It may be winter, but that didn’t stop Scouts from Dale City Troop 102 from working on the Golf Merit Badge! They had a great morning at Burke Lake Park working on their posture, grips, putting, driving and chipping.
Adventure
Explorers Staff 100th National Christmas Tree Lighting
The Montgomery County First Aid Unit, AKA Explorer Post 742, comprises of 50+ girl and boy Explorers who participate with Wheaton Volunteer Rescue Squad. The purpose of this Exploring First Aid Unit is to provide the youth of the surrounding area with the opportunity to learn about, and gain hands on experience in emergency care. The adult volunteer leaders of Wheaton provide training to the Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) level (the level just before EMT), as well as leadership and team work training.
The youth then provide standby first aid coverage to private and public events in Montgomery County, MD, Washington, DC and the surrounding metropolitan area. Most recently and notably, Exploring Post 742 staffed the 100th National Christmas Tree Lighting. This event took place on the Ellipse in President’s Park on November 30th.
There is a youth command structure in place, consisting of an Officer’s Committee made up of a Captain (the youth head of the group), one 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenants and Sergeants. The officers are responsible for planning meetings, trainings (both recruit training and ongoing refresher training), maintaining supplies and equipment, planning group activities and organizing staffing for standby events. The Captain is responsible for making sure all this work is completed and maintaining coordination and communication between the members of the Officer’s Committee, and the Unit’s adult advisors.
When the Unit sets up a first aid station at an event, the youth officers are in charge of the station and the care provided to the attendees of the event. While there is always an adult advisor present in the station, the officers handle station operations and treat the patients unless adult assistance is needed.
The events for which Explorer Post 742 provide coverage range from small 5K runs, to 50-4,000 person company picnics at Smokey Glen Farm in Gaithersburg, all the way to 250,000 – 1.8 million person events on the National Mall. Working with the National Park Service, we routinely provide coverage to the 4th of July festivities on the Mall, the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the White House Easter Egg Roll, the National Christmas Tree Lighting and the Presidential Inaugurations.
All photos in this article belong to Montgomery County, Wheaton Volunteer Fire Department’s Post 742 and show past events and trainings of the Explorers. For more information about the Exploring Post, please see: The Montgomery County First Aid Unit, Explorer Post 742 | Facebook
Troop 1577 Explores Mallows Bay
In October, Troop 1577 went canoeing at Mallows Bay. This bay has a fascinating history as a “shipwreck graveyard.” Hundreds of ships were purposefully sunk here after World War I when they were no longer needed as transportation. Many of the wrecks broke up and bits floated away, but there are still some wrecks which you can tour by canoe or kayak at low tide. They are now covered with vegetation and provide wildlife habitat. But you can still see giant metal bolts and ship components embedded in the wood. There are also a few other wrecks including a car ferry called the Accomac which houses osprey nests, and an old Sea Scout wreck. It takes about 2 hours to view the site. It became the most recently created National Marine Fisheries Sanctuary in the nation in July 2019.
The troop camped at Cedarville State Forest about an hour away. There is a closer state park with youth group campsites called Smallwood (only 15 minutes away) but it is closed for renovations until 2023. In the evening, we had Dutch oven meals including monkey bread and played board games.
Scouts Honor Veterans
Each Veteran’s Day scouts from around the George Mason District place flags on Veteran’s graves at the National Memorial Park/King David Memorial Gardens in Falls Church, VA. This year the event drew over 300 people (Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Sea Scouts, Girl Scouts and Heritage Girls) who placed ~2,700 flags. Our thanks to Dignity Memorial for supporting this effort and proving food, drink and the flags.
2023 National Jamboree
SPACE STILL AVAILABLE FOR YOUTH CONTINGENT MEMBERS!
2023 National Jamboree Registration is on-going!
Sign up today for the 2023 Jamboree scheduled for July 19-28, 2023.
Registration is open on the National website at https://jamboree.scouting.org. The National Capital Area Council is sending up to 10 contingent units to Jamboree. Adult registration to attend as part of the Council contingent is now closed.
The early-bird pricing has ended, but registration has not. NCAC cost for Jamboree is $2125 per person and includes the Jamboree, transportation to and from Summit, patches, and more! Camperships are available for youth participants. The campership application is available on NCAC’s website.
Youth must be at least 12 years of age to attend; participants age 18-21 will attend as youth for this Jamboree. Participants will be assigned to a contingent unit the end of 2022. There will be a mandatory overnight event scheduled at Camp Snyder in June 2023. Contingent units will also meet prior to departing for Jamboree; details will be distributed by selected Scoutmasters.
Check out this video (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i8AErWKYa0sSnG0g5dEyrkZgHzs44A3H/view?usp=sharing) to see what Jamboree has in store for you.
More information, including payment schedule, and campership applications are available on the Council’s website at http://ncacbsa.org/jamboree. If you have any questions, please reach out to Alex Keenan at ADLKeenan@gmail.com or Bob MacKichan at robert.mackichan@hklaw.com. We look forward to seeing you at Jamboree next year!
Troops 111 and 439 Tops at Orienteering
Arlington Troop 111 from Chain Bridge District won the troop championship at the 46th Annual Maryland Scout Orienteering Day on October 22, 2022 at Broad Creek Scout Reservation in northern Maryland. It was their 7th title, breaking the event record. Kensington Troop 439 from Potomac District was 2nd amongst 40 units for the 2nd straight year.
John Corso of Troop 111 edged out troop-mate Hayden Burnside to win the advanced category. Zack Sheehey from Arlington’s Troop 647 was 3rd and Max Wang from McLean’s Troop 652 was fourth.
Luke Zamoyta and Potter Hopfensperger from Troop 111 topped the 154-scout older category ahead of Troop 647’s Connor Jones/ Jack Wall and 3rd place Jimmy Mazel/ Liam Merrigan from Troop 164 in Arlington. In the 172-scout younger class, Troop 111’s Brendan Kent/ Ryan Parks won by a wide margin over a 2nd place team from near Annapolis.
Troop 439’s team effort was led by SPL Alex Johnson who, with Mike Mueller, were 5th in the older category and excelled in the fun “free-for-all” afternoon Score Orienteering when 340 youth and nearly 100 adults raced around the forest seeking as many of the 56 different markers scattered over five square miles as they could. The morning included several instructional courses on a brand new color map.
The top 23 in the younger category were from 18 different troops. Each scout and participating adult received three
special color maps and everyone got answer keys, instructional tips, and patches. Over 100 awards were presented, many to girls, including Kendall Kovarik from the Girl Scout Camp Tuckerman staff outdoor adventure program, the first girl to complete the advanced course in its 36-year history of 525 boys, nabbing 7th place.
In 2023 Jim Chaplin’s popular 17th Annual NCAC Scout Orienteering Day will be on May 6 at Kings Landing Park in Calvert County (jhchaplin@comcast.net). The 47th Annual MD Scout Orienteering Day will be at Patuxent River Park near Upper Marlboro on Oct. 28, 2023. Look for more details (and full results from 2022) at BaltimoreBSA.org/orienteering, plus information via qocweb.org for good DC-area orienteering events suitable for scouts.
Photos: NCAC’s 1st & 2nd place champions. Photo by Stan Turk.
Finding a marker. Photo by Bill Zerfas.