A weekend of outdoor and indoor fun! Try snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, sew your own fleece items, build your own snowshoes, winter games, indoor lodging, showers & restrooms, winter camping option, hearty meals and more. Attend with members from your unit or as an individual. Session dates are February 7-9 or February 21-23, 2025. For more information contact Mike Mailand at mike.mailand@konwapos.org or (920) 915-7901.

Maple Syrup Days Open House: Join us on Saturday, March 22 2025, and explore camp and participate in activities for families with Cub Scout aged children (5-11 years old). Events include a pancake toss, leather working, tree tapping, pudgie pie making, pinecone bird feeder construction, and more. Register as a family, Den, or as an entire Pack! This event is open to the public and walk-in registrations welcome. $15 Admission includes a pancake & sausage brunch with Bear Paw's very own maple syrup!

Maple Syrup Days: Maple Syrup Days will take place Saturday, March 29 and April 5, 2025. These single day programs are designed for Scout aged youth (6th grade and up). The First Year program encompasses the maple syrup process from tree to table. From history, sap collection, evaporation, and bottling, Scouts participate in each activity in a “round-robin” style. The Advanced Program offers Merit Badges and in-depth sessions about syrup production. Badges include Forestry, Entrepreneurship, Plant Science, and Engineering. Scouts returning to the program have options to learn more about maple sap collection, maple stand management, cooking with maple syrup, maple syrup confections, water chemistry, and syrup grading. The $30 admission includes breakfast, lunch, commemorative patch, and custom labeled 8 oz. bottle of Bear Paw Maple Syrup.

Scouting’s flagship event is one-of-a-kind. It’s a gathering of tens of thousands of Scouts, leaders, and Jamboree Service Team members that showcases everything that is great about the Boy Scouts of America. Over the course of 10 summer days, once every four years, the Boy Scouts of America gathers together. Scouts and Scouters who attend will explore all kinds of adventures—stadium shows, pioneer village, Mount Jack hikes, adventure sports and more—in the heart of one of nature’s greatest playgrounds. With 10,000 acres at the Summit to explore, there’s no shortage of opportunities to build Scouting memories.

Staff Sergeant Chris Lauerman, of the Appleton based 2-127 infantry, poses with Scout popcorn donations. The popcorn was distributed to Guard units across NE Wisconsin.

While driving on the Sunday after Christmas, I remarked to my lovely bride something like: can you believe its only been a week since we went to that concert in Milwaukee? With Christmas falling on the Wednesday in between, it seemed like seven days ago was soooooo long ago. Similarly, our post-Thanksgiving cruise with the grandchildren is like a really distant memory. As it could seem like “just yesterday,” put Christmas and New Year’s within those succeeding weeks and the time perspective gets weird.

When was the last time for your Scout outing? Have you been back to your unit meetings yet this month? On a sledding weekend to camp even though the Christmas vacation snow disappeared real fast in that "heatwave"? Or might it have been all the way back to summer resident camp? If it seems like a l-o-n-g time since you've been on an outing, perhaps that is because it is.

But, the calendar beckons. Every GUIDE carries a link at the top of the page that, once clicked, whisks you away to the Council and District program calendars. (Just so you don't have to scroll, here is another link to the calendar page: )As you look at the offerings, if you get the feeling that there is something to do almost every weekend, you are correct. Volunteers supported by the professional team continue to assemble events that are fun, memorable and "teaching." Learn how to work, play and live in the snow. Enjoy maple syruping. The Pinewood Derbies and the Blue-Gold dinners. It awaits YOU! So, make your move NOW!

All right, so it was 16 or 17 nights ago, when nearly a million gathered in Times Square to watch a ball drop and sing a song that has not seen the Top 40 in decades. For those who stood all day in the New York City rain, their memories are made. It is time to again make our memories new this year.

Warren Kraft
Program Development
Bay-Lakes Council #635          

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