Programming
Scouts – Your Service is requested at the INDY 500 Parade!
On behalf of Bill Hodgson, North Star District 500 Festival Parade Chair:
REMINDER!
Please recall North Star still is scheduled to set up 500 Festival parade chairs on Saturday, May 26.
Scouts in uniform should arrive to set up chairs at the 300 block of North Pennsylvania, between New York and Vermont Streets.
Please arrive between 8:30 to 9:00 AM. Good for 5 service hours!
Yours in scouting,
Bill Hodgson
Troop 73
317-560-0597
Scouts at the JCC Annual Earth Day Celebration 2018
On behalf of North Star District Executive Jessica Hofman:
North Star had the opportunity to host a few stations at the Jewish Community Center’s Annual Earth Day Celebration. Volunteers from Troop 18 and the Council ran a rope bridge, a fire starting station, and a catapult station for thousands of families to stop by and enjoy.
Through surveys done at the event, we were told that our stations were a crowd favorite! This event could not have been possible without the help of great volunteers! Thank you to Ray and John Matutes from Troop 18 for taking time out of their Sunday to help!
Required Unit Reporting of District Service Hours
On behalf of North Star Program Chair Mark Pishon:
ISSUE: Two separate reporting databases
The national website, accessible through my.scouting.org, reports directly to National Council and is used for your unit’s national statistics such as contribution to the World Movement of Scouting’s billion service-hour challenge, but not Journey to Excellence scoring.
We know this is a problem because many of our largest and most successful troops have reported zero service hours on one or both of these websites. At the same time, these units have had Eagle Scouts reporting hundreds if not thousands of service hours. The scouts are getting proper credit, but it is not passing on to the units.
Journey to Excellence has a separate scoring for service hours which can receive a separate gold-level recognition.
ACTION ITEM:
Make sure your unit secretary or registrar is reporting the same service hours to both National BSA on my.scouting.org as well as to the Crossroads BSA website (service hours form found here).
To prevent this being a problem in the future, our District will be reviewing these statistics quarterly. For troops, we will be looking at Eagle project reports against unit reports. Discrepancies will be pointed out to units.
For Cub Scout Packs, we will be looking at zero-hour reports as needing updating.
Remember, we are part of a world-wide effort to demonstrate the value of scouting to our communities. Your reports help that marketing effort.
Memorial Weekend Grave Dressing 2018 [Update below]
Memorial Day is fast approaching. The American Legion would like to invite all of the North Star District for breakfast. The district will make a short trip to several local cemeteries and put decorations on veteran’s graves in honor of their service. In past years this has wrapped up before lunch.
Your service is Requested:
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2018
Start time: 7:00 am
Breakfast location: Broad Ripple American Legion Post # 3, 6379 N College Ave, Indianapolis, IN
Teams will be formed at breakfast to serve the various cemeteries.
Units will be asked to provide adult and youth headcount as well as a point of contact in the event updates need to be made during the morning.
*UPDATE* Please RSVP to Rees Morgan at bfbronc58@yahoo.com.
THANK YOU for your Service!
Congratulations to new OA Brotherhood members!
Order of the Arrow – Lowaneu Allanque Chapter congratulates the following ten Scouts and Adults that earned the OA Brotherhood status at the 2018 Spring Camporee:
David Bradley, Troop 804
Michael (Alex) Bricker, Troop 358
Griffin Burke, Troop 358
Billy Busse, Troop 358
Bobby (Robert) Corridan, Troop 804
Jared Dennemann, Troop 804
David Gusman, Troop 358
Jack Keller, Troop 358
Ivan Miller, Troop 514
Peter Shrote, Troop 804
Need Service Hours? Volunteer Opportunity in Hendricks County!
This was passed along to us from Sarah Wolf, Park Naturalist and Volunteer Coordinator for Hendricks County Parks and Recreation:
[UPDATE as of April 26: The area of greatest need would be help with parking; this would be best to do with mature Scouts + parents.
The sign-up site is here: Sign-up Genius for McCloud Park Anniversary .
Thanks for considering!]
We have URGENT volunteer needs on Saturday, May 5 for McCloud Nature Park’s 15th Anniversary! Some of the opportunities would be perfect for scouts to do with their parents’ or Scout Leaders’ supervision. See the links below for more information and to sign up to volunteer.
McCloud Nature Park 15th Anniversary Celebration Announcement
Hendricks County Volunteer Sign-Up page
We appreciate any help in spreading the word on this – Thanks!!!!
Sarah Wolf
Park Naturalist and Volunteer Coordinator
765-676-5437 McCloud Nature Park (Tuesday-Saturday)
317-718-6188 Parks department office (Monday-Friday)
McCloud Nature Park Physical Address: 8518 Hughes Road, North Salem, IN 46165
Weather Hotline: 317-718-6111 for information on programs impacted by possible weather
Camping Scholarships (“Camperships”) available!
On behalf of North Star District Camping Chair Paul Kovach:
Cubmasters, Scoutmasters and Unit Committee Chairs:
Finances should never be a reason for a Scout not to attend camp. Crossroads of America Council offers a Campership program where recipients can be awarded up to 50% of the early summer camp fee in exchange for performing an age-appropriate service project.
Please encourage families in your units to take advantage of Camperships. Significant funds are still available to scouts that want to attend summer camp but whose families may have some financial hardship. Campership applications will be considered until funds are exhausted, on a first come first served basis.
The links below will bring you to the appropriate camp page and to the Campership application:
Thanks and Yours in Scouts,
Paul Kovach
North Star District Camping Chair
And the 2018 Spring Camporee “Best Campsite Award” goes to:
Troop 343! Congratulations Scouts, way to go!
Troop 358 Welcomes You to the 6th Annual Hog Roast & Silent Auction
Come one come all to the 6th annual Troop 358 Hog Roast and Silent Auction!
Date: Saturday May 5
Time: 5 – 8 pm
Location: St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church – Parish Hall, 1870 W. Oak Street, Zionsville IN
In addition to the amazing food and plethora of auction items, there will be a Pig Toss (Corn Hole) competition and District challenge for prizes. Fun for the whole family!
A $25 family ticket covers 6 family members; individual tickets are $10 per adult and $5 per child. For more information and to purchase tickets please use this link: Troop 358 Hog Roast Tickets . Tickets can also be purchased at the door. Keep the Hog Roast Flyer on the fridge as a reminder, and pass it along to family & friends as well.
You won’t want to miss it, hope to see you there!
LET’S GET YOUTH PROTECTION TRAINING DONE!
In case you haven’t already seen this reminder a few times… 🙂
Suggestion #1: Attend the in-person training at Eagle Creek Community Church on Saturday, May 5, hosted by Pack 830! (See this previous post for more details). Rumor has it that attendees that complete this training session will receive a “discount token” that can be used at the Troop 358 Hog Roast held later that same day – GREAT food, silent auction, lots of fun! See, how’s that for incentive.
Suggestion #2: Since the revised Youth Protection Training consists of three modules plus a test, consider doing one module at a time (the modules run about 20 minutes apiece). Maybe on the phone as you are on the treadmill, stationary bike, or “desk lunch”? Or with headphones on your PC or tablet at the back of the Scout / Pack / Venture / Webelos meeting if you can break away for a short while? Just a thought!
Attached here is a training environment tips and tricks sheet for navigating the environment. NOTE that this is not a BSA-sanctioned document, is based on one end-user’s experience, and is limited to the environment only – no content tips here. Assuming your connectivity is good and the platform is running smoothly but you are just stuck on how to get around, give this a shot – don’t let the environment be the show-stopper, in other words.
Thanks for all you do for Scouting!
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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