2020 History

Troop 58 ZOOM Activities During the Pandemic

Troop 58 has been able to maintain an active 2020 schedule despite COVID-19 with a little planning and a lot of ZOOMING. We were able to stick to our weekly Wednesday evening meeting times with our SPL Adam Kohn, as well as assistance from various other scouts such as Colby Naumovitz, Tyler Sagendorph and Lincoln Green helping organize the troop from behind the computer. One of our spring activities was a service project making cards for the elderly with inspirational messages of encouragement to help them get through these very tough times of uncertainty and fear. Thanks to Zachary Shekhter who made a mailbox to place the cards at the garage before they were dropped off.

Troop 58 held a virtual car wash with the Hoffman’s Helping Hands online car wash sale. Parents, grandparents, family and friends graciously supported our event and we were able to raise over $600. COVID-19 put a damper on our scout camping trips in the spring but some scouts were still able to camp out in their backyards by participating in the virtual camp out on the weekend of May 2nd. See a picture of a few of our tents in action!

We have been hard at work keeping up with merit badge attainments. Mr. Harazin led a group of scouts on a twelve- week journey to achieve the Eagle required Personal Fitness badge. Mrs. Shekhter led the younger scouts on the Reading Merit Badge this spring and Dr. Herzog and Mr. Nautel ran the Personal Management Merit Badge for a group of older scouts throughout the summer. Some scouts have been able to attain merit badges by participating in the Twin River Scout On Program. Great job by our entire Troop working toward badge attainment while social distancing. Troop 58 was still able to place the flags on the graves this Memorial Day honoring our fallen soldiers. We followed social distancing procedures and upheld our annual tradition which is always greatly appreciated by the American Legion. The hard work of everyone in the spring transpired to a very successful Court of Honor in June for Troop 58. Congratulations to the scouts who attained merit badges and rank during the ZOOM ceremony on June 10, as well as an even bigger congratulations to Colby Naumovitz for becoming Troop 58 next Senior Patrol Leader (SPL).

The summer months helped us to see each other a little more and gave us the opportunity to come together at the Troop 58 Stay At Home Camp Out. Thank you to Mrs. Nautel and Mrs.Sagendorph for working with our leaders to make sure we had a safe and successful environment for the week. We certainly wished we were at Yawgoog or Rotary Camp this summer but it was still a great time to be together and work on badges. Eric Herzog spent time this summer working on his Eagle Project at Lawson Lake staining the flooring and decking as he finishes the highest attainment of a scout in the very near future.

Our fall was jump started with a September Court of Honor which we held in person while socially distancing at the garage. We had the chance to celebrate the hard work of Troop 58 on the evening of September 9. The number of COVID- 19 infections had remained below the threshold for our area set forth by the Governor’s Task Force so we were able to hold meetings in person for quite a while into the fall months. We held a Camp Out at Rotary, Biking and Camping Weekend Trip along the Mohawk, Road Clean Up, and went on a November Hike and Camp out in the Catskills.

Thank you to the parent leaders, organizers, and scouts who have worked very hard in 2020 during these unprecedent times to forge ahead with badges and rank attainments while having fun in a virtual and nonvirtual world!