Trail Life

Trail Life is a scouting ministry for boys in K-12th grade. Our troop has about 45 boys and is very active. If you'd like to know more about our troop and follow what we do, please visit our Facebook page for more information: Trail Life on Facebook.

TRAIL LIFE 2021/2022 UPDATES

TROOP DUES:

Last year troop dues were $75 per child. This year they will go up to $100 per child. We always run on a very tight budget, and we'd like to be able to offer some new things this year. An extra $25 plus some fundraising will help us accomplish those goals as well as give us the ability to do more and expand in a few areas. For instance, we want to go back to having the kids get their Branch Pins to go on their patches. Those little pins add up quite quickly. We'd also like to send a couple of dads to get the official NRA Range Officer training so we can add shooting sports to our program (shotguns and rifles). I'll be sending out invoices this week through Square. If you'd like to go ahead and pay those, please feel free to do so. We are asking that they get paid no later than October. If you need assistance or need to stretch it out longer, just let me know. That won't be a problem.

MANHOOD JOURNEY

I've already sent out some info on Manhood Journey. As I mentioned already, the program has 6 Modules that each have 6 lessons (1 Module equals 6 weeks). Our plan is to cover 2 lessons at each meeting so that 1 module will take 3 weeks. Module 1 will be Saturday, September 25, October 2nd, and October 9th (this is to accommodate deer hunting season...you're welcome!). The plan right now is to meet at church on Saturday morning, cook breakfast together with our sons, cover 2 lessons by lunchtime, and go home. Manhood Journey will be for those in 4th grade and up. If you plan to attend, please let me know. The cost will be $5 per family each Saturday. That's just to help cover the cost of food. 

FUNDRAISERS

We've had several requests to sell the boxed card sets again. We are going to do that this year, and we will have the info ready on the first night of Trail Life on August 23rd. The goal will be for each family to sell 10-15 boxes. In the spring we will do another fundraiser. The plan we discussed last night would be to do a "car wash and wings" fundraiser - basically a car wash with Larry Taylor and William Pike and some of the boys preparing chicken wing boxes!

CHECK-IN PROCESS

Our troop is growing quite a bit, and we will have lots of new families joining that many of us probably don't know. We will have a sign-in/out sheet like we used to. Please sign your kid in and out each week. We will also be adding award boards for each patrol. This will basically consist of them marking off each week's accomplishment on a poster designed to help track attendance. Their branch patches will also be on that board, and they can add the award pins to their patch as they earn them. The patches will stay here during the school year, and will be sent home at the end of the year with all of their accomplishments. 

COVID POLICY

Basically, we don't have one and don't plan to add one either. If you are sick with covid, please stay home. If someone in your family is sick with covid, please do not come to Trail Life. Otherwise, masks are optional. We plan to carry forward with "business as usual." 

TRAIL LIFE CONNECT

Please sign in to www.traillifeconnect.com and make sure your Trail Life membership is up to date. That's the $26 yearly fee that goes directly to Trail Life and provides liability insurance to the troop as well as curriculum development. Dads, please also login to www.traillifeconnect.com and make sure your membership is updated AND complete the Child Safety and Youth Protection Training class. This is a required online class to become a leader within the troop. This class primarily covers abuse prevention. We don't ever want to look back on this ministry and wish we had done more to make sure we took every step possible to protect our sons. So, completing this class is a REQUIRED step to be in any form of leadership within the troop. If you have any trouble logging in, just let me know. It is our preference that every single dad completes this course, but it is required of anyone wanting to be in leadership.