Troop 189 has been awarded BSA Quality Unit Status in
2003
2004
2005
2006
and
BSA Centennial
Quality Unit
Award
Status in
2007 and 2008

as well as the Nassau County Gus Katz Award for Service to God and Country in 2008
 

We went off on our annual cold-weather training trip before Blue Nose on December 12 and 13th. The week before many of the boys attended the Council Cold Weather Training session so they were well prepared. 

We went into Connecticut to Hoyt Scout Reservation which was perfect for what we wanted to do. On Saturday we set up our tents and then focussed in on two older Scout skills: Tracking and Trailing.  At our last meeting Scoutmaster Steve taught these skills out of his 1965 Scout Handbook, and we got to put them to use in the field! First the members of our Camo Patrol built a “whifflepoof” using directions taken from the old handbook.  A whifflepoof is a way to simulate animal tracks. They then set up a trail for each patrol to track. John and Matt then went one step further and invented an imaginary animal named a “whifflepoof” and set up their trail showing it drinking, sleeping, and taking cover.  Each Patrol had to track the whifflepoof to it’s “den” and describe what they thought it was doing.

After lunch Scoutmaster Steve set up a trailing course using the old Scout Trail Signs.  In two groups (by Patrols) the boys took turns reading the trail signs and directing the group.  Along the way we stopped to read a real deer trail in the snow and figure out where the deer was going and why. The first group (Camo and Unicorns) proved their theory by finding deer scat where they thougth the deer might have rested or eaten, and the second group (King Kong and Swordsmen) found the actual spot where the deer had slept, and proved it by finding some deer hair tangled in the weeds.

Later in the afternoon many warmed up with a rousing football game in the snow.  Everyone bundled up and was in bed early!  It got down to 15 degrees on Saturday night.

On Sunday we broke camp and then the Patrols competed on a trailing course that the Camo Patrol had built Saturday afternoon. In the true Rainmaker tradition, we left Hoyt just as an icestorm was starting. The tracking and trailing games changed the InterPatrol Competition standings. The Unicorns held their lead, but Camo has now taken 2nd Place and the Swordsmen nudged their way into 3rd by half a point!

Special thanks to the Adults who drove and helped us make this wintery outdoor trip possible: SM Steve, ASMs Ed and Mike V, Committee Members Howard, Andrea, Kathy, and Bonnie. Unfortunately we had no photographer on this trip :(