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Troop
216 Summer Camp 2007
June
23 - 30, 2007
--
The Summary --
Allow me to start
the way I plan to finish.
Brian
D. and I say this was the best summer
camp we have ever attended…
SUNDAY
We met at Apex Crossing as
planned at 8:30 AM and departed for Camp
Raven Knob at 9 AM.
The drive went faster than normal
and most of the cars had stopped in Mount
Airy
for lunch at about 11:30 AM.
Everyone arrived in camp by 12:30
PM as planned and as I promised I was
the first Scoutmaster through the door
to register the Troop into camp.
The camp director was nervous
about all the cars that were there early
so we sent our Troop down to the Health
Lodge to wait for me to get us
checked-in and start the medical
check-in. Justine
Fausak, our Medical and Training Chair
took our medical forms in, along with
the Scouts’ medication and started the
medical check-in. She
came
out several times with questions and
looking a Scout’s medication.
Then, the miracle happened. Justine came
out and said we were checked-in and
cleared to go to our camp site.
Normally, all the Scouts have to
go through a meeting with the camp
medical staff – a process that can take
up to 3 hours. This
time we didn’t have to do that.
We were on the way to our camp
site by 1:45 PM – just 45 minutes after
we started the process.
Yea!
When we arrived at our camp
sites, Ponka and Lakota, the Senior
Patrol Leader (SPL) Brain D. and the
acting Assistant Senior Patrol Leader
(ASPL) Chris H. started assigning the
Scouts to their tents that would be home
for the week. Cars
were unloaded and Scouts moved their
“stuff” into the tents.
No unpacking yet though, because
we had to change into swim suits and get
down to the lake for the swim test. This is
required for all Scouts and leaders who
will swim or boat during the week. The
Leaders David Timmerman and Tom Blum had
the duty to take the Scouts down to the
lake. Unfortunately,
the thunder and lightning kicked up and
swim tests were canceled before our
Scouts could get through the test. Tests were
completed on Monday.
The new Scouts kept asking
questions about when we would start
cooking dinner and “what’s for dinner.” They
were surprised to hear we were eating in
the “Mess Hall.” It
was to be a new experience for them. It was still
raining lightly when we set off on the
hike to dinner. We
walked down the ridge road and then down
a steep path past the archery and rifle
ranges, then up a slight hill past the
Program Center and on up a steep hill to
the top where the Mess Hall was located. It’s about a
half mile hike, but the equivalent of
climbing a 10 story building going and
coming. Good
exercise! My
legs felt like mush.
The rain continued,
so the Sunday night Camp Raven Knob
campfire was moved from the outdoor OA
(Order of the Arrow) Arena to the indoor
Mess Hall. It
was not a very interesting “campfire” –
most of the Scouts were a little bored
with the skits and stories.
But, it was something to do for
our first evening.
Back in camp after the campfire
the Scouts played games – chess, Magic
(card game), Texas Hold’em (poker). Some
Scouts were reading books and some even
left camp to go down to the Trading
Post. The
Trading Post is the social center of the
camp. It’s
where we can buy soft drinks, coffee,
popcorn, candy, and much more.
There is also a general store
where we can buy camp shirts, supplies,
merit badge books, camp pins, and all
manner of equipment.
There are tables and chairs to
sit and talk and a large outdoor porch
with seats for those who like to sit
outside.
The SPL and ASPL
did the evening role call/headcount,
everyone was present and accounted for
and we were all down for bed by 10:30
PM.
MONDAY
Wake-up was 6:30 AM and the
Scouts were slow to move on their first
full day of camp programs.
First our hike to the Mess Hall
and formation for the raising of the
flags, a short grace and then inside for
breakfast of eggs, grits, biscuit,
bacon, cold cereals, milk, and orange
juice (and yes – lots of hot coffee for
the adult leaders).
After breakfast I was off to
the daily Scoutmaster’s meeting and the
SPL was off to the daily SPL meeting. These are both
meetings where program changes,
activities, competitions, and other
information is exchanged.
We were kept well informed.
After returning to camp each
day after breakfast we have an hour of
camp clean-up time.
