Patrol Leaders, Buddies, and Hiking Safety

Our September 24th meeting went incredibly well!

TK showed up a half hour early to catch up on the requirements from the previous week. He was enthusiastic and very athletic. Here you can see him powering through his sit-ups:

Above: TK hammering out sit-ups while Ben helps him out.

Everyone showed up, but sadly we only had three of the six in uniform. We began the meeting outside since the chapel was all locked up. The patrol broke up in to groups of two to read about the buddy system and bullies. Each group was given two questions to answer regarding the reading.

Above: Ben laying down next to his partner, TK. Joey and Dallen in the background.

Above: Brandi keeps Tamanui and Christian company while they read.

As soon as they were done with their reading, Dallen and Joey ran inside to prepare the room for us by setting up chairs and turning on the air conditioner. The rest of the group followed close behind.

Inside, we started by voting in our new patrol leader and assistant patrol leader. It was an incredibly close vote and I'm sure any of the boys would have made great patrol leaders. The group voted Dallen Akita to be our Patrol Leader and Joey Chowen to be our Assistant Patrol Leader. Congratulations to both of them! I have no doubt they will be inspiring motivators for the rest of the group and will lead them toward the tightly-bonded group of do-gooders they are to become.

Above: Joey, our Assistant Patrol leader, on the left and Dallen, our patrol leader, on the right.

Above: patrol members mark their books with the patrol's new information.

After the elections, each scout answered a question from their reading aloud. We discussed each answer and how it can help us to stay safe. We followed this by reading pages 38 to 41 in our manuals. This section describes how to hike safely and what to do if we get lost. Each scout read a portion out loud while the others followed along. All six boys are excellent readers and the patrol was very attentive during the reading. We discussed each portion of the reading and expanded with our understanding of the subjects. This is an important topic for us since we will be hiking in the coming weeks to complete some rank requirements.

The patrol completed two different requirements during this meeting and marked them off on our poster.

The last remaining thing to do was to record TK's running time. To support TK, the other scouts decided to run with him, even though we made it clear they did not have to. The boys ran very well and seem to be improving already.

As has become tradition, we ended the night with sweets. The boys had cupcakes and requested doughnuts for next time (I thought we were supposed to be getting fit). Maybe I'll see how they respond to veggies and dip next week :)