at these other opportunities:

Three Fires Council has an in-person Merit Badge University on Saturday, February 12 at York High School in Elmhurst. Registration opens tonight (12/17) for this very popular event. See the Three Fires MBU website and Class Catalog for more information and registration.

Pathway to Adventure Council will offer an in-person Merit Badge University and University of Scouting at Triton College on Saturday April 23, 2022. Registration has not yet opened. For more information see the Council Newsletter.

Morton Arboretum offers in-person Merit Badge classes on various dates.

The Troop will offer the Swimming Merit Badge at the Pav YMCA on Sunday January 16th from 3pm to 5pm. Registration coming soon.

With today’s world events, this is an ideal time to focus on this merit badge. For example, imagine the possibilities you can find to fulfill the requirement below …

“3a. Do the following: Pick a current world event. In relation to this current event, discuss with your counselor how a country’s national interest and its relationship with other countries might affect areas such as its security, its economy, its values, and the health of its citizens.”

… so, if you’d like to participate in a Troop-led Zoom-based merit badge workshop, click here to sign up!

TWO MEETINGS TODAY!

PERSONAL MANAGEMENT MERIT BADGE

For those of you interested in the Personal Management merit badge, the meeting will take place TODAY from 6:00 PM – 6:40 PM.

TROOP MEETING

We will hold our first virtual rank advancement meeting via Zoom TODAY from 7:00-8:30.

While this initial meeting will be focused on the Scout & Tenderfoot ranks, if you have a higher-rank requirement you are confident you can fulfill, please join and be prepared to explain/demonstrate to the group.

Feel free to join if you are First Class or Above, but note that we will begin developing multiple meeting options tailored to all the ranks in the Troop.

ZOOM notes:

“Audio-by-phone” isn’t available on this meeting, so you’ll have to use your computer’s audio.

If you use your camera, remember to consider your background, and if possible, in line with Youth Protection best practices, please join from a “shared” room in your house, if possible – living room, dining room, kitchen, etc.

Scoutmaster Lauger will send a direct email with Zoom Log In information for both conferences.

If you do not receive the email with conference codes and it is time for the meeting to start, you can reply to this email and we will send you the codes.