As the weather begins to warm up a bit, the outdoor scouting season is gearing up for a fun and busy season.  Coming up a bit over a week, the Scouts will be camping out at Cherry Creek and swimming at Downata to kick off the outdoor scouting season.    

Scout meetings are held every Thursday at 4 (unless notified differently) at the County Annex building across from the City Park.  Last week, the Scouts worked on elements of some of the merit badges they are pursuing as a group.  Meetings are often based around checklist requirements for the badges as a way of motivating the scouts to make progress on them in a more enjoyable group setting.  One local scout worked on his history presentation on the city of Malad for his Citizenship in the Community badge, explaining the origin of the town’s name, and some of the colorful events in its history.  Some of the scouts had already passed off the requirement by presenting their research at City Hall.  

Afterwards, the scouts headed across the street to the park, to work on other badge requirements including using a stick and a marked six foot height on the flagpole to estimate its overall height.  The groups then followed an orientation course.  

Scouts BSA (now officially so named, as it has allowed girls to join since 2018) is open to kids from ages 11-17, and held year round, with a number of important dates on the calendar.  For summer, most of the most important ones revolve around camping and flag routes and ceremonies.  The most important dates in those two regards are the following:

Friday April 19 through Saturday 20: Campout at Cherry Creek Campground and swimming at Downata.

Sunday April 21 at 6 p.m.: Court of Honor at the Event Center.

Tuesday April 30: Summer Camp Fees and Merit Badge Registration due.  Scouts with flag routes $165.  Scouts without Flag routes $330.

Friday-Saturday May 3-4: Overnight Camp and Scout Expo.  Campout location TBD, and the Expo will be in Pocatello.  

Saturday May 18: Flag Ceremony at the Lincoln Day dinner.

May 9-23: Selling holiday flags for flag routes.  Each scout signed up for a route will need to knock doors and
sell flags.

Friday-Monday May 24-27: Memorial Day Flags.  Put up flags Thursday evening and take down Friday night or Saturday evening.

Friday-Saturday June 7-8: District Backpacking overnight campout at Cherry Creek Campground.

Friday June 14: Flag Day.  Put up flags Thursday evening and take down Friday night or Saturday evening.

Friday-Saturday June 21-22: Overnight Camp at Logan Canyon, and a visit to Old Ephraim’s grave.

Wednesday-Saturday July 3-6: July 4th Flags.  Put flags up Wednesday evening and take down Saturday
evening.

Sunday-Saturday July 14-20: Summer Scout Camp at Camp Loll, Wyoming.

Sunday August 11: Court of Honor.

Friday-Monday August 30-September 2: Labor day flags.  Put up flags Friday evening and take down Monday evening.