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BSA TROOP 37 NEWSLETTER
Volume 11 | Issue 6 | July 2025 - October 2025
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STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK
SCOUTMASTER’S MINUTE
By Scoutmaster Rob Pfuhler
The scouting year is back in full swing, and Troop 37 is continuing on its American History Tour. This began in March when we hiked the Benjamin Franklin Trail (and ate cheesesteaks) in Philadelphia. During this adventure, our scouts saw many of the landmarks from the Revolution, including Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Earlier this month, we hiked about 15 miles over the battlefield at Gettysburg and visited the museum located there to learn many details about one of the most important battles in American history. Our tour will continue in March 2026, when we visit Valley Forge for the annual encampment and stay where the Continental Army spent a frigid winter in 1777, Hopefully we have a little better weather.
I personally believe that we should know as much about our county’s history as possible, and hopefully these trips are educational as well as enjoyable for our scouts. It is also unlikely that many will get to experience these type of trips outside of scouts, which is another reason to tell your friends about the great things Troop 37does.
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I personally believe that we should know as much about our county’s history as possible...
BSA Troop 37 | Volume 11 | Issue 6 | Jul 2025- Oct 2025
HAWK MOUNTAIN 2025
By Antoni Jablonski
This summer’s Hawk Mountain was a very unique week with a lot of fun, camp fires and laughs.
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We did a lot of fun stuff going from polar bear to merit badges The beginning of the week was a very trying and not so fun because on the first day there was a thunder storm and a lot of people could not sleep.
On the morning of the second day a lot of new kids were surprised that we woke up at 6:00 and jumped in a freezing cold pool at 6:30. The middle of the week was kind of chilly and finally the zipline opened. There were a lot of merit badges getíng ready to be on their way to merit badge sashes and a lot more slushies in tummies.
In the end of Hawk Mountain Almost nobody got partial merit badges and all the Pathfinders passed Pathfinders.
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We also might have bought out all the bandanas from the trading post. We unfortunately did not win the scoutmaster belly flop or the SPL Cannonball but...
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In the end we had a lot of fun and because of Hawk Mountain we learned a lot of new things.
BSA Troop 37 | Volume 11 | Issue 6 | Jul 2025- Oct 2025
JUNIOR LEADER TRAINING (JLT)
By Michael Larino
This year I got to go on my first Junior Leader Training (JLT) trip and it was a good sign of where Troop 37 is going. We went to camp pouch, and stayed in a cabin, so when we arrived on Friday night it was easy to set up all our stuff inside the cabin and get some rest. The next day we had breakfast and Mr. Pfuhler showed us the leadership positions each scout on the trip would receive, or have a chance at receiving, he then talked about what each position did, and its importance. This presentation let the scouts discuss things they wanted to go forward with, or change. It was my job to write down all of these ideas for the scouts to see. In between the presentation, we would play games as a way of building trust and teamwork for the upcoming scout year. After the presentation was finished & we ate lunch, we had free roam of pouch. I went to go play football with most of the other scouts, which took up most of my time. Before dinner I was selected to be a patrol leader for the troop, and would end up selecting the Rattlesnakes patrol, since it was the first patrol I joined, this also where I drafted my patrol for this scout year. After dinner, Mr. Pfuhler put on the movie We Are Marshall — a movie about a college football team rising from the ashes after a tragic incident that devastates the whole town, it showed that winning isn’t everything and it’s the friends and communities that are made is what matters. The next day we packed up and went home pretty quickly, since we were still on the island.
BSA Troop 37 | Volume 11 | Issue 6 | Jul 2025- Oct 2025
Gettysbutg 2025
By Jan Kolesnyk
When we sat in the cars on Friday and drove off, I was so bored and excited that I started imaging stuff like what I would do or like what we would see. But while I was thinking we stopped at a rest area to buy a real quick snack and use the restroom. And I forgot to mention that the people that I was sitting next to in the car were Ian and Bradly, which became my good friends after. But in those 4 hours I got to know a bit of my good friends and got a good nap. But once we got to the place, I really was just tired, so I just went to bed.
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“Voices” were everywhere when I woke up and then I noticed that it was Saturday morning. Then started packing up and drove off to Gettysburg. We first started with the museum then the movie. When we finished looking, we started hiking the 10-mile hike around Gettysburg. We got to see the advantages that the Union had against Confederates and how much the Union had to walk. But I would say that the Confederates had to walk more than the Union troop. The views were nice and the farms that the Confederates had to walk through were beautiful.
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The 5-mile hike was not as bad; we got to act like the Confederates and the Union. Aim with an imaginary gun. But I also made another friend, his name is Liam and while we were talking. They called everyone into a group and talk about our feelings about the trip and I said that “I liked the views and the friends that I made along this journey and there we drove of home.
