Troop 160 Lexington

Click picture to view Meg’s online photos of the Nantucket bike trip. Enjoy!

From Scoutmaster Hank Manz:

As I am sure all of you know, four Scouts were killed during an NYLT course at a camp in Iowa.  Last night several news outlet began to spice up their stories by comparing what happened in Iowa to accidents at Scout and non-Scout camps.  One longish piece urged parents to check for camp safety.  Others led off with a rehash of the accident at the last Jamboree involving the erection of a tent too close to a power line.

Checking for camp safety is an excellent idea.  Scouting takes safety seriously and a major reason I like both Camp Bell and Hidden Valley is the emphasis they place on safety.  We are a Scout-led troop, but notice that we also emphasize that adults are there to monitor health and safety.

The news stories comparing the Iowa tragedy to other accidents is incorrect in that this was a tornado.  A totally unpredicted and unexpected tornado.  You have to have seen what a tornado has done to really appreciate the force of one.  A tornado can obliterate an entire town.  The tornado was not an accident somehow caused by inattention or inaction on the part of the Scouts.

The Globe this morning has a better take on what happened.  Note that the Scouts were prepared.  Note that the Scouts participated in their own rescue and recovery efforts.  Note that they took positive action as soon as the storm had passed.

Since links to newspapers grow stale rapidly, I am also pasting in the text of the story below the fold.

http://tinyurl.com/68lcqb
Continue reading ‘Health and Safety in Scouting’

One of the requirements for First Class that’s often hard to get is Orienteering. It’s not so much that it’s very difficult as that it’s often difficult to find a convenient course. One approach is to go to one of the occasional orienteering events in the area. Another is to use this permanent course that’s been set up in Milford, New Hampshire. There’s a link to the site on our Resources page, as well. Just print out the map and take it along.

The bike rack installation last Saturday went very well.  We learned how to mix concrete (like Bisquick one should lean toward dry rather than wet), how to dig conservative postholes, how to deal with big rocks, and how to pour concrete.  The rain squall didn’t slow the crew down at all.

Thanks to all who helped–Cole, Drew, and Harry from the Scouts and Joe, Mike, Andy, and Hank from the adults.  The adults didn’t have to do much–the Scouts did most of the real work.

We have had very nice thank you notes from the organizers and from the principal of the school.

-Hank

First, to all who participated in the Memorial Day parade, Thank you. The Town appreciates it greatly. I know not a lot of publicity was given to it in the media this year, something we are addressing with the Celebrations Committee.

Second, we have signed up for a service project. Yes, you can get hours for it, but there is more of a point to it than that. We will be placing a serpentine bike rack at Hastings School. This is a pretty easy project. Dig a couple of pretty deep postholes, dump in gravel, dump in sand, put the bike rack in place, then mix and pour concrete. The postholes have to be pretty deep–around 3′–so it will take a little effort.

I do need at least one person experienced with mixing concrete and pouring it. I have a posthole digger although having another would be helpful so we could dig two at a time.

Help from 119 would be greatly appreciated. This should be a joint project since it will attract attention.

I am thinking of doing it next weekend on either Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Let me know if you can give an hour or two to this project.

-Hank Manz

- meg

UPDATE:  More photos here.

Thank you to all who contributed to my special Silver Beaver–one that came from my father’s era.  As many of you already know, my father joined the Boy Scouts in 1920, earned his Eagle in 1923, and was awarded the Silver Beaver in the 1950s while I was a Scout.  My older brother, John, also has a Silver Beaver, but his isn’t half as neat as mine!

As I often tell players in the sports leagues I have run, awards are given to representatives of a greater effort.  So all of you own a piece of my Silver Beaver because you all were part of what earned it.  Nobody does this stuff alone!

Thanks again,
-Hank

If you are still wavering about whether to send your son to Camp Bell or Hidden Valley, I would say BOTH. But if you can go to only one, I would seriously think about Bell over Hidden Valley.

