March was fun and full of learning from the Court of Honor to the Trail to First Class and our usual exciting troop meetings in between. Twice a year our troop holds an event to celebrate rank advancement and merit badges our Scouts have earned. Our Court of Honor was on March 11. The Scouts have worked so hard and it is rewarding to be recognized for completing achievements and rank advancements.
Speaking of meetings, this month, we had various skilled scouts and adults give educational presentations on backpacking so we can be prepared for the upcoming April backpacking trip. Some of the important skills we covered were how to pack food and proper hygiene while backpacking.
Eventually we found ourselves inching towards the end of the month and to complete the month we had a half-day Trail to First Class event held at the Scripps Ranch Swim & Racquet Club. To start off the morning, the skilled scouts paired with younger scouts to learn and practice the required knots which must be demonstrated to earn the rank of Scout and then later earn Second Class. In addition to knots all the scouts worked on the Scouting America swimming test, which is a requirement for scouts who are going either to summer camp at Camp Chawanakee or on the Kern River Rafting campout in June. Diving into the pool was fun but we still had more to learn so we quickly changed and headed back to where we started the morning off. The next activity was a tent race where the scouts were divided into two teams and each team would get a tent and the scouts had to use teamwork to try to quickly set up the tent and win the race. Then to end the morning we learned about assessing injuries when doing First Aid. It was a very eventful morning!
