The Dan Beard District held its 2nd annual Klondike Derby at Goose Pond scout Reservation on Saturday, February 11, 2012. Our troop's three teams (Blue Paper Patrol, Krispy Kreme Crew, and Thundercats Patrol) competed in a group of 40 patrols from other troops in fire building, scout history, first aid, knot tying, nature, orienteering, and other scout skills at various stations around the camp. This year, the Derby was run according to the following rules. Each patrol received a number of "gold nuggets" (gold-painted kidney beans) according to their score at a station. While a patrol was traveling from one station to another, they faced the possibility of being approached by one of several wandering claim jumpers who would ask them a scout trivia question. If they answered incorrectly, the patrol would lose some of their gold, UNLESS they had taken the extra time to head over to the Klondike Bank and deposit their nuggets. Much fun was had by all with this new format.

Steve, Dominick, Ian, Bruce, Rico, Joey, Karl, Joseph, Tyler, Matt, Andrew, Matt, Jeff, Matt, Adam, Tim, Gino, Sam, Hunter, Patrick, and Tom were participating scouts. Adam, who was recovering from surgery, helped out at the fire-building station where senior teams had build a leave-no-trace fire to boil an egg and junior teams had to build a leave-no-trace fire to cook a pancake. Griff Lewis, Len Kalinowski, Bob Buchinski, Joe Faltynowicz, Rick Galassi, Frank Klassner, John Maza, Kathy Lewis, Dave Minner, Joe Piela, Julian Maza, and Drew Yurkanin were participating troop leaders, many of whom worked at the fire-building station. We all celebrated with the news that the Krispy Kreme Crew came in second overall in the senior division and won a 'fastest sled' award for their time in the timed slalom race.