12/31/2025
What a year Troop 220 had in 2025!
First and foremost, we had 10 Scouts earn the rank of Eagle Scout,(Zach, Tucker, Jonathan, Mason, Danny, Carson, Paul, Matthias, Ethan & Evan) our biggest year ever since Mr. Sutton founded the Troop in 1967. That brings us to 130 names on the Eagle plaque. That is an amazing year and we will celebrate 4 of them this coming Monday at the Troop meeting with a quadruple Eagle Court of Honor. What an outstanding way to kick off 2026!
Another big highlight came in February when we represented the Longhouse Council in receiving a proclamation from the Onondaga County Executive, Ryan McMahon, in a combined meeting with Pack 120. We had 60 Scouts and 20+ Scouters in attendance and after the ceremony we had program for all different age groups. It was an tremendous evening for local Scouting. And what a picture it made!
Our camping program was nothing less than fun and amazing in 2025 as well. We kicked off the year with a cabin campout at Woodland, with our, soon to cross over, older Cub Scouts. We did a bunch of different kinds of cooking as well as program round robins during the day Saturday. We went cross country skiing at Highland Forest in February, which was a blast, but tiring! Everyone managed to doze off in the afternoon after skiing. In March we were back at Highland forest and did a joint campout with Pack 120. The PLC put on a master class in teamwork, through the patrol method, in preparing a massive breakfast burrito bar for all 90 people. It was an amazing project to watch come together. We did program for all the dens and then after they went home we followed Mr. Gillette on a hike at Tinker Falls. April took us to Valley Forge and Philadelphia for our spring trip. Not only was it very educational, it was a lot of fun. Touring Independence Hall, seeing the Liberty Bell, touring the USS New Jersey Battleship (that thing is huge!) and seeing many monuments, and of course there were philly cheesesteaks! In May we traveled out to Letchworth St park and took a beautiful hike and then spent the afternoon whitewater rafting, which was amazing! We grabbed dinner at a diner that served burgers the size of your head, and a few Scouts even finished it! Unfortunately we ended up missing out on a summercamp experience, as we had to pull he plug last minute on a trip to our beloved Sabattis for farewell trip, but many of our Scouts did do day camp at Woodland for the Eagle Academy, where they earned numerous Eagle required merit badges, so we were able to somewhat salvage the summer. In September we attended the Beyond the Arrow weekend at Woodland, designed to help AOL Scouts get some experience with Troop like activities, which was a good weekend. In October we went back to Highland Forest to do a Build Your Own Shelter (BYOS) campout. That was probably the wettest weekend we have had in a number of years(which is saying something for us!), so we learned by doing (or learned for next time) about waterproofing our shelters! A tough, but valuable learning weekend. In November we went to West Point and attended one of their Scout days at Michie Stadium and went to an Army Football game. That was a great weekend, especially the pre-game activities and the helicopter flyover. And to close out our camping we did the ever popular electronics overnight in the church just before the holidays. It was a great year for our camping program!
Some other highlights included 3 Scouts attending NYLT and numerous Scouts and adults earning new OA sashes, both Brotherhood and Ordeal. We had multiple Scouts on the OA's LEC (Lodge Executive Committee) learning leadership from another aspect of Scouting. Our own Mr. Walker finished up his 3 years as OA Lodge Advisor. We crossed over a good sized AOL Den to start the next part of their Scouting Journey. We had a large group attend OA Section Conclave at Woodland in June, which was a great weekend. Our own Mr. Varco we recognized as a District volunteer of the month in the spring, and more recently has become the Towpath District Commissioner. The Troop sold more that $25,000 in popcorn, which was #1 in the Towpath District and #4 in the Longhouse Council. We also had the #1 seller in the Longhouse Council (Ryan C) with over $10,000 in sales. The Troop also staffed a good portion of the Bellevue Heights UMC semi Annual Roast Beef Dinners. And of course part of all of those Eagles is an Eagle project, done in the community. Not only do we support ourselves, we support our District and Council and help in our community, just like Scouts always have. Great example set by our Scouts, they are growing into the leaders of tomorrow by doing.
With 2025 in our rearview mirror I think we can say it was a great year and Mr. Sutton would be proud of what his Troop accomplished this year.
As we look to kick off 2026, as already mentioned, we will have a quadruple Eagle Court of Honor at our Monday meeting, so it will start with a big event. We also have numerous camping trips planned, including more cross country skiing, our annual January cabin campout at Woodland, a spring trip to Ohio to visit the Rock & Roll and Pro Football Halls of Fame, a lean to weekend at Tuscarora in the spring and a trip to the Glenn Curtiss Air museum in May, to mention a few great things coming up. We have a solid group of adults that we can't thank enough for all of their volunteer time and a good group of upcoming Scouts stepping into many new leadership roles as all those seniors graduated. We also have a large AOL den crossing over soon and Pack 120 has double digit Scouts in pretty much every den, so we should grow in many future years.
The future of Troop 220 looks bright! Let's keep it going into the New Year!
See you all down the trail,
Mr. Morgan