First, while the food at Hidden Valley is fine, the food at Bell is better. The move last year to non-prepackaged lunches was a fine move. Yes, you do have to cook it, but you will end up taking less time to make it yourself than you will trucking down to the dining hall for every meal as we do at Hidden Valley.

Second, you get to spend more time on each activity.

Third, you work as a patrol.

Last year it became clear to me that the First Year Program at Bell needs a tuneup. While still a good program, it is not as good as the one at Hidden Valley. Two years in a row we have hit a crowded week which caused some problems in the Brownsea area. That didn’t help matters so this year we are going to roll our own program. We are going to construct a program for Bell which gives all New Scouts who attend from Troop 160 a thorough grounding in patrol fundamentals, swimming, and first aid. We expect all New Scouts from Troop 160 who attend Bell to finish many of the requirements for Second and First Class and they will have earned Swimming merit badge to boot. In addition they will be at least well on their way to earning First Aid.

For those who attended Bell last year for the first time, the first year at camp is always tough. If you attend this year, though, you will have already solved the problems which seemed so difficult last year, leaving you plenty of time for full concentration on half and full-day programs. Where else can you learn about horses, participate in a logging camp, live like a Mountain Man, or learn basic blacksmithing? The answer is only at Camp Bell.

So if you are wavering at all, and if you can go to camp for just one week, think hard about going to Camp Bell.

One last thing–if money is an issue, it shouldn’t be. Get in touch with the financial aid person and let us help out. That’s a major reason we run the Pancake Breakfast–so finances won’t be a problem where Scouting is concerned. You can e-mail financial aid at 160financialaid -at- troop160 -dot- com. Use the standard address form, replacing the “-dot-” with “.” and the “-at-” with “@”. We list it the way we do to fool SPAMmers. All correspondence is absolutely confidential. There is no huge committee. There are no lists passed around. No long forms to fill out. Just let the financial aid person know.

-Hank

I wanted to make sure that the efforts of the SPL and his Scouts were recognized. As a Scout-led troop, we expect the SPL to handle all of the Scouts. Wilson did an excellent job in getting the work assigned and done. The Scouts are really important because they are the reason we are having the breakfast to begin with and seeing them out front is a reminder to the Town just who is putting on the breakfast. Wilson–nice job!

With this year we passed an important milestone. We used to be one of the places to get breakfast. This year we became one of the events. We were listed in the official program. In a town without many places to get a real breakfast, we are an important part of what makes Patriots Day possible and we are a very important element which allows people to stay in town all day. The Chamber of Commerce loves us. As I walked up Mass Ave–well, limped would be more like it–many people stepped out to thank the troop for the breakfast. With our VIP service which was really a Working Staff service, we served police officers, both armies, the editors of both newspapers, and a number of officials including Jay Kaufman, our State Rep who always shows up at our Eagle ceremonies. The people we served are on the go from 4 AM until late in the day on Patriots Day and I know they appreciated the service.

As usual, everybody did a marvelous job. Once a year we run a restaurant and I have to say, you all did an A+ job. The one part I never get pictures of is the cleanup because by that time I am absolutely beat. For everybody who helped on the final push to break down the restaurant and clean it all up, you get an extra gold star.

The management team deserves a sustained round of applause. Franco, Charles, and Ginny get three extra gold stars!

-Hank

Dear Scouts and Scout Parents,

As the subject of this email suggests, we had a very successful Pancake Breakfast yesterday, probably surpassing anything we had in previous years. So, let’s first congratulate each other that we have done a very good job in many respects: setting up on Thurs, Sat. and Sun, and carrying out the main event on Patriots Day. I am particularly impressed with the willingness of everyone present to help in any way they could, which makes the jobs of the coordinators so much easier. Given our resources, I don’t think we could do much better than we did. So, let me highlight the morning we had, and acknowledge a number of people that gave me special help throughout the whole process.