We had a duty roster for the
Scouts that changed each day.
Clean the latrine, bag the trash
and take it down to the road for
pick-up, police the camp, sweep the
shelter, make the “bug juice” (5 gallon
cooler of Gatorade we kept in camp for
thirsty campers), etc.
9:50 AM it was time for the
Scouts to head off to the first class of
the day. The
Troop Guides escorted the Raven Scouts
to their area.
After all the hoops
the camp put us through on the
distribution of medication and baggies
with notes and single doses.
They failed to deliver the
medication to the Mess Hass as promised. Medication has
long been the responsibility of leader
David Timmerman, so David had to take
several hikes up and down the hill to
sort things out with the Health Lodge
personnel. In
the end it was back to the 2006 plan and
David had to march a gang of Troop 216
Scouts to the Health Lodge after
breakfast and dinner each day.
Thanks for taking care of our
Scouts David.
The Scouts all met up again at
noon at the Mess Hall for lunch.
The Scouts all seemed to like the
meal of chicken nachos.
Every lunch there were also
“crustables.” That’s
a cellophane wrapped peanut butter and
jelly sandwich on bread with no crust.
After lunch the Scouts came
back to camp for an hour of relaxation
or headed for the Trading Post or other
activity around camp.
There is a Frisbee golf course in
camp and I brought frisbees, soccer
balls and other sports games for the
Scouts to play in their free time. Shortly
after lunch it started to rain again. Most of the
Scouts put on their rain gear (you know
there are always one or two who just
don’t get with the program).
After dinner the Scouts were
free to do what ever activities they
wanted to do. The
camp staff had several activities open
to the Scouts each evening.
There was canoeing, row boating,
sailing, swimming, rifle shooting,
shotgun shooting, crafts and more. The camp was
having trouble with getting the archery
Scouts to qualify with their shooting. So, they were
invited to continue qualification and
practice in the evening.
I volunteered to help teach on
Monday night and all the Scouts who came
out passed their qualification.
Our Scouts were allowed to be
out of our camp site until 9:45 PM and
they had to be back in camp by 10 PM. We had our
first little “hick-up” with three Scouts
who were not accounted for at the 10 PM
roll call and headcount.
That meant that two teams of two
leaders had to go out looking for the
Scouts. John
Hibbard led one team and Rick Myers the
other. We
know the trails and where the Scouts
tend to hang-out so we were searching
those places. The
leaders all carry two-way radios at all
times in camp so we can communicate and
deal with any emergency or logistical
issue. The
searching leaders had looked in the
Trading Post but did not see the Scouts. The Scouts
wondered back into camp about 10:30 PM
with a, “We didn’t know we needed to be
back in camp at 10 PM.”
I called the search teams on the
radio and had them come back to camp. We all sat
down and talked (the leaders and the
offending Scouts).
It turns out that they were in
the Trading Post “in the back.”
The Trading Post was closed but
the staff let our Scouts stay in and
talk and finish their drinks (something
they should not have done).
Well, a little excitement is good
every now and then.
We
finally all got down to bed about 11 PM. Yes it was
still raining lightly.
TUESDAY
The sun is out – yea!
It
was a nice day and what turned out to be
the norm for the week.
It was to be low to mid 80’s
during the day and a nice cool 70’s for
the evening. It
was great sleeping weather all week. Just cool
enough that you needed to pull the
sleeping bag over you, but not have to
zip it up.
Today two groups of a few
Scouts climbed the “Knob” to see the
beautiful view of the great mountainous
country side. One
group was made up of older Scouts,
better known as the sports crazies who
ran up and down the mountain for a top
to bottom time of 20 minutes.
Very good, but not near the camp
record of 11 minutes – 7 minutes up and
4 minutes down. More
on this later in this summary…
Each day, late morning, the camp
Commissioner
came by the camp site to do inspection. We were graded
on camp site cleanliness, fire safety,
first aid kit in camp, American flag
displayed, trash taken out, recycling,
two adult leaders in camp, and the list
goes on. Today
was our second day with an inspection
grade of 100%. Yea! Troop 216
Scouts are the greatest!
