With the Coronavirus crisis still forcing school changes and mask mandates in Massachusetts, Troop 30 is meeting outdoors every week.
Outdoor meetings on Thursdays in October and November? Absolutely — Be Prepared is our motto, after all. Scouts wear masks, always, and when the weather is cool, they have jackets. Now that everyone is trained in setting up a lantern, we’re able to work on advancement, we’ve had an election of new leaders and we’ve even met with Cub Scouts who will move up to Troop 30 in early 2021.
Boys and girls age 10-17 can join Troop 30
So far this year, Troop 30 has had a campout — also with Webelos, the oldest of the Cub Scouts — where we’ve mastered orienteering, outdoor cooking and and the eating of chocolate cake made in a Dutch oven on the fire.
This year has been a very unusual year in the history of scouting in Watertown, no doubt, but we are continuing to serve the community. Since the pandemic hit, one scout took his family to clean up a section of the Charles River, filling an entire car with trash to haul away. One planted a tree at a state campsite on behalf of the family of a longtime camper who died of Covid earlier this year.
And, we have our Eagles. Michael McNamara received his Eagle rank this summer after building secure storage for the Watertown Food Pantry. Another Eagle project is currently under way.
Scouts take care of each other and our
community
Troop 30 has always had a strong outdoor program, but now that the safest place to be is outside, we’re doubling-down on those efforts. Any youth who has completed fifth grade is welcome to join us.
Scouts learn citizenship and leadership, but there’s so much more they do. Scouts learn to camp, to cook and how to build a campfire. They also have plenty of opportunity to make friends as they sit around a campfire — just in masks, this year.
Troop 30 is for boys and girls in Watertown, Allston and Brighton. Contact us at watertowntroop30@gmail.com to learn more.
With school out of session due to the Coronavirus crisis, Troop 30 has changed its meetings to online. Scouts are still advancing in rank, merit badges are being earned and public service is still a priority, it’s just being done with COVID-19 precautions.
In what may be the largest-ever one-day event to benefit the Watertown Food Pantry, scouts on Saturday collected $10,000 worth of food at the Watertown Street Stop & Shop.
“I’m overwhelmed by the effort of all the boys and girls in the scouts,” said Kathleen Cunningham, Watertown Food Pantry Coordinator. “It’s amazing that all those parents and leaders make this work possible.”
Scouts provided a shopping list for store customers to donate items needed most by clients of the food pantry — peanut butter, rice, beans, jams and pastas – to fill the pantry’s shelves. Customers handed items over to other scouts in charge of thanking customers. Then Webelos and Bear Scouts ran full shopping carts of canned goods to the sidewalk outdoors, where cans of cranberries, peas, beans and tomato sauce were sorted and packed in the Troop 30 trailer. The trailer was filled twice with a total of 400 cubic feet of food in the six hours scouts collected food.
When customers opted to give cash, those donations were turned into personal hygiene items like shampoo, soap and deodorant. When customers wanted to fuel scouts and their good work, they gave them chocolate and bags of Doritos.
Troop 30 will hold its first meeting of the 2018-19 year at 80 Mt. Auburn Street, Watertown.
Each summer Troop 30 chooses a week for summer camp, usually attending Boy Scout camps in Rhode Island, Massachusetts or New Hampshire. Summer camp is not a requirement, but it sure is fun for those who attend.
Scouting America Troop 30 