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Summer
Camp 2008
– The
Summary
June 29, 2008
After
weeks
of planning, buying new equipment,
paying deposits, and deciding
on camp
activities, the June 22 departure date
arrived. We
gathered at the usual meeting place
at 8:30 AM, discussed the
time-table one more time and reviewed
the driving directions.
Then at 9 AM 47 Scouts and
their foot lockers
departed for Raven Knob Scout Camp near
Mount
Airy, NC. We had a sunny
day for
travel and most of the
cars stopped for lunch at Cookout in Mt.
Airy. A couple of
cars noted the
long line at
Cookout and diverted to other fast food
establishments and then joined
the
crowd at Cookout.
As
planned,
we all met at the registration building
at camp and lined up
for the
ride to our campsite.
We
positioned the
Troop trailer in the center of the Ponka
camp site and the Scouts
unloaded
their gear. Jack
K.
and Gary M. directed
the Scouts to their assigned tents and
tent mates moved in.
Next
on
the schedule was to get our swim tests
completed. The
Scouts put on their swim suits and
started gathering for the walk to the
lake – but –
BOOM, BANG, thunder exploded
and then the rain came.
Swim
tests were
canceled. About
15
Scouts and leaders had
to visit the health lodge for medical
check-in because of an
administrative
error on my part. By
they
time that was
done, the rain had passed and the Scouts
were able to get to the lake
for swim
tests.
All
in
all the arrival and check-in at camp was
the smoothest I have ever
experienced. Yea! We were off to
the mess
hall for spaghetti dinner
at 6 PM. After
dinner
the rain started
up again and the Raven Knob campfire was
moved to the mess hall.
We chose to skip
“ice melting.” That’s
what they call the
campfire when it’s
moved into the mess hall, because
instead of a fire they put a block of
ice in
a bucket in the middle of the hall and
watch it melt. Hehehe (ya, it does
not make sense to me either
– it must be a boy thing?).
So,
the
evening was one of Scouts in the shelter
playing what turned out to
be the
week’s evening activity.
At one table
there were two chess games going with a
group of 5 or 6 Scouts at each
game. At
another
table there were two
poker games going with a similar group
of 5 or 6 Scouts at each game.
Some creative Scout even
brought a bunch of
poker chips. They
were
the little dime
size chips. Many
other
Scouts were
reading books or some of the magazines I
had brought. The
most popular magazines were the
camping
and military gear catalogs and the
paintball magazines.
It
was
a good first day. The
youngest
Scouts
were a little tentative in anticipation
of their first night in
the
woods in these unfamiliar surroundings. The evening
headcount was done as usual
at 10 PM and lights out was at
10:30. Yes,
the
energy was high and the
voices of talking Scouts could be heard
from tents around the camp site.
Monday
As
would
be the case everyday, wake up was at
6:30 AM, waiters walked to
the mess
hall at 7:10 AM and the rest of the
Troop started the walk to breakfast
at 7:20
AM. At 7:30
AM all
the Troops in camp
were lined up in Troop lines at the
“parade field”
outside the mess hall and
behind the flag poles.
After
the flag
raising and the daily changing Grace,
four lines of Scouts headed into
the mess
hall. Believe
it or
not all 1,000 Scouts
and leaders in camp were served in about
5 minutes. Today
we had eggs and bacon, biscuit,
fruit
and the daily optional cold cereal ( 4
types ), milk, and OJ.
After
breakfast
the Scoutmaster and Senior Patrol Leader
had daily meetings
where
camp information was distributed.
Things
like the weather, schedule changes,
special training offerings, places
where
help was needed, etc.
A
copy of the
local paper was provided, so the leaders
could keep in touch with the
real
world. Also
after
breakfast for 50
minutes, the Scouts were back in camp
for camp clean-up.
We had a rotating duty
roster for camp
clean-up, latrine clean-up, trash can
emptying, Bug Juice making, etc.
At 8:50 AM the Scouts were
off to their first
class for the day which started at 9 AM. Tom Brawn and
Chris Meyer walked the
Raven Scouts down to their class
first thing each morning.
The
adult
leaders were active in helping teach at
camp. David
Davis taught Golf all week and
provided
transportation to the golf courses. We
had three of our Scouts in golf.
Chris
Meyer taught rifle and pistol shooting
all week. Bob
De Contreras taught Entrepreneurship
and
Salesmanship all week.
David
Keller and
David Kesselring were aquatics life
guards all week – 9 AM to
8 PM (a long day).
Now,
there is a funny story…
The David’s attended adult
leader Safety
Afloat and Safe Swim training and
certification Monday morning.
All the Scouts who were in
lifeguard training
were required to attend the same
certification. However,
only two Scouts were in the
lifeguard program.
The
camp uses the lifeguard trainees to help
cover the waterfront with adequate
lifeguard coverage, but with only
two Scouts
in the program they were very short
staffed. So,
the instructors
“recruited” the David’s, talking them
into taking the
lifeguard certification program.
I
have
to tell you that this is a tough program
with a lot of physical stress
for a
Scout, but for the adults it was a back
breaking experience.
My congratulations to
David Keller and David
Kesselring for providing seriously
needed help to the camp and more
important
for both passing the lifeguard program
and earning their BSA lifeguard
certification. Yea!
Joe
L.
had a little incident when closing his
knife that caused a few trips
to the
Health Lodge. He
tried
to close his
folding knife blade by pushing on the
sharp end instead of the dull end. That caused a
deep cut in
the fleshy area
just below his thumb.
Joe
was registered
in the Mile Swim program and because of
the accident had to drop and
join Bird
Study. I
asked Joe
one morning toward
the end of the week what his highlight
was for the week and he said,
“…all my
new friends at the Hearth Lodge.”
For
those
of you interested in what’s for lunch –
we
had hamburgers today.
Dinner
was chicken pot pie, roll, vegetables,
canned peaches and the typical Bug
Juice. By
the way, we had salad bar at all
lunch and dinner meals.
The
salad bar had lettuce, tomatoes,
cucumbers, cheese, croutons, and several
dressing options. By
the end of the day, the
Scouts were
getting in the grove with the waiter
program. The
Scouts all eat at the same table all
week. The
two
Scouts on the left end of the table
are the waiters for the day.
Then
each
day all the Scouts at the table rotate
one place clockwise.
That means each Scout
serves as a waiter for
two days. The
waiters
set the table with
napkins, forks, glasses, drinks, and
then at the end of the meal bag
all the
trash, wash the table and sweep the
floor.
The
weather
was great and the Scouts are free to do
as they please after
dinner and
until curfew at which is 10 PM.
The
Scouts must be with a buddy and I didn’t
see any violations
during the
week. The
Scouts
can go to the Trading
Post, go boating, swimming, handy
crafts, and various other things
around
camp. Some
Scouts
just chose to stay in
camp and catch up on sleep or read or
join one of the chess or poker
games. A
few of the
first year Scouts
made a “play area” next to one of the
tents. They
made hammocks and
would talk and swing and enjoy some of
the
goodies that had arrived in the mail
from home. I
tried to convince them that the
Scoutmaster was supposed to taste the
chocolate to make sure it’s safe to eat
– but they
didn’t go for it.
Tuesday
Breakfast
was
pancakes, waffles or French toast –
depending on what
time you went through
the chow line. The optional cold cereal
was there each day.
I missed lunch today, so I
don’t know what
was on the menu, but…
Each day for
lunch the optional offering is
Crustables. That’s
an individually
packaged peanut butter and jelly
sandwich with no
crusts and cut into a circle with the
edges of the bread sealed to hold
in the
PBJ. They
are
delicious. And,
you
can carry them in your backpack and
have a snack later in the day.
Each
day,
most of our mail was distributed at the
breakfast meal. That
was letters and email print outs.
Tom Brawn was the one to
cut sheets of email
into individual notes.
He
also made the
daily trek to the registration center to
pick up packages (an extra
mile walk –
thanks Tom).
Chuck
Gay
has been busy with his assignment as
“medical
man.” He
had morning and evening walks (with the
effected Scouts) to the Health Lodge to
get meds. He
had in-camp meds to distribute and
reminders
of various types for certain Scouts. We
had a couple of Scouts with insect bite
allergies, so we had EPI pens
at both
camp sites and in the Health Lodge in
case of an emergency.
All the leaders carried
two-way radios at all
times, so that we could deal with any
emergency if it arose.
Thanks to Chuck for not
missing a beat and
dealing with a very important and
difficult responsibility.
During
the
day two of our scouts came upon an
injured Scout from another Troop.
Glenn G. bandaged the
Scout and he and Jeff
F. carried the Scout to the Health
Lodge. We
have great Scouts.
Speaking of
great Scouts – today Tom Brawn led
several of our Scouts in a
camp service
project. Our
Scouts
cleaned-up the camp
road from the registration center to the
camp entrance gate.
The
weather
was great again today.
I
have
never seen better weather at summer
camp. Dinner
was Salisbury steak, mashed
potatoes, vegetables, apple sauce and
roll. Tonight
curfew
was 8 PM because we
had an in camp campfire.
Nick
D. put
together a campfire program to satisfy
part of his requirements for the
communications merit badge.
There
were
skits and song. David
H.
told a great
story. Nick
asked
the adult leaders to
come up on stage one by one and tell two
truths and one lie about their
lives. Then
the
audience had to guess
which was the lie.
That
was a lot of fun
for everyone.
We
had
one Scout with a touch of home sickness,
but I talked to him and
shared
some of my sage philosophy with him and
he got past it. We
never heard another word of home
sickness
from him (or any other Scout).
Yea! Happy
campers.
Tonight
Scouts
who are in the Nature class attended a
late night frog hunt to
satisfy
one of the merit badge requirements. It’s one of
our scary events
with the Scouts out in the woods at
night. But,
as usual it was uneventful and our
Scouts did find the frogs.
Wednesday
The
6:30
AM wake-up time is working OK.
The
Scouts seem to be getting their needed
nap time. Despite
all the walking up and down
hills and
running around, the Scouts had lots of
energy to play.
Today
the
camp brought lunch to our campsite. It was cold
cuts, chips, and granola
bars with Bug Juice.
It
was great hearing all the Scouts in camp
playing, talking and laughing.
Before
dinner
a few of the first year scouts found a
wasp nest and decided to
play
with it. That
good
decision resulted in
two boys getting stung.
We
put the
sting-away on them and gave them ice
packs to ease the pain.
We offered some
instruction on not bothering
wasp nests and put up red marker tape to
keep the Scouts out of that
area. Scouting
is
fun…
Wednesday
dinner
is a traditional pizza night for our
Troop. We
order pizzas in town and bring them
to our
campsite. Tom
Brawn
and the Scouts make
about 4 fruit cobblers for desert. We
had apple, chocolate with berry, one
cherry and a big one with four
different
fruits. Three
of
the mom’s came up to
see the evening campfire ceremony one
brought fresh watermelon.
The
Wednesday
night campfire is the Order of the Arrow
ceremony and
“tap-out.” Tap-out
is
the induction of new members into
the Order of the Arrow which is the Boy
Scout Honor Society.
We had one Scout who was
not able to attend
our Crosswinds District tap-out back in
April, so I made arrangements
for him
to be tapped-out Wednesday night.
So,
Mike M. was tapped-out and is now
officially in the OA.
The ceremony includes three
Indian
chiefs in
full dress arriving in separate canoes
from the lake. Then
several ceremonial Indian dances
were
performed with some including
participation from Scouts in the Indian
Lore
classes. A
group of
the older Scouts
climbed Mt. Raven Knob to watch the
ceremony from the top.
We had two Scouts who will
be ageing out soon
and this was their last summer camp. So,
the opportunity to watch the ceremony
from the top of the Knob was one
way to
do a send-off celebration for these
departing Scouts.
Thursday
We
woke
up to another beautiful day.
It was
a little warmer; reaching into the 90’s
for the first time
and with a bit of
humidity. The
walk
up to the mess hall
produced a breakfast of sausage gravy
and biscuits. That
meant cold cereal for me a bunch of
the
Scouts. Lunch
redeemed
the mess hall
menu planners as we had corn dogs, fruit
and salad.
Today
was
mile swim day and we had about 5 Scouts
in the mile swim program.
Now, for the adults this
meant a lot of work too.
For
each mile swimmer, we had to have two
adults rowing in a “safety boat” with
the swimmer. That
would be one rower
and one
observer. For
some
reason the BSA
lifeguards could man a boat by
themselves. So,
with our three lifeguards we only
needed 4 more adults to row.
Thursday
was another 90’s temperature day, so
it was HOT out on the lake and the
rowers/observers suffered energy
loss from
all that work and heat.
Today
Brian
D. discovered the physics behind what
goes up must come
down… hard if it
does not have wings.
He
took a mountain
bike jump off a ridge and didn’t quite
land on his wheels.
That generated 10 inch
long skin scrapes on
his arm and leg. It
used
all the tape
and 4 inch bandages in the Troop first
aid kit to keep his wounds clean
for a
couple of days.
Dinner
was
“mystery meat.” I
identified it as
chicken fried steak, but it was very
spicy. Many
Scouts skipped it and went to
multiple bowls of salad.
Some
went to the food service line for
“seconds” and just got extra helpings of
potatoes
and vegetables.
We
had
another in camp campfire Thursday that
was hosted by Mike M.
He was also working on his
communications
merit badge. The
program
was similar to
the campfire on Tuesday.
Due
to popular
demand David H. told two stories and a
short adlib.
After
dinner
and after the campfire the chess and
poker games continued along
with
the reading. By
now
many of the Scouts
had homework assignments to complete
before the last day of class.
There was a lot of work
going on. While
we
were in line waiting for the
retirement of the colors, I walked the
line asking all the Scouts if
they were
having a good time.
It
was unanimous
that they were all having a great time.
With
all
the hard work the adults did today
(teaching, rowing, lifeguarding,
t-shirt
pick-up and delivery, etc.) all the
adults (except the Scoutmaster)
went down
to bed early. Summer
camp
is fun…summer
camp is hard work…we love it.
Oh! It started
raining at
10:30 PM (yes that’s
lights out time) so no one got wet. It
rained all night and …
We
have
been watching to be sure all the Scouts
are getting showered.
We have an “at
least two showers a week
rule.” So,
this afternoon and evening we
were “pushing” Scouts into showers. By
Friday we only had two Scouts who had
not had a shower – you
know how hard it
is to get them to clean-up…
By Friday
night every Scout had at least one
shower at camp.
Friday
We
woke
up to another sunny day.
It
was
damp out, but the sun was up and the
temperature was a bit cooler.
By the way, night time
temperatures all week
were in the low 60’s.
Just
cool enough
to need to pull the covers on or put an
unzipped sleeping bag over
yourself. It
was
perfect sleeping
weather.
A
few of our older Scouts got permission
to climb Mt. Raven Knob to watch
the
sunrise this morning.
This
was the
second thing I allowed in consideration
of the two Scouts who were
attending
camp for the last time.
The
Scouts took
pictures (which I have not seen yet) and
tell stories of an
“awesome” sight and
an experience to never forget.
One
description went something like, “…as
the sun came
up, the trees on the top of
the far mountain looked like they were
on fire with the sun light
shining
through them. The
sun
rose just as fast
as in the movies. I
always thought that
the movies were speeded up, but the sun
really rises that fast.
The sun changed color as
is rose from bright
yellow to white…it was beautiful…”
Breakfast
was
scrambled eggs and grits with sausage. We had the
usual biscuit and cold cereal.
(I skipped the grits
because they don’t give
us butter at camp)
So
far
you have heard about most of the adults. Those you have
not heard about and all
the adults shared the duty of “in
camp” coverage. The
camp
requires that
we have two adults in the campsite at
all times. We
shared the work load among all the
adults. Tom
Brawn
was responsible for
managing the adult duty roster and that
was a full time job with all
the
changes, additions, emergencies, and
class coverage changes.
Needless to say the adults
were just as busy
as the Scouts all week.
Please
offer
your thanks to the adult leaders when
you see them.
- Bob De
Contreras - camp lead
- Tom Brawn
- camp assistant lead
You
may
remember one of my emails saying that I
would have a cooler with
iced water
and ice available for icing down
injuries. Both
were needed during the week.
Thanks to Scout Sam H. for
organizing the ice runs to the Trading
Post
to keep the cooler fully iced.
After
dinner
Tom Brawn and the Scouts served another
round of cobbler that
the Scouts
had prepared before dinner.
Are
you
getting the picture that we eat well? No, mom, we
didn’t have any
sugar highs – remember they are running
all
over the place burning up that energy.
Friday
night
we had another camp wide campfire to
allow handing out awards for
the
week. Jack
K. was
awarded Troop 216
Honor Camper for his display of living
the Scout Oath and Law and his
outstanding display of leadership during
the week. Troop
216 was awarded Honor Troop for
all our
assistance to the camp – lifeguards,
service projects,
teaching, following registration
guidelines, etc. Our
two
adult
lifeguards were awarded their BSA
lifeguard patches. Our
first
year Scouts in the Raven Scouts program
were selected as top Raven Scouts –
Troop 216 had two winners
out of 5 awards
given – Sam H. and Dominic S.
Alex B.
was tied for top shotgun shooter for the
week. He
had to go through three sudden death
shoot outs. In
the
end he lost to the other Scout, but he
still earned top shotgun shooting
honors. Chris
Meyer was awarded a certificate
for the work he did on the rifle
range, David Davis received a
certificate for his work teaching golf,
and the
awards went on and on.
These
awards will
all be formally announced at the next
Court of Honor in August.
I’m not
exaggerating when I say that fully
half the awards given included someone
from Troop 216. I’m
proud of all our Scouts
and adult leaders
for bringing Troop 216 these honors.
Pulling
the
Troop trailer is no small duty given the
cost of fuel these days,
so we all
owe Steve Chapman a thank you for
pulling the Trailer to and from
summer camp
this year. Thanks
to
all the parents who
put up with my constant emails on summer
camp and to all those parents
who met
the fees and paperwork deadlines.
On
Thursday
night at our campfire I was asked to do
a
Scoutmaster’s minute.
I
talked about memories.
I
shared some of my memories from my
Scouting
days and my adventures in the Order of
the Arrow and camping in the
huge pine
forests of the Angeles National Forest
in
Southern Californian where I grew up. Part of the
story was asking the Scouts
to build their memories – like
the memories the first year Scouts might
have attending summer camp for
the
first time. I
also
shared my memories of
sleeping outside with no tent with just
my sleeping bag on the ground
and
watching the stars and hearing the wind
all night. I
challenged the Scouts for us to have a
campout like that were we sleep under
the stars and the Scouts were all
in
favor of it.
I
write these summaries because I know the
Scouts don’t share
the details of what
they experience and I want the parents
to share in the joy and learning
your
sons have experienced on our outings. Summer camp is
the biggest outing of the
year. I
apologize
for the long letter, but I hope
you have shared in our experience by
having read it. There
was so much more that happened,
but I
don’t dare bore you any longer.
See you
all in August when we start up again.
Bob
De
Contreras
Scoutmaster
Troop
216
“It’s
all
About the Boys”
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