Summer Camp

13 boys and 2 adults attended Summer Camp at Camp Hinds in Raymond this year. 6 of those boys are brand new scouts. We had a great week. The boys earned a ton of merit badges and had the opportunity to try new challenges. All the boys stepped up to the challenge and often out of their comfort zone.
I was truly proud of the team work that they displayed all week.

After settling in on Sunday the boys attended the Sunday night fire. While a few were hesitant to join in right away, it was not long before they were all up and singing along. They got up Monday, cleaned their campsite, had a hearty breakfast and headed off to merit badge class. I was pleasantly surprised to get back to the camp site and see that they had scored perfect 5's on their inspection.  A perfect score is hard enough as it is, but for such a young troop to pull it off is a tremendous feat.  I was soon to find out that this would be far from the first time boys would make their leaders proud.

Monday afternoon started with troop time.  The boys worked on first aid with SM Dave and knots with SM Greg.  Then we moved to the climbing wall.  The wall at Hinds is 40 feet high and quite imposing.  Again, I was happy to see all the boys give it a try and be really willing to try something that may have been a little scary for some of them.

By Tuesday the boys had really gotten into the groove of things and were really enjoying themselves.  Another perfect inspection and another fun afternoon doing troop activities.  Unfortunately, Dalton got sick.  Apparently, the pizza and his stomach didn't get along too well. Again, the boys made Greg and me proud in how the were willing to help out Dalton with visits and lugging gear and willingness to do what was needed.  The night nurse was impressed with how the boys "roamed in packs".  I was pleased to say that was because they take care of each other.  Long story short - Dalton got better and got to stay.

Wednesday morning 4 of the new scouts did a 5 mile hike up Rattlesnake Mountain and that evening 1 boy participated in the Wilderness Survival overnight.  Wednesday afternoon was the camp wide events.  One of the boys approached me and worried that, "We don't have very many older boys this year."  He was told not to worry, work the best they could as a team and what every happened, happened.  Well, work as a team they did.  One group had to find a hidden egg using their map and compass skills and then cook it over a fire in a paper cup.  Another group sent an orange through a series of  tortures including getting kicked half way across the camp, floated in the terrarium, and catapulted across the Council Ring.  A third group sent a piece of toast through a sort of relay race where it was run across camp, canoed to the waterfront and swum back to the Council Ring.  The finale was SM Greg having to drink the juice from the orange and eat the toast and egg.  Again, the boys made themselves noticed by placing in all three legs.

Thursday and Friday continued to be a lot of fun as the boys continued working on merit badges and participating in such activities as rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, archery, and the almighty swamp romp. We packed up Friday, cleaned up camp and met the parents for the Friday night Bar-B-Q.  Most of the boys and their families stayed for the closing camp fire.  They were sure glad they did.  We were all made proud one last time to find out that not only had the boys scored the highest campsite inspection scores of the whole summer (1 point shy of perfect), they had won FIRST PLACE in the camp wide event.  It was certainly a great ending to a fabulous week.

There are many pictures for you to look at.  You can see them by going to Our Picasaweb Page or by clicking the pictures to the right.