Vishal O. was the first Scout
back to camp after morning classes and
he found 5 adult leaders sitting and
talking, reading the newspaper, and
reading novels. Upon
seeing this he asked, “So, is this what
you guys do all day?”
We had a hit at lunch today
with the chicken sandwiches that
everyone really enjoyed.
The adult leaders had settled
into a few camp assignments.
Bob D. was driving for RKORES
(Raven Knob Off-Road Experience) the
back country four-wheeling program, Tom
Blum was teaching canoeing, Chris Meyer
was instructing in rifle shooting (he’s
and NRA certified instructor), and Rick
Myers (Ranger Rick) was instructing in
the Golf program.
We had hot showers in camp
this year for the first time.
Amazingly the Scouts took more
showers and we didn’t have problems with
“crotch rot” this year.
We started the Scout planning
conference for the 2007-2008 Troop 216
programs. We
did an hour after lunch and an hour
after dinner. The
results will be published some time
early August after Scout and Committee
reviews. A
couple of new items on the activity
calendar will be a tubing float trip
down a river and a caving trip.
As for Troop meetings, there was
a common goal to make them more
interesting. That
led to a plan to have some off-site
activities for some of the Troop
meetings, like bowling, putt-putt golf,
etc. The
Scouts also wanted more interesting
training/education items for the agenda,
like welding, geology, etc.
The planning committee consisted
of the Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) and
included Scouts Nick B., Jonathan L.,
Michael M., Chris T., and SPL Brian D.
among others.
Adult leader Terry LaDue has
been working all day to get everyone’s
shirt size and late in the day picked up
all our camp t-shirts. We all think
they are really good looking this year.
WEDNESDAY
We’ve been having trouble
getting Scott B. out of bed in the
morning. This
morning
the Scouts carry Scott in his bed out
into the middle of camp in an effort to
wake him up. Robert
S. is having trouble getting out of bed
in the morning too, but the good news is
that he always gets up before Scott and
makes it to formation JUST as his name
is called.
The sun is out
again today and it’s looking like
another great day in camp.
Breakfast was not a big hit
today. We
had biscuits and sausage gravy.
Thank
goodness for the 7 types of cold cereal
we have available each morning.
Since we got our t-shirts last
night, Wednesday was declared camp t-shirt day
and everyone wore their camp t-shirt
all day.
Wednesday is visitor day (even
though we discourage visitors because of
the homesick Scouts we usually have), so
the camp delivers lunch to the camp
sites and we all eat lunch in camp. It was cold
cuts, on hoagie rolls, chips, granola
bars, and “bug juice.”
It was a nice diversion to have
lunch in camp and just hang out with the
guys.
After lunch we worked on our
service project for the camp.
We always volunteer to do a
service or conservation project.
Adult leader Tom Brawn led the
effort with the help of Terry LaDue. This year we
were asked to spread some (well, err, a
lot of) rock in the nature training area
and rake up leaves in the same area. It was a
pretty easy job compared to some of our
projects from years past.
It was mostly completed after
lunch, but a crew had to go back on
Thursday after lunch to complete the
job.
What to say about the mountain
biking Scouts? Well
the first thing that comes to mind is
that they are crazy.
There were three, two Eagle
Scouts and one Eagle candidate – Chris
B., Gary M. and Brian D.
They
rode fast up hill, faster down hill,
raced to the Trading Post to exchange
t-shirt sizes for the Troop and did it
there and back in the blink of an eye.
We had a little rain in the
afternoon, but it tapered off so we
could enjoy our traditional pizza dinner
in our camp site. Adult
leader David Davis drove up to join us
on Wednesday and he picked up the pizza
on the way. Mrs.
Hibbard joined him on the ride and she
brought watermelon – also a tradition. Tom Brawn
cooks up some cobbler each year for
desert as well. This
year Tom had some help making the 4
cobblers from Scouts Sean L. and Aaron
R. It
should be no surprise that we all had a
great time enjoying the special
treatment of a summer picnic in camp. There was the
annual pizza eating competition.
John
H. has been victorious in recent
history. This
year it was a tie between John H. and
Thomas M. – 14 slices each.
