Monthly Archives: January 2021
Eagle Scout Rescues Trapped SUV Crash Victim
On January 7, two Paramus police officers rescued a trapped driver whose SUV crashed on Route 17.
One of the police officers was Nicholas Perna, Eagle Scout Class of 2007, Troop 186, Raritan Valley District.
The driver’s vehicle ended up on overpass stairs and caught fire. Perna, pictured left and below, and his fellow officer climbed through the back hatch and rescued the driver.
Perna began in Scouting as a Tiger in Pack 186 and continued on to Troop 186, where he became an Eagle Scout and earned several palms. For his Eagle project, Perna designed and installed a period-correct pathway at the Old Dutch Parsonage State Park in Somerville, New Jersey, as well as a stairway.
Perna joined the Ridgefield Park Police Department in 2014 and moved to the Paramus Police Department in 2018.
Nicholas Perna, Eagle Scout Class of 2007, Troop 186, Raritan Valley District, rescued a trapped driver after a crash earlier this month. Perna is a police officer in Paramus.
Order Online for Scout Shop Pick-Up
Are you ready to get your unit’s advancement order? Let us help!
Please use this link below to fill out an online order form.
When you submit, it will come directly to us, we’ll get your order together and let you know when it’s ready.
We can either take payment over the phone and ship to you, or have it ready when you come in.
Internet advancement reports and other documents can be uploaded through this system to place an order with the Scout Shop.
No more waiting in shop while we pull everything!
For more information, click here.
Be sure to select the Cedar Knolls Scout Shop or the Mountainside Scout Shop.
Proposed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Merit Badge Delayed
The introduction of the proposed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion merit badge is being delayed to allow for the careful consideration and evaluation of feedback received from a wide variety of commenters on the draft requirements.
Until further notice, all Scouts working on the Eagle Scout rank should continue to use current rank requirements.
Once the Eagle-required Diversity, Equity and Inclusion merit badge is introduced, Scouts in the process of earning the rank of Eagle Scout will be given adequate time to earn it.
Click here for more information.
Limited Extensions Available to Earn Eagle Rank
Effective January 1, 2021, local councils will have the authority to grant limited extensions of time to complete Eagle, Quartermaster or Summit requirements. These extensions are available only to youth members who qualify under the three tests listed on BSA Form No. 512-077, available by clicking here.
Council advancement committees are advised that after Dec. 31, 2020, there is no plan to authorize COVID-19 extensions as has been allowed during 2020. It is possible, however, that as of January 1, 2021, COVID-19 could become a circumstance that warrants an extension if it qualifies under the three tests listed in BSA Form No. 512-077. Note that existing COVID-19 extensions granted between October 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020, will expire three months after they were granted.
Procedure for Submitting Requests for Extension of Time to Earn Rank of Eagle
- The completed form “Request for Extension of Time to Earn the Eagle Scout Rank” (BSA Form No. 512-077) must be submitted to the council service center in Cedar Knolls in person, electronically, or by mail to the attention of the staff advisor for advancement. All documents listed on No. Form 512-077 under Documentation to Attach must be included with the form. All such documents must have date, printed name, contact info and signature.
- If submitted in person a receipt is given to the person delivering the request by a staff member at the front desk or in the Scout Shop.
- If submitted through the mail, the sender should mail to the attention of the Staff Advisor for Advancement at Patriots’ Path Council, 1 Saddle Road, Cedar Knolls, N.J. 07927, with a request for a return receipt from the post office.
- If submitted by email, the sender should request a read receipt on the email.
- If submitted by fax, the sender must be sure to print out a report confirming receipt.
EPA and BSA Create New Award for Youth
The Environmental Protection Agency, as part of a public awareness campaign to celebrate its first 50 years, has partnered with the Boy Scouts of America to create an award for members of troops, crews and ships.
This new award will recognize youth who research and learn about the subjects of human health and the environment, as the EPA develops its vision for the next 50 years.
The objective of the EPA award is to combine a variety of disciplines to challenge and educate youth; introduce them to the breadth of the EPA’s involvement in environmental protection and conservation; and encourage them to research, investigate, experiment, demonstrate, survey, and study air pollution, water pollution, solid and hazardous waste, and ocean dumping.
