Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Braden Morse and Connor Williams treat the broken bone of Tobias Sommerville during Troop 207’s outdoors meeting Tuesday.

HANCOCK — When COVID-19 hit, many traditional Boy Scouting activities had to fall by the wayside. However, Troop 207 found ways to adapt.

The troop, which meets at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Hancock, first moved to meeting over Zoom. This summer, they’ve been able to meet in person, modifying their activities to reduce the risk of COVID.

The scouts set up the meetings and decided on topics, said Scoutmaster Dale Damsteegt. Some of them involved playing video games online together as a troop, such as Among Us or Cahoots. Several local professors also spoke at the meetings to tell Scouts about their work.

One meeting saw Scouts make an in-person visit to the cloud chamber at Michigan Technological University to learn about meteorology. Many of the Scouts were able to earn their weather merit badge.

“Everybody spent six hours doing” — Damsteegt mimed zoning out – “in front of the screen for school. We really mixed it up and tried not to do that. We tried to keep cameras on, and the kids involved and active.”

Once the weather warmed up, the troop began meeting in person, but outside. The weekly troop meetings are held in the parking lot of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church.

Tuesday, scouts rotated between stations practicing first aid scenarios, such as treating someone with a broken bone.

They’ve also held “pseudo summer camps” — extended weekends at Fort Wilkins State Park and Van Riper State Park, where 16 scouts earned more than 100 merit badges.

“I think we’ve had four or five Scouts advance in rank,” he said. “So it was a big, big effort to try to get some normalcy back in Scouting … with COVID, having kids from different areas, we wanted to try to minimize that.”

Day trips have included a night of canoeing in Dollar Bay. There’s also been day hikes and bike trips. The troop has also gotten out to do roadside cleaning at several locations.

“Learning about first aid, starting fires and Totin’ Chips and axe safety is one thing, but it’s nice to get out and do some activities,” Damsteegt said.

Eagle Scout Zac Sommerville said while meeting in person was better, the alternatives weren’t that bad once they found ways to adapt. Of the Zoom meetings, his favorite was a talk from his physics teacher, Tony Schwaller.

The tradeoffs of the shortened summer camps balanced out, he thought.

“Merit badge-wise, we got a lot more merit badges done, which was good,” he said. “It wasn’t as fun activities-wise, but on a 1 to 10 scale, I’d rank them about the same.”

Josh Damsteegt, a Life Scout, has enjoyed working on Eagle projects this summer, such as making flower beds near Finlandia University, and his own at the Gardeners Creek Nature Trail in Calumet Township, including reroofing shelters and repainting benches.

“I think we adapted fairly well, although at a point, it was like, ‘We need to get back in person,'” he said. “There’s only so much we can do over Zoom, since a lot of Scouting is structured around doing the thing, not just talking about the thing.”

If COVID rates are low enough once the snow comes, the troop will return to meeting inside the church, Dale Damsteegt said.

“It’s nice to get outside while there’s still good weather,” he said. “It’s just safer for everyone.”

Those interested in joining the troop can email scoutmaster@troop-207.org to find out more.