After dinner we had good
weather for our Wednesday night campfire
at the OA Arena. As
we were waiting for the festivities to
begin Gary M. and Joe L. were walking
around the arena with dark aviator sun
glasses on, their Class A shirt collars
flipped up, arms crossed in tough guy
poses like the “Blues Brothers.” They
were a hit – everyone was laughing. This campfire
is the Order of the Arrow show with
Native American (Indian) ceremonies and
dancers. This
is followed by the ceremonious induction
of new OA members.
Troop 216 Scout Scott Baran was
elected to join the OA back in March,
but was not able to attend the April
induction at our District Camporee, so I
made arrangements for him to be “tapped
out” at this ceremony.
Scott
was completely surprised, but very
excited about the opportunity.
After the campfire, the Scouts
headed for … you guessed it – the
Trading Post.
By now there were some pretty
good poker and chess players.
Tom Brawn was worried about what
Chris Brawn would think about Alex B’s
new found skills at poker.
The good news and saving grace
was that Alex also developed his skills
at chess. This
evening at poker, Brian K. beat Ranger
Rick and at chess Alex B. beat Ranger
Rick. Ranger
Rick is one of our biggest BOYS.
Everyone was accounted for at
role call and we were all down for the
night at 10 PM.
THURSDAY
There was no rain all day –
Yea! Today
was Troop t-shirt day and all you saw in
our line was a sea of dark green Troop
216 t-shirts. Well,
Vishal O. didn’t have his on.
Hey dad, help him remember to
pick-up his FREE t-shirt from Mr. Davis.
We had
40 pizza boxes to get rid of because it
was impossible to put them in trash
bags. So,
the walk to breakfast was a parade of
Scouts each with a pizza box headed for
the Mess Hall and the dumpsters behind
the building. It
was
a strange looking parade.
It brought a smile to many faces.
Vishal O. has been working on
a lighthouse carving in wood carving
class. He’s
been showing me his progress all week. It looks great
and I’m sure his parents are going to be
proud.
Bryan H. was seen tucked away
in the back corner of the shelter in a
comfortable chair reading!
Every evening and most of his
free time.
I can’t write this summary
without mentioning Mike B.
He is our “utility infielder.” This week he
did every odd job known to man – errrrr
– known to Scout. Thanks
Mike for all that you do.
You
are an excellent example of the Eagle
Scout.
Mike B. led an Eagle Scout and
soon to be Eagle Scout planning meeting. The
purpose was to plan for
activities/involvement that would keep
the Eagles interested in Scouting and
involved in the Troop.
Part of the discussion was also
about what privileges the Eagles could
have in recognition of their rank and
contribution to the Troop.
A report on this planning session
will also come out in early August. A couple of
items that were decided but must still
go through an approval process were
Eagles will be able to sign-off on rank
advancement requirements for rank up to
First Class, and there will be at least
two Eagles only activities/trips during
the year. Scouts
in this planning session included Chris
B. Brian D., Gary M., John H., Alex B.,
and Chris H.
Today was a day that the
Scouts in the golf program went off site
to a golf course to play.
So, they were instructed to dress
in golf attire. It
was a “hoot” seeing all the Scouts in
golf shoes (white), light colored
shorts, golf shirts (or in John H’s case
Hawaiian flower print shirt) and smiles
on their faces.
More volunteer work for our
leaders today. David
Davis and Terry LaDue volunteered to
drive campers to a forestry merit badge
field trip to a saw mill. Six leaders
were in rescue row boats with the
campers who were doing the mile swim. We had 8 Troop
216 Scouts doing the mile swim.
Ranger Rick was complaining at
the end of the day about his tough day
at camp. Let’s
see – he played golf all morning, the
Scouts walked and carried their bags
while Ranger Rick rode in a golf cart,
he came back to camp and slept all
afternoon, ate a lot of pizza and went
to bed? I
don’t see it, do you?
Remember the sports crazies
who ran the climb to the top of Raven
Knob? They
tried to beat the record today.
Scott
B., Eric B., Chris B. and Gary M. ran up
and back down and Scott did it in 12
minutes, the others in about 13 minutes. They got very
close to the camp record of 11 minutes. Scott was
overheard to say, “…next year we run it
every day until we break the record.”
As evening came so did some
sever storms and lots of rain.
Sadly, the RKORES overnight
four-wheeling trek, the wilderness
survival campout and the camping merit
badge overnight campout were all
canceled. Those
of us who were part of these activities
arrived back in camp in time to catch
the end of our Troop 216 campfire
program being led by Scout David H. He was working
on his communications merit badge and
had to run a campfire program.
The highlight of the program was
the skit presented by the adult leaders. Chris Meyer
was a Native American Chief and the rest
of the leaders were braves doing a dance
around the fire. It
was a serious ceremony that in the end
had a funny punch line.
Another good night and all
were accounted for at the role call. We were in bed
by 10 PM again. By
the way, we do a head count every time
we leave camp and every time we return. We also do a
headcount every morning before
breakfast. We
expect
the Scouts to check-in and out with the
SPL or ASPL and they did all week. All Scouts are
required to have a buddy with them at
all times they are out of camp.
We kept track of all the Scouts
and that was a minor miracle as usual.
FRIDAY
We woke up to a sunny day
again. More
of the usual: breakfast,
clean
camp, classes, meet at the Mess Hall for
lunch, more classes…
But wait. It’s
the last day and some of the classes are
letting out early because all the work
is done. The
Trading Post is busting at the seams as
Scouts and leaders are hanging out at
the Trading Post and doing last minute
shopping in the store.
I picked up an extra camp
t-shirt
and a “Raven Knob Shooting” cap.
Tom Brawn picked up some nylon
parachute cord he likes (the Raven Knob
version is very colorful).
A couple of Scouts purchased
knives, and the list goes on and on.
Surprisingly, none of the
first or second year Scouts got
homesick. Evan
H. had a couple of days where he let me
know he was not a camping kind of guy,
but he had fun and his two baskets and
foot stool from basketry class were
works of art.
The Scouts in the Raven Scout
program each had crafts merit badges
they were working on.
It was a pleasure for me all week
as these newer Scouts kept coming up to
me to show me the progress on their
baskets and wood carvings, or just talk
about the merit badges they were working
on. So, let
me say thanks to Justin F., Glenn G.,
Adam K., Carter L., Yacob M., Jonathan
R., Stephan T., Shubham U.,
Lucas W., and John W. for sharing your
experiences with me.
All the Scouts had work duties
in camp. We
had a daily duty roster posted in the
shelter for specific jobs that had to be
completed each day.
A few of the Scouts stood out for
doing an especially good job: Ryan R.,
Chris D., Nick D., Jeff F., Kenny F.,
Alex G. and Brian H.
I was invited by Brian K. to
join him and his cooking class to eat a
lunch that the class prepared.
Everything was cooked in Dutch
ovens. We
had steak, pork chops, macaroni and
cheese, baked beans, corn, and apple and
cherry cobbler. It
was a great meal and as Brian said,
“…much better than the Mess Hall food.”
I was very excited about
having a second meal outside the Mess
Hall when Scouts, Joe L., Andrew H. and
Brendan H. invited me to join them and
their cooking class for dinner.
Since we had three Scouts I
invited Ranger Rick to join me.
We were both looking forward to a
gourmet delight. And
the dinner menu was … steak, pork chops,
macaroni and cheese, baked beans, corn,
and apple and cherry cobbler.
Talk about the proverbial, “guess
what I had for lunch honey.”
Tom Brawn had help from Scouts
Jack K., Chris E., and Matt C. preparing
the cobbler for tonight.
Tom went down to the Mess Hall to
eat dinner early and then rushed back to
camp to cook the cobbler while the
Scouts were at dinner.
Ranger Rick and I arrived back in
camp from our gourmet dinner before all
those who ate at the mess hall just in
time to see Tom doing a dance with a
tarp trying to keep the rain that had
just started off the fire that was
cooking our cobbler.
Now there was a three person
dance going on keeping the tarp up AND
attempting to grab poles, lines and pegs
to set up the tarp.
