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Troop 1577 had our first in-person meeting since March. The activity was fire building. Every Scout prepared his own materials at home, including a choice of nine firestarters.

Upon arriving at the parking lot of our church, each meeting attendee did a temperature check and brought a signed form saying they had no symptoms recently. Each Scout gave a cell number where a parent could be reached rapidly in the event of thunderstorms or behavior challenges. Attendance will be turned in to the Charter Org for contact tracing of needed.

Each Scout went to his patrol area, which was laid out as a series of parking spots and labelled with chalk. Each Scout had his own parking spot and they each sat or stood on an X in their spot to increase distance. Patrol Leader Council members walked in the rows between the parking spots to offer counsel or requested supplies. The idea was to avoid having a lot of Scouts moving around the space. We also had parents and Scouters strategically placed, available for questions.

We were allowed to enter the church to use the restroom. A parent monitored to make sure only one Scout went into the bathroom at a time to ensure Scouts did not use the bathroom as a place to gather socially.

This was the first meeting that our First Year Patrol – the Flaming Lizards – attended in person. They had been meeting virtually since April. It was great to welcome them in person!

The Scouts were very respectful of the new situation. We had a high attendance likely because they missed in-person meetings and also might have been curious about how this would all work.

Our plan is to meet in-person every two weeks with the PLC meeting in alternating weeks in the parking lot where they can walk through scenarios for each activity idea. It is a new type of meeting planning where the activities need to be done individually and at a social distance, but we will continue to be creative!

Scouts BSA Troop 1191G of Francis Scott Key District, NCAC worked to clear invasive species from their local Windy Ridge Park trail with the Town of Mount Airy Naturalist. By working with the town Naturalist, Scouts started to identify invasives and how they were suffocating the native plant life. With this new knowledge, they worked to clear areas of invasives to allow native plants to thrive in their natural habitat. Scouts worked to clear invasive plants such as multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, and Japanese stiltgrass. This allowed Scouts to appreciate a number of small native snapdragons that would normally be wiped out by invasives. The most triumphant save of the day was a mature mulberry that was being suffocated by a large oriental bittersweet. Several large piles of invasive plants are destined to be picked up this week by the town for disposal. #ScoutsBSATroop1191 #ScoutingContinues #givingbacktothecommunity