News

Troop 73 will start the new scouting year with virtual Troop Meetings. The Committee’s goal is to begin in-person meetings as soon as they can be done safely.  See the calendar page for details. New scouts are welcome to attend a meeting to find out more about the troop. Those interested can visit the New Member page.

By Cyril M., Troop 73

Troop 73 Westfield completed its third week of virtual camp Saturday, July 11, 2020.

In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, many long standing activities have been cancelled, postponed, or significantly altered. One such event is Camp Winnebago.

Camp Winnebago, in Rockaway, NJ, had planned its own safety precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. Unfortunately due to these measures, merit badges would not have been offered at the camp. Because of this, Troop 73 came to run its own merit badge and rank advancement camp virtually via Zoom.

Through the combined effort of a group of adult leaders as well as outgoing Senior Patrol Leader Andrew C. and newly elected Senior Patrol Leader Christian E., the camp was put together and run.

A group of adults and a handful of scouts help teach the classes. Andrew and Christian worked together to admit participants into Zoom meetings and assign them to breakout rooms in which their classes were taught.

There were two major sections of classes: merit badges and Dan Beard. The following merit badges were offered: American Labor, Citizenship in the Nation, Communication, Cooking, Cycling, Emergency Preparedness, Energy, Environmental Science, Genealogy, Journalism, Scholarship, Signs Signals and Codes, and Space Exploration were taught by Merit Badge Counselors, mostly from Troop 73.

Counselors were: Jim Agar, Mitch Erickson, Christian Estevez Sr., Glenn Fannick, Steve McCabe, Christine O’Brien and Dr. Josesh Scalia.

In order to maintain “Two Deep” leadership a second adult leader sat in on all meetings. The second portion of the camp, Dan Beard, is a lesser known part of Boy Scout camps to those not very familiar with Boy Scouts.

It is a program that teaches newer and generally younger scouts a pantheon of skills that help the scouts gain the early ranks of Boy Scouts (Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class). Christian lead a group of other senior scouts in preparing and teaching the classes for younger scouts.

Lastly Troop activities and games have been held every other day at 4 p.m. These games have been used to keep a sense of Troop unity and fellowship during these troubling times. 

Members of Scouts BSA Troop 73 of Westfield N.J. do their part every May to help the community remember the area’s veterans who are buried in historic Fairfield Cemetery. Troop 73 is one of several local organizations whose members volunteer their time to place flags on the graves just before Memorial Day.

Troop 73’s scouts have this in their calendar every year as a special group outing. When COVID-19 distancing rules changed that, the troop was undeterred; a volunteer list was drawn up and time slots assigned for scouts and their families to each place a small number of flags. The experience was different this year, but just as powerful.

In the years after World War II the tradition of placing flags on the graves at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. became known as “Flags-In”. According to Arlington, every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment participates, placing flags in front of more than 228,000 headstones and at the bottom of about 7,000 niche rows.