I estimate that we served about 1500 paying customers. We also served about 60 Minutemen at 3:30 am before they went to do the re-enactment, and I think it was highly appreciated on their part. Initially I worried that this early shift could mess up our kitchen routine for the regular shifts, but it turned out to be really easy and we could do things in an almost leisurely manner. For that, I should thank those early risers who made this possible. The regular customers arrived at around 6:20 am or so, and they came like a flash flood. I could not see the end of the line for the next 90 minutes. We were running at full capacity: coffee was refilled at an astonishing rate at the mobile greeting station that seemed to make the customers not mind waiting in line for 15 minutes or more. I could hear someone asking for more pancake batter every few minutes. One server was waiting for fresh pancakes to be delivered, and the VIP table kept asking for more of everything. At one point, I saw that the line was really short and no sooner did I declare that the
kitchen crew could relax a little, the line filled up again and we were running behind in pancakes once more.

We have also served between 100 to 150 VIPs, but we were so busy we lost count of how many. For a grand total of 1700 people, this was for sure the biggest crowd we have had. Despite having food items that were at least 10% more than year 2006 (last year’s was affected by the storm), we nearly ran out of many things. With 3300 sausages and 290 lbs of pancake mix (many thousands of pancakes), we just had a handful of leftovers. We ran out of decaf coffee and hot chocolate (which was quickly replenished with a trip to Stop & Shop). We almost ran out of paper plates! However, I have not heard major complaints from the customers because once they paid, the rest of the process was smooth sailing: the serving line was superb, the pancake supply was just in time, the drinks supply line was flowing smoothly, the tables were for most part cleared quickly and set up quickly again (only one comment overheard and related to me about a table not cleaned quickly enough), and in general they were happy. Thanks go to the efficient kitchen crew despite a grill with uneven heating zones, the food and drinks serving crew, the mobile greeting teams who kept the customers  cheerful while waiting in line, the scouts who worked really hard on clearing the tables, taking out trash, mopping up wet and dirty floors, serving silverware or drinks, checking the toilets, and manning the syrup table and the cashier station.

I have to mention that this year we had at least 25% more sitting spaces (thanks go to the scouts who did the setup on Thursday), and therefore we felt understaffed in terms of enough scouts to do all those cleaning in time. As I said earlier, we were running at essentially full capacity and everyone present must have felt quite exhausted afterwards. That said, we will try making some adjustment next year so that we will have enough manpower to handle the large crowd. I like to thank the understaffed cleanup crew for a superb job of cleaning everything in the kitchen, dining area, and the toilets. I wish a few more people actually signed up for the cleanup because it would make the job so much easier and faster.

Finally, I would like to thank especially three people without whose help the event would be much less enjoyable for everyone involved.
First of all, Charles Hatvany, the ex-manager who knows everything about the event inside out, helped me with the planning, inventory checking, did all the solicitation and resulted in generous donations from, alphabetically, Dunkin Donuts (two stores), Rancatore’s Ice Cream, Stop & Shop, Roche Brothers, and Wilson Farm. Then there is Ginny Caples, the assistant manager of this event, whose calm and no-problem attitude made me less anxious as the event got closer. Not only did she help with the planning, she did most of the shopping, including last-minute search for butter pats. The third person is of course your indefatigable Scoutmaster Hank Manz. How he managed to bring more tables and chairs out of seemingly nowhere is still beyond my comprehension but that move was brilliant because he expected a huge crowd and we did get one. When you see them in our next meeting, please thank them for making the event run so much more efficiently and without serious glitches — they were there during all the setups and throughout the event from start to finish.
I have received some suggestions for improving the logistics and we will take all these helpful ideas into account for next year. Thank you. Finally, for those who missed this year’s Pancake Breakfast, you have missed out the fun and nonstop action of working together with other scouts and scout parents, seeing happy and satisfied customers, and working for the one and only one funding raising event of the troop. (You have also missed tasting the pancake burrito!) So, start make your plans to stick around for next year: it’s always on Patriots Day and it’s the Monday of Spring’s school vacation week. As of today, I will begin accept early sign up!

Thank you all for making this event go very smoothly and I look forward to seeing you next year (but please sign up early!)

Yours,
Franco Wong
2008 Pancake Breakfast Manager