Monday, March 30, 2015

BSA'S Northeast representatives attend board meeting



BSA Northeast Region representative Mike Meyers presented the 2015 BSA Charter to Council President Bob Confer and Council Commissioner Alice Barrett at the March 24 Executive Board meeting. Iroquois Trail Council earned Gold Status on the 2014 Journey to Excellence, which placed us in the top 20% of councils across the nation!

The main topic of discussion that night was how we can provide better service to help our outstanding volunteer leaders bring the Scouting program to life for our local Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Explorers.

Thank you for all that you do week after week to enrich the lives of our local Scout families!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Towpath District Pinewood Derby

Iroquois Trail Council
Towpath District
Pinewood Derby 2015

Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015
Place: Emmanuel United Methodist Church
75 East Avenue, Lockport, NY

Time: Doors Open at 10:30 am
Final inspection of Cars 10:30 – 11:15 am
Races to start at 11:30 am

You are invited to come and see one of Cub Scouts most exciting events!! We will have 14 Cub Packs represented!

• Kitchen will be open
• Basket Raffle
• Special Raffle for a 5 piece Picnic Table Set.

If you have any questions regarding this event
please contact Beth Arajs @ 716-628-4730 or
Email to barajs@verizon.net

All participating Packs are asked to donate a basket or Gift Certificate valued at $15 for the basket raffle to help off set the cost of trophies.Thank you.

District Pinewood Rules and Flyers were distributed at the Roundtable Meeting.



Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A great friend of the council has passed away

Last week, a very good friend of the council was laid to rest...


The Very Reverend Robert Benjamin Moss, of Medina, NY, passed away peacefully on March 14th, 2015 at the Martin-Linsin residence of Hospice of Orleans in Albion. Father Ben was born on July 20th, 1926, one of seven children, to Robert Spurgeon Moss and Edna May Lewis of Horseheads, NY.

After graduating high school at age 15, Ben went on to college at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY where he met his lovely wife of 64 years, Judith Lawrence Howard. He and Judith lived in New York City where he attended General Theological Seminary. He was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1956. He led congregations in Port Leyden, NY and Silver Creek, NY before becoming the Priest at St. John's Episcopal Church in Medina, NY in 1965. He was the priest at St. John's for 21 years before retiring in 1986. During that time, Ben was very active in the community, becoming a charter member of the Medina Area Association of Churches (MAAC), a Kiwanis Club member, a Rotarian, a Theater of Performing Arts (TOPA) actor and supporting member and served for many years as the Medina Police Chaplain.

In 1986, he retired from the full time priesthood and he and Judy settled in Lockport, NY. Even in retirement, Ben was an active member of the clergy in the Diocese of Western New York. He performed many roles in the church including interim pastor, pastoral care and supply priest duties for Episcopal churches in Buffalo, Alden and Lockport, NY for 20 years of part-time priestly work. During his time in the work of his Lord, he shepherded the lives of hundreds and he touched the lives of thousands. During his entire adult life, Ben was an active member of the Boy Scouts of America, serving as Chaplain for Camp Dittmer in Central New York and was awarded the Silver Beaver for his long standing service. He eventually moved back to Medina in 2007 and has been residing three blocks from his original home in town since then.

He is survived by his wife, Judith of Medina, NY; all four of his children, Melinda (Scott) Abriss of East Northport, NY, Robert Moss and Paul Lee of NYC, NY, Katherine (Raymond) Parker of Valders, WI and Lawrence (Leslie) Moss of Medina, NY. Also surviving him are four grandchildren, Raymond IV and Rory Parker and Rachel and Jessica Abriss. He is also survived by his sister, Hazel (Howard) Baldwin of Englewood, FL and several nieces and nephews.

His family will receive friends on Friday, March 20th, 2015 at the Cooper Funeral Home, 215 West Center Street in Medina, NY from (4-7 PM) and Saturday (9-11AM) at Christ Episcopal Church, 7145 Fieldcrest Drive, Lockport, NY, where he will Lie in State prior to Memorial Eucharist and Burial at 11AM. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Ben to Christ Episcopal Church or The Martin-Linsin Residence/Hospice of Orleans in Albion, NY.



Monday, March 16, 2015

Albion celebrates 90th birthday of Sidari

This past weekend, the Albion community celebrated the 90th birthday of Frank Sidari, a World War II veteran and a former scoutmaster of Troop 164 who served the troop for more than 30 years.

Here's the write-up at Orleans Hub:

http://www.orleanshub.com/news2015/Big-fanfare-for-Frank-Sidari-on-his-90th-birthday.htm



Sunday, March 15, 2015

Baschnagel profiled in Buffalo News

One of the Iroquois Trail Council's longest-serving Scouters is Joe Baschnagel, who has served Cambria area scouts for decades. One of Joe's talents is playing the bagpipes. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, the Buffalo News offers this profile of the bagpiper, with a look at how he was kept with us thanks to a heart transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Great article about a great guy.

Here's the article:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/all-niagara-county/baschnagels-heart-is-his-bagpipes-20150315



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Spring event at Iroquois Wildlife Refuge

The folks at the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge are hosting a spring open house on April 25th and we were thinking that it might make for an excellent day out with your pack or troop. After visiting the open house, you could hike any number of excellent trails at the "Alabama Swamps", such as the popular Swallow Hollow with its boardwalk.







