Crosswinds District Camporee Summary
April 25-27, 2008

Troop 216 departed on time from Apex Crossing heading for Camp Reeves and the District Camporee.  We arrived without incident and settled into our normal campsite along with 500 other Boy Scouts.  Our Senior Patrol Leader (SPL), Jack K., gave all the patrols assigned areas and everyone got right to setting up camp.  After all the tents were pitched and rain fly's strung, we took inventory of all the patrol materials needed for the next day's activities.  To Mr. Brawn's amazement, most of the patrols had actually remembered to bring all of materials needed for the Junkyard Kitchen event.  At that evening's cracker barrel, final instructions were given to Mr. Brawn and Jack K. Our acting OA representative, Joe L. also volunteered to be the camporee bugler.  Being the camporee bugler made Joe part of the "staff".  Joe was very happy to be "staff".  Joe signaled lights out later that evening by playing taps.  Joe had to play several times during the weekend and did a great job.  Did I mention he was part of the "staff"? 

The next morning we woke up early at 6:30 am and cooked breakfast.  Mr. Coleman cooked a great dutch oven breakfast for the adults and there were a lot of pancakes, sausage and bacon cooked up by the scouts.  After that hardy breakfast we headed off to the flag raising ceremony and then off to the first event of the day, the junkyard kitchen!  Each of our 6 patrols had an hour to pass through several stations where they would build part of their junkyard kitchen.  They used coat hangers to construct dutch oven hangers, tongs and forks.  They used tin cans to construct charcoal briquette holders.  And they stamped labels for their dutch ovens (the moose patrol wants to thank their troop guide, Sam H. for showing them the proper form for hitting your thumb with a hammer).  It turned out an hour wasn't enough time to get everything built so all the patrols spent close to 2 hours working on their junkyard kitchens.  At lunchtime they used their junkyard kitchens to cook steak and donuts, the lunch of champions!  Overall the kitchens worked well and no one went hungry.  The rest of the afternoon was spent on other camporee events.  Our Troop ran the "Pic Flic" event which judged flinging toothpicks for distance and accuracy.  Other notable events included "Quail Hunting" which used slingshots to shoot tennis balls at hanging metal plates ("quails") and "Fire in the Rain", a popular event where patrols had to light a fire and boil water in a can, while in the middle of a set of sprinklers.  Because it was a hot afternoon, our scouts, in particular Jake B., enjoyed being a human shield for our fire against the rain. 

Saturday evening we held the camporee campfire.  Mr. Walsh, camporee organizer, announced the winners of the day's events.  Troop 216 did very well.  The Moose patrol (with a few other Troop 216 scouts) had the 2nd best time in the "Fire in the Rain" event!  We had several scouts place either 2nd or 3rd in the Pic Flic and Quail Hunting events.  After the awards, the OA took over the campfire.  The OA chief led everyone in a rousing rendition of "singing in the rain".  Given the cloud cover we weren't sure that was the wisest choice of songs.  Following our song, several troops presented skits.  Some were funny, some not so much.  Just as Troop 216 was going to present our skit, it started raining, proving we had indeed jinxed ourselves with "singing in the rain".  The OA canceled our skit  as well as the remaining skits so they could start the OA tap-out ceremony before it really started raining.  The OA tap-out ceremony was, as usual, a very solemn and moving event.  OA candidates from each troop are elected before the camporee.  OA candidates are scouts who represent all the ideals of scouting and are recognized as exceptional scouts by their peers.  At the ceremony, these OA candidates are "tapped out" and taken from their troop and marched off by the OA.  It is an honor to be tapped out and selected for the OA and the tap-out ceremony is exciting to watch.  Troop 216's very own Rick Myers aka "Ranger Rick" was tapped out and selected for the OA.  Congratulations Ranger Rick!  As part of the initiation into the OA, the candidates maintain a vow of silence for the rest of the evening.  The other adult leaders really enjoyed Ranger Rick's vow of silence!  The rest of the evening was uneventful with everyone retiring to their tents by 10:30 pm. 

Sunday morning we had our usual quick, no cook breakfast and then started breaking down camp.  The scouts did a good job of getting packed up and were able to spend 20 minutes policing the campsite for trash.  Then it was good-bye to the camporee and an early arrival back home.  Thanks again to all the adult leaders who helped make this a successful trip and of course, thanks to the scouts who always make it fun!