On April 6, those passing by Bethel Community Baptist Church on Hwy. 54 saw a group of men and boys together picking up trash.
“We are Troop KS-7777 of Trail Life USA, a ministry of Bethel Community Baptist Church, and are partnered with the national organization,” Troopmaster Josh Gier said. “Trail Life USA is celebrating its tenth year with over 1,100 troops and 50,000 Trailmen nationwide. “
“Trail Life is an easy-to-manage, Christ-centered, boy-focused outdoor adventure program empowering the church to grow boys to become men of character and conviction,” according to the Trail Life website.
There are 19 boys enrolled in Troop 7777, and nine mentors, “mostly dads, grandpas and uncles,” Gier said.
“Our troop is not limited to church members,” he said. “We are open to all.”
“All boys from kindergarten through high school are welcome to join at any time,” Gier said. “Our enrollment focus will be in August at the beginning of our program year.”
They meet every other Monday of the month.
“If anybody would like more information about Trail Life Troop KS-7777, they may contact me through the Find a Troop link on traillifeusa.com,” he said.
Gier said a total of 101 blue bags of trash were left to be picked up by the Kansas Department of Transportation, which they had made arrangements with.
After that project, the group had a Trebuchet competition.
Trebuchets are used as teaching tools in high schools and colleges to learn about load, force, fulcrums, velocity, gravity, and parabolic arcs. They are also used as recruiting tools to lure students into engineering programs. Designing a trebuchet is an assessment of mechanical design and engineering skills. Testing a trebuchet is not only a learning tool, it is also fun, according to https://www.aaas.org/trebuchets-and-their-modern-use
In Troop 7777, six father/son(s) teams were challenged to build their trebuchet to see who could launch a projectile, a golf ball, the farthest.
The winner of the competition was father Russell Moore, with sons Luke and Ben. They launched a golf ball 152.6 inches.
