Troop 281 Cincinnati, OH

This week we had a Scout meeting, and an overnight.  For the overnight we had a lock in at the YMCA. We played lots of dodgeball and stayed up all night. At the meeting it was movie night, and we watched Balto.  Balto is a movie about a dog in Nome, Alaska in 1925.  At first the children in Nome started getting sick.  Then the hospital runs out of medicine. They send a dog team to get more medicine.  The dog team gets lost.  Balto comes and leads the dog team back to Nome. The dog team arrives in time and saves the children from the diseases. Joe S.  Historian

This Scout meeting was the first Scout meeting for the new Scouts, the Spitting Cobras and the Arrows of Light.  Ben M. did a wonderful skill session on lashings.  Although one person was not tuned in and didn’t know how to tie the lashing, so another scout had to teach him. We played an awesome game of dodge ball this meeting. Alex R. said we were playing a game that rhymed with podge ball.  There was an increase of human riot shields; probably the shields were made of new Scouts. Michael A. is now the seventh of our eight Eagle Scouts. Joe S.,  Historian

This scout meeting, Joe Baker from the American Legion came. The American Legion is a veterans group. He talked about being in the military and said that nothing super exciting happened while he was in the military. His Air Force base in Britain did go on high alert one time because the Black September group threatened to take a nuclear warhead. He also explained what the American Legion is. The game we played this meeting was knock out. Knock out is a kind of basketball game. Two people are throwing balls trying to make a basket. If the second person shoots a hoop before the first person, the first person is out. On the other hand, if the first person makes a basket before the second person, he is safe and passes the ball to the next person in line. That person now becomes the second thrower and so on until there is only one person left. The game went as normal until the end where there was some extremely insane 1 on 1's going on. Greg B., the next in a long line of Eagles, got hi...

This week we had two events. We had a totally awesome skiing and snowboarding campout, and a scout meeting about hiking. On this campout we stayed in cabins. The cabins and the bunks are much nicer than tents and sleeping pads. The skiing and snowboarding were sort of hard. They had rails and half pipe. A few of the scouts got cabin fever and started wrestling with each other. Most of the scouts skied but a few of the older scouts snowboarded. At the scout meeting we has a skill lesson on - yes, you guessed it - hiking. The only reason people paid attention was probably the candy being awarded for answering the sentences correctly. We also had the Order of the Arrow "tap out." People who were in the Order of the Arrow stood in a circle inside of a circle in which everybody else stood. Then people with torches went around and "tapped" the people we elected. Joe S. Historian

This meeting we went ice skating at the Northern Kentucky Ice Rink. We also played broomball there. Hockey practice was going on in the large rink so we skated in the smaller rink. We skated for half the time. Alex R. skated backwards and he was about as fast as a bulldozer! Mr. M was the only adult to who skated, but there weren’t enough broomsticks for the adults to play broomball. Broomball is a lot like hockey, but you don’t wear any skates, and you use a giant foam ball instead of a puck. You hit the ball with a different kind of stick – it’s a lot like a lacrosse stick. The blue team totally destroyed the red team although the blue team was outnumbered three to one. When we left the rink to go home, we all were amazed at how much warmer it was outside than inside. Jeo S. Historian

This week Adam from the Cincinnati Zoo came and brought animals. We had this instead of a skill session. He brought a screech owl, a three-banded armadillo, and a great horned owl. We got to pet the armadillo and it ran around in the room. It kept on going toward Ben M. Adam said that it was because his shoes smelled good. Bret C. received his Eagle badge. We played “doctor dodge ball.” Joe S. Historian

This meeting we had Order Of The Arrow elections. Alex R. did a skill session on skiing; Grant K. did a skill session on snowboarding. We played spud for the game. Joe S. Historian (with help from Will S. - Joe was ill.)