Members must earn the Public Health merit badge and three additional merit badges from selected categories. Finally, they must participate in an environmental/public health community service project as part of an approved Scouting program.
Download the application here.
Completed applications are submitted to the Scout shops in Cedar Knolls or Mountainside to receive the commemorative patch.
Showcase Your Community Service Projects
The PPC Community Service Committee would love to hear about your unit’s service projects so it can share and inspire.
Please send any pictures and a brief description to: Linda Cummings, Community Service Committee chairperson, at [email protected]
Scouting U Modules Implement New Software
Scouting U is always looking for the latest in technology and tools to make learning the best it can be for its audience.
Recently, the modules implemented a new and improved computer-generated audio software that is much more natural sounding than what was used previously.
Check out the new modules at https://my.scouting.org and earn training for your position at the same time!
PPC Collects More Than 2,000 Toys for Toys for Tots
Thank you to everyone in Patriots’ Path Council who donated to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.
“Even though we were limited to only collecting at the Scout Shops this year, we collected the most toys ever,” said Linda Cummings, PPC community service chairperson. “In 2018 we collected 1,178 toys and in 2019 we collected 371 toys. This year, a year where the need was so much greater, we collected 2,003 toys.”
Special thanks to the Flintlocks, Chatham Cub Scout Pack 24, Hopatcong Cub Scout Pack 88, Edison Troop 110, East Hanover Pack 20, Fords Fire Company No. 1 Cub Scout Packs 53 and 26, and Girl Scout Troop 80001, which also meets at Fords Fire Company No. 1. These units conducted drives and then donated to the council.
Pack 88 set up a donation site at the Hopatcong Marketplace and its charter organization for weeks.
Packs 53 and 26, and Girl Scout Troop 80001, did a reverse Santa at the firehouse where all the Scouts helped to fill Santa’s sleigh. Some of the Cub Scouts from the packs are pictured above with Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves.
It took eight trips of various-sized sleighs to get the toys to the U.S. Marine Corps. The group was so grateful to Patriots’ Path Council for always supporting it and was in awe of the amount the council donated.
“On behalf of the Community Service Committee, thank you for your generosity and making a difference in our community,” said Cummings.
Cub Scout Pack 88 in Hopatcong set up a donation site at the Hopatcong Marketplace to collect toys for this year’s Toys for Tots campaign.
Members of Hopatcong Cub Scout Pack 88 stand with some of the toys collected.
Fords Fire Company No. 1 was a collection site for this year’s Toys for Tots campaign.
The Flintlocks collected toys for this year’s Toys for Tots campaign.
More than 2,000 toys for Toys for Tots packed the lobby of the Patriots’ Path Council service center in Cedar Knolls.
Be Sure to Designate a Primary Unit for Registration
A Reminder from Council Registrar Mike Wellech:
As a reminder to everyone, you can register in as many traditional units as you’d like, but you only pay once, annually.
As the volunteer participating in multiple units, it is your responsibility to communicate with each of your units your decision on which will be your primary unit, and which will be your multiple unit(s).
Your primary unit is where you will have your paid position, whereas your multiple units are where you will be free.
Although this is your choice, the units need to know this information so they can register or renew you properly on the recharter.
If we receive two charters that both have you marked as a primary, we tend to look at your current registration and follow that pattern.
If we receive one charter that has you marked as a multiple, but your primary unit hasn’t submitted its yet, we wait for the second charter to arrive and process them together so we can confirm you are paid in that second unit.
Charter Fee Reminder:
We’re still getting units overpaying their charter by $75, which is a sign many units are paying what they see online and not using the calculator provided on our website.
For those of you who have not submitted your charter yet for the 2021 renewal, please keep in mind the council pays the $75 annual charter fee for our traditional units (traditional units do not include Explorer posts). Paying what you see online will make you overpay. Use the fee calculator we provided on our website at https://ppcbsa.org/2021-recharter/ to calculate the correct fees.
For those units who do overpay, the overage will be refunded to your Scout Shop accounts.
The only exception to council paying the $75 charter fee is when the unit has less than five (5) paying members. When this occurs, we must adjust the charter payment by taking out the $18 per person activity fee (reducing the youth registration from $96 to $78 and the adult registration from $72 to $54) and include the $75 annual charter fee. This affects a small handful of units each year, and they’re usually crews or ships because most of their members are multiples in from a troop.
