As scouts we practice Leave No Trace in the outdoors, but when we are in the community we sometimes tend to do the same thing. I'm not talking about garbage on the ground, I'm talking about leaving our footprint. With Leave No Trace we talk about leaving the outdoors better than we found it, well the same holds true for our community. As scouts we have a responsibility, no a duty to leave our community better than we found it.

    As we enjoy the holiday season with our families and friends, we look towards 2014. For the crew January brings a new life skill to work on, as well as continuing to reinforce others that we have covered in the past. We will be making another trip to the Laundromat to work on our laundry skills again, as well as choosing our next community service project. We will also be working on presentation skills as the crew decides between Dallas & Seattle for their Life Skill Adventure Trip. The NEW topic we will be covering is "Choices"! How do you tell good choices from bad choices from one another? It is difficult enough for those without special needs, and now you throw things into the mix like impulsiveness, the need to feel accepted or loved, anxiety, social challenges, and emotional challenges to name a few. What we are going to practice is STOP, THINK, & LISTEN. Before you jump into something STOP for a moment, then THINK about the ramifications of your choice, and then LISTEN to what you know is right & not what you want to do at the moment. To help with this we are going to have the crew carry around in their pocket a little token to remind them when they are faced with CHOICES. It may be a polished stone or a special coin, or something that particular crew member will find comforting & remind them. It's a lot for them to get ahold of, but they are more than capable of accomplishing this. It is just the first step in learning the life skill of "CHOICES".

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR