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Troop
216 November Campout Summary
November 17 – 19, 2006
Durham
County Wildlife Club
by Mr. De Contreras
The November campout was a
campout and shooting outing. We
camped at the Durham County Wildlife Club in RTP. This gun club is a
100 acre facility with plentiful wooded
areas and a 5 acre lake.
29
Scouts and 6 adult leaders assembled at
5 PM on Friday night for the
short, 20 minute, ride to RTP. We were
joined by several Webelo Scouts
who were evaluating if they want to
cross-over to Troop 216 in March.
Because of the short travel time we
decided to cook dinner in camp
rather than buying dinner on the way.
After
dinner all the Scouts took the short
walk up to the club house for the
safety briefing and club rules
review. The briefing was conducted
by Scouts Brian D. and Gary M. who are
members at the club.
After
the safety briefing some of the Scouts
went back to camp for games or
to bed for the evening. About 12
Scouts stayed at the club house
to work on rifle, shotgun and archery
merit badges.
It
was a cool night that got down to the
30’s but everyone had a
good night. We got up at 6:30 AM on
Saturday morning and started
breakfast. Eating and clean-up was
done by 8 AM and the Scouts
who wanted to shoot shotgun took the
walk to the shotgun ranges. At 8
AM we were also joined by several more
Webelos, a couple of Scouts and
a couple more adult leaders. All
day Saturday we had 8 Webelos
join us for activities. Scout Gary
M. had responsibility for
planning the activities and assigning
senior Scouts to lead them. The
non-shooters and Webelos could choose
from fishing, hike around the
lake, Frisbee, and several other
games. Several fish were caught
– one was an 18 inch bass which was
caught by one of the Webelos
and cooked for dinner Saturday
night. Thanks to Jim Kochanski
(Scout dad) for bringing the fishing
equipment and helping the Scouts
and Webelos with the fishing activities.
For
the shooters the schedule was two hours
of shotgun (skeet shooting),
two hours of rifle shooting, followed by
lunch. After lunch the Webelos
and any of the Scouts who wanted, shot
archery for two hours.
This
gets us to 3 PM and time for the adults
to get some shotgun shooting in
for a couple of hours. We had at
least 4 adults who were first
time shotgun shooters and all were able
to break their first clay
“birds.”
It’s
5 PM and the Scout moms arrived to join
their sons for dinner prepared
and served by their Scouts. The
menus were chosen by the Scouts
and there was a wide variety of dinner
entrées. Dinner was
served at 6 PM in the club house – dry
and warm. The Scouts
served steak, potatos, shrimp,
fettuccini Alfredo, Ramin noodles with
chicken and peas, the Bass that was
caught earlier, various deserts,
soft drinks, coffee and tea. The
moms were duly impressed with
the epicurean delights.
The
entertainment for the evening was a
campfire program that started at 7
PM. We did the campfire in the club
house so the moms could remain warm
and comfortable. The campfire was
in the club house fire place.
There were two programs – each run by
Scouts who where fulfilling
Communications Merit Badge
requirements. One of the programs
included a rare U.S. flag retirement
ceremony. The ceremony
conducted by Nathan W. included
patriotic memories and burning the
flag. At this ceremony we retired about
five flags. Feedback from
the audience let us know that many
people were very “moved”
by the ceremony. The programs
included jokes, songs, stories, and
more. Thanks to Mark K. for a
program with lots of original
material. An announcement was made that
one Scout qualified for archery
merit badge, five Scouts earned their
shotgun merit badge, and seven
Scouts earned their rifle merit badge.
Not bad for one weekend of work.
Scoutmaster Bob De Contreras and
Committee Member Chris Meyer were the
NRA certified instructors for the days
shooting and merit badge
counselors.
After
the campfire, the moms said good night
and headed home. The
Scouts and Webelos walked back to camp
and lit a campfire in the camp
site. Several of the Scouts,
Webelos and adults sat around the
fire and talked or told stories.
Lights out was at 11 PM.
Wake
up was at 7 AM Sunday morning and it was
up for breakfast, tear down
the camp and pack-up for the trip home.
We had several stoves, pots and
pans that were not as clean as they
should be, so a few Scouts were
taking them home to be cleaned properly.
I heard several comments about
how much fun the Scouts had both
shooting and in the other activities
around camp. Several of the moms
said it was a
“great” or “moving” experience.
The
Webelos and their parents were very
complimentary about their
experiences with Troop 216. The Scouts
of Troop 216 succeeded in
delivering another successful campout
with something for everyone
– Webelos, Scouts and High Adventure for
the older Scouts.
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