Help Needed

Dear Scouting Parents and Guardians,

Thank you for bringing your Scouts to Troop 309 to continue their Scouting experience.  In the past five years, our Troop has averaged about 15-16 active Scouts.  With this number of youth, our small 28 year old, 5x8 cargo trailer has worked hard to get our boys and our camping equipment back and forth to many camping adventures and summer camps.  With the good fortune of now having over 36 Scouts, we no longer have enough room for 21, tents, 5 large folding tables, 2 small equipment tables, 5 Scout Patrol boxes, 1 Leader's Patrol boxes, a 20x12 dinning canopy, first aid box, metal 2 burner camp stove, fire buckets and extinguishers, rope box, tarp box, spare tire, patrol, troop, and american flags, 6 ice chests, 7- 5 gallon water coolers, 7-5 gallon water supply containers, field wash equipment, pine tree spars, gateway signs, and many, many other necessary items.  We desperately need to get a larger cargo trailer.  

Ideally, we need at least a 7x10 or 8x12 cargo trailer.  We currently are having to take two additional vehicles to carry the Scouts' personal gear such as backpacks, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, pillows, camp chairs, 5 ice chests with Patrol provisions, 5 water coolers, and any additional gear they need to bring along.  We cannot continue to have to worry on how all our gear will get transported to our events.  The leaders of this Troop welcome you to come and see for yourself, just how impossible it is to take all the items we need.  Call any one of us, and we will be happy to show you firsthand our trailer.

The cost of a new larger trailer is a minimum of $2500 dollars that we neither have or that we want to spend.  If anyone knows anyone , be it a private individual, or another Scout unit that has a larger trailer and is not using it to its fullest, please let one of our leaders know.  We are also willing to give them our trailer, and if need be a payment in exchange for their trailer.  This is a high priority situation.  Not having the space is a shame since we have the gear for all our Scouts to enjoy camping at it's fullest.  If you could only see what we need to carry, you would surely understand.

Please ask your friends, co-workers, or other Scouting Units. Certainly there is some unit out there that is not fully using the trailer they have, and we could certainly use it.  We want to be able to provide a great experience for ALL our Scouts, and having no way to carry all we need means we have to compromise on what we take.  So our call goes out to everyone.

Thank you for your consideration, and please contact the leaders with any thoughts you may have.  We do not have the money, aand would hate to have to ask for donations to raise funds.  There is a cargo trailer out there somewhere for us, we just need to find it.

Thank you from your leaders and more importantly YOUR SCOUTS.