Tuesday, March 10, 2015

CyberCHIP seminar to be offered at University of Scouting



You've heard of Totin' Chip, which focuses on safety with cutting tools. The BSA has now introduced CyberCHIP that educates scouts on how to be safe online. A primer on the program will be offered as a class at our University of Scouting in May. Here are the details from Jim Yencer...



For thousands of years humans and our societies have been developing strategies to protect us from harm from predators, plants, the weather, and each other. We have developed mechanisms to protect ourselves, but they are not perfect, and we are always at risk from these dangers. However, in the last 20 years we have been exposed to a new and growing threat…the internet. We want our kids to be safe, expecting that the “internet” will take care of them for us, thinking that the internet is basically harmless fun. This is NOT the case, and our kids can easily become unintentional victims or perpetrators on the internet, simply because they don’t have the knowledge to protect themselves.

What dangers are on the internet? Our kids can meet bad people online pretending to be kids their age to lure them into something bad and sinister. Perpetrators could be stealing their identity and using it for all sorts of nefarious deeds. They could be victims of cyber-bullying and will be too embarrassed to tell you about it. They could download virus’ that could infect your computer and share your families personal or banking information with people who know how to exploit it. They could be chatting with a friend on a new social app and share their thoughts without a filter, unintentionally becoming abusive to others without understanding the affect their words may have, assuming what they say online is innocuous when in reality it is hurtful and a form of bullying.

But all this new access came so fast that we have not developed strategies to teach our kids how to use it properly, and where to find the dangers that lurk around every corner or on many web sites and social media applications. Limiting a kids access to the internet today is virtually impossible. If they don’t access it from a desktop or a laptop pc, then they will using a tablet or an iPod. Perhaps they’ll use a Smart TV, or a Smart phone. If not those, then they will go to school and access the internet there, or the library and use their computers and internet access. The point is that it is virtually impossible to limit a child’s access to the internet, something that is now so common that it is assumed everyone has access at home.

There are steps you can take to teach kids how to be safe online. This access is so new that parents don’t think to teach their kids how to use the internet safely, and most of the time they don’t have the knowledge or tools to teach them effectively. As a Scout Leader we do have resources that can be used to teach our Scouts how to use the internet properly and safely, to avoid the pitfalls so many children are falling into these days. It is our responsibility to make better citizens of the boys in our unit, something that has been one of the three aims of Scouting since its inception 80 years before the internet. With internet access, devices, and apps growing at an exponential rate, the task falls on our shoulders to also make them good citizens of our new virtual society.

To that end, the BSA has introduced the cyberCHIP, aimed at making the Cyber world safe for the Scout. The TOTIN’ CHIP is intended to teach Scouts how to use knives, saws, and axes safely, and the FIREM’N CHIT teaches scouts how to build fires safely. Similarly, the cyberCHIP teaches Scouts how to be online safely. This is not something that is currently required for rank advancement, but it would not surprise me if it does become required in the future. However, for now it is something that is required only for technology Merit Badges like Programming, Digital Technology. And the requirements are not a walk in the park, they are challenging, but so is internet safely, so it is appropriately challenging.

To develop this new program the BSA partnered with Netsmartz®, an interactive and educational program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline. Their website has content specific to children ages 5-17, as well as adults in various roles such as parents or guardians, educators, or law enforcement. This new challenge, the cyberCHIP, is something that should be required in every unit but is slow to be adopted. It is up to us, Scouting’s Leaders, to recognize the dangers the internet has, and to work with our Scouts to be safe online, in every aspect. Scouting’s three aims, character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness, can all be linked to the internet in one way or another.

For more information about the cyberCHIP program, come to our University of Scouting on May 9th and register for class 404, Internet Safety and Cell Phone Use. You can also use a search engine to find information online about the cyberCHIP, but you may also want to look into a similar program offered by the US Scouting Service Project, the Internet Scout Patch.

USSSP Internet Scout Patch … http://usscouts.org/InternetScoutPatch.asp


Monday, March 9, 2015

University of Scouting: May 9th




The University of Scouting is a one-day leader training program designed to provide ideas and resources in areas to benefit your Pack, Troop or Crew. 2015 marks the first year in quite some time that the Iroquois Trail Council has hosted a University of Scouting event and we are hoping to offer it once a year to assist all Scouts, Scouters and Parents in their Scouting positions.

Please print the above flier and distribute it to your unit.

For more details, including a list of courses, download the University of Scouting packet here:

http://itcbsa.org/Joomla/images/Forms/2015/2015UniversityofScoutingRegistrationPacket.pdf

There is an impressive list of courses available...don't miss out!


Monday, March 2, 2015

Do you fish while at Camp Sam Wood?

If you fish Wiscoy Creek while at Sam Wood -- even if it's just once or twice a year -- the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation needs you help:

The DEC Region 9 Fisheries Office will be running an angler diary program for Wiscoy Creek in Allegany and Wyoming Counties during 2015 and is currently looking for anglers to keep diaries. If you fish Wiscoy Creek (even once) and would like to keep a diary for DEC please call the DEC Fisheries Office at 716.372.0645 or e-mail at fwfish9@dec.ny.gov. The program will run March 1st through October 31st. This program duplicates one run in 2012 and will be used in conjunction with a late-summer electrofishing survey to evaluate the fishery’s overall quality.