Just as that dance was getting
out of control Brenden H. returned and a
Scout from the camp next to us came over
to help us get control of the tarp and
keep the rain off the fire.
We did succeed in getting the
tarp up and keeping the fire dry.
It was funny, it was fun, it was
camping, it was Scouting, it was summer
camp at Raven Knob.
Oh ya! In
the middle of all that Tom Blum is
calling me on the radio to say that
because of the rain, they were keeping
everyone in the Mess Hall after dinner
for the campfire and closing awards. I would run
over to the shelter to answer the call
and then go back to the dance.
Tom
would call again with more information
and I would run to the shelter (getting
wet) and answer the call and then run
back to the dance.
We went through that three times. It’s fun at
summer camp.
At the campfire John H. was
awarded the honor camper award.
That’s like the Most Valuable
Player award. This
is John’s last summer camp as he is
approaching that “age out” mark of 18
years of age. John
always
brings spirit, fun, friendship and a
sense of doing good to camp.
This year he brought two chess
sets and was leading the chess training
and chess competitions.
This
year as well as past years he brought
the training and leadership of the Magic
card games. The
younger Scouts gather around John and
the players to watch and learn.
Thanks for all that you have
brought to summer camp over the years
John… I for
one will miss you.
At the role call the SPL and
ASPL suggested that we skip breakfast in
the morning because it would only be dry
muffins. It
was a unanimous decision to skip
breakfast, eat on the way home and just
start packing in the morning.
All were in bed by 10 PM.
SATURDAY
It rained lightly all night,
but as the waking hour approached it let
up. We were
able to pack without the rain.
Saturday is a bit anti-climactic
with packing, clean-up, returning camp
supplies, and helping Scouts fit all the
stuff that came in the lockers back in
those same lockers.
We were checked-out by the camp
Commissioner
by 9:30 AM (another record) and the
Scoutmaster was the last one out of camp
at 10:30 AM
This year we had 15 Scouts
attend the Raven Scouts program which
focused on early rank advancement. We had 28
Scouts who climbed the “Knob.”
We had 4 adult leaders who earned
the Scoutmaster award for instructing in
the Raven Knob programs.
All of these people will receive
appropriate pins for their uniform that
will be awarded at the next Court of
Honor in August. All
camp attendees will also be awarded a
2007 Camp Raven Knob uniform patch.
Troop 216 Scouts earned a
total of 111 merit badges and partially
completed an additional 50 merit badges,
for a total of 161 merit badges.
Most of the partials are only
missing one or two requirements.
Merit Badge Counselors will be
contacting Scouts via email and
encouraging them to complete the missing
requirements over the summer.
This will allow the Scouts to
receive these merit badges at the next
Court of Honor in August.
I’ve talked about out camp
inspections (we earned 100% for every
day), the adult participation in the
programs, the service project and other
help we provided the camp.
These and a list of 13 other
requirements that we completed (actually
over achieved) also earned our Troop the
Honor Troop award.
I thank all the Scouts for
their attention to the rules, their
focus on safety, and the gusto with
which they enjoyed camp.
I thank SPL Brian D. and acting
ASPL Chris H. for all their hard work in
managing the Scouts in camp.
They had to get up before
everyone else in camp each morning and
wake up the camp. They
had to keep track of all the Scouts and
make sure the headcount was completed
and all Scouts were present and
accounted for. This
took a lot of time out of their
available time to enjoy summer camp.
As much as the Scouts run
their own program, summer camp would not
happen with out the dedication of the
fathers who give up a week of their time
to support the Scouts at camp.
Thanks to Tom Brawn, John
Hibbard, Rick Myers (Ranger Rick), Dave
Timmerman, Tom Blum, David Davis, and
Chris Meyer for their multiple years of
service at summer camp.
And, thanks to first timer Terry
LaDue who never stopped volunteering to
help on any and all assignments.
Sorry this summary is so long,
but I hear feedback that you parents
enjoy reading about what your boys are
up to…
Brian D. and I say this was
the best summer camp we have ever
attended…
“It’s All About The Boys”
Bob De Contreras
Scoutmaster
Troop 216
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