One of our recent events was the spring Court of Honor. Court of Honor is an exciting event because it is where the scouts from the troop receive their new ranks and badges. At the Spring 2025 Court of Honor the following scouts earned ranks:

• 1 scout reached Eagle Scout rank: Evan
• 2 for Life Scout rank: Julia and Jack
• 4 for Star Scout rank: Cathrine, Olivia, Moe, and Owen.
• 2 for First Class Scout rank: Beatrice and Iselin
• 4 for Second Class Scout rank: Chase, Xavier, Nicholas, and Abagail
• 2 for Tenderfoot Scout rank: Elliot and Sam
• 8 for Scout rank: Mina, Filomena, Aya, Logan, Grant, Henry, Bethany, and Adam

Evan was also celebrated at his own Eagle Scout Court of Honor. The next Troop Court of Honor will be in the fall, where we are sure that more scouts will have their hard work celebrated!

Summer camp is just around the corner, and we are gearing up for an exciting adventure at Camp Baldwin! From the Camp Baldwin website:

With epic excursions on horseback, wicked rides on rapids, fantastic rocks to climb and trails to ride, Camp Baldwin has it all.

We’ll also have our annual summer camp pre-trip. Details are still being finalized, but it’s a great opportunity for scouts to have some purely recreational fun ahead of the official Scouting America summer camp experience. Last year we biked the Route of the Hiawatha and spent a day at the Silverwood theme park, for example.

Scouts (and parents) need to complete a few steps to prepare for camp.

1. RSVP in Scoutbook

Make sure to RSVP in Scoutbook Plus for summer camp. You need to RSVP for each scout and adult attending. You may need to select the appropriate “View” in Scoutbook Plus to see the RSVP form for each person. The “View” is selected via the dropdown menu in the top right of the Scoutbook Plus pages.

• Pre-trip
• Camp

2. Troop Registration

Each scout and adult attending must also register using the Troop’s registration form.

3. Medical Forms

All scouts and adults attending camp must have a current Scouting America medical form on file. Because summer camp is more than 72 hours long, we need the full medical form (parts A, B, and C). The medical form must be signed by a doctor. You can find the medical form here.

We suggest filling out the form with as much detail as you have available to you (e.g. from medical records from recent health visits), then submitting the form to your PCP for review and signature.

Next, make a photocopy of the front and back of your insurance card.

Finally, please bring a signed copy of each attendee’s medical form and insurance card to an upcoming troop meeting. Only paper copies will be accepted, please do not email forms.

Health forms are only valid for one year. Please help us by submitting new health forms as soon as possible.

4. Payment

Most camping trips are paid by attendees afterwards because the cost can be covered by the troop. Summer camp has greater costs, so we invoice families in advance. You will receive an email invoice for the camp fees. These invoices will be reduced by the scout’s previous tree fundraising earnings, if applicable. Please pay the invoice as soon as possible.

5. Make Sure you have the Right Gear

Check our Summer Camp Checklist to make sure you have the right gear for camp. We also have a gear library if you want to borrow any gear. Ask any troop adult leader for more information.

The calendar year ended with our important fundraising tradition: collecting christmas trees for recycling. In early December scouts hung fliers on doors in communites around the SW Portland metro area. Families could sign up to have scouts come pick up their trees after the holiday season concluded, or they could drop them off for us to haul away. The troop, in turn, asks for donations to fund annual expenses and our big summer camp each year.

We were successful once again in raising significant funds this year. Scouts worked through cold and wet conditions to hang fliers, gather trees, and haul them off. Scouts earned “shares” of the funds raised based on how many fliers they hung and how many shifts they worked during collection. Congrats to all the scouts in their efforts, and thank you to our community for your donations!

If you were to go anywhere that is an hour away from Portland, Oregon, where would you go? Well we went to Camp Meriwether for Campsgiving. Campsgiving is like Thanksgiving but it’s with your scout troop.

We launched pumpkins at the beach, but almost no one was actually able to get them to the sand. We launched our pumpkins and built up an apetite. We then went and had dinner, which was cooked by our very own scouts. After dinner, we had a campfire where we told stories about scars. Sometimes a rock would explode because the water inside would turn into steam, forcing the rock to break. We climbed into our dacks when it was time to go to bed.