Welcome to the home page of Troop 173 of the Greater Niagara
Frontier Council in Western New York. We are chartered by
the Willow Ridge Civic Association in Amherst, NY, and meet
at Willow Ridge Elementary School every Monday.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO
DO?
Sign Our Guestbook
View Our Guestbook
The 2002 Onondaga District Klondike was hosted by Troop 173! It ran from January 25 to January 27, 2002, at Schoellkopf Scout Reservation, with the theme of the Iditarod sled race held in Alaska; we called it the IditaKlondike. We won more awards than any other troop at the 2001 Klondike, and that hard work was magnified through the smooth running of the 2002 Klondike. We have had many compliments from Scoutmasters and camp staff, and we have really raised the bar as far as hosting a good Klondike. Click here to view the Klondike guide sent to all troops in .DOC format (Microsoft Word and Wordpad). The patch for the 2002 Klondike is shown above!
Some good deeds of Troop 173:
- We started a fundraiser in the fall of 1998 that
works extremely well: Troop 173 sold and delivered
firewood to many people in our community. This fundraiser
worked so well that we already had orders for the fall of
1999, which turned out to be even more of a success. Each year thereafter has looked better and better.
- Many members of our troop have built picnic
tables and donated them to various places in our community,
like Willow Ridge Elementary School, and Miller Park (a
park used for camping by many different groups).
- At 1998's summer camp, two scouts and a leader from our
troop struggled through flood waters to save all of our
troop's gear. It rained the entire week, so the waters of
Cayuga Creek, running right through sunny camp Schoellkopf,
began to rise. Eventually the water rose over the bank and
flooded our campsite, and parts of another campsite, the
scout skills area, the shooting range, and ecology center.
Nobody was hurt, but the scout skills area lost a lot of
equipment. At the peak of the flood, our campsite was
under 10-13 feet of water. The three members of our troop who saved our gear each received Certificates of Merit from our Council. YIKES!!!
Some accomplishments of Troop 173:
- Troop 173 was asked to host the Onondaga District Klondike Campout for 2002 (see above for more information), and we won more awards than any other troop in the 2001 Klondike. I guess hosting the Klondike was the only way to let other troops taste some glory...
- Troop 173 won an award for cooking
pancakes at our district's fall camporee in 1998.
- Summer
camp 2000 gave us a clean campsite award. We have won that award in the past five out of six summer camps now.
- A root beer float was
renamed "The Creekside Float" in 1998, and its cost was $1.73 at
the summer camp trading post in remembrance of the flood
and the troop that was staying there (us). The campsite still hasn't been reopened, and is instead being used for the Young Braves Program for first-year scouts.
- Troop 173's Scoutmasters have some accomplishments of their own too: Starting in 1996, a scoutmaster from Troop 173 has won the Summer Camp Rifle Shooting award (out of all scoutmasters in the camp) for 5 out of 6 years now. Pat Land won in 1996, 1997, and 1998, Tim Grieve won in 1999, and George Abraham won in 2001 (though he would have also won in 2000 had the sights on his .22 been properly aligned...).
High Adventure:
- From December 27, 1998 to January 6, 1999, the 19th World Jamboree
was held in Chile, in South America. George Abraham from Troop 173 participated in this event, the first person in our
troop's history to do so. There were scouts and scouters from over
130 different nations, totaling over 40,000. The United
States sent 1,400 scouts and scouters to Picarquin, the
hacienda where the jamboree was held, 38 miles south of
Santiago.
- During the summer of 1998, three members of our troop,
plus our
Scoutmaster, hiked the mountains of Philmont as part of a
GNFC contingent that contained 14 crews! They had an
excellent time and even brought back their contingent patch
to show everyone:
Click Here to see the Philmont Contingent Shoulder Patch and other patches!
- Three members from Troop 173 are joining the GNFC contingent to Philmont in the summer of 2002. Good luck guys!
If you have any questions, comments, etc.,
please sign our guestbook, or email us.
gnfc173@oocities.com