This is how we really make them sleep at camp.
7/29/2005
7/27/2005
Summer Camp 05 cont.
Day 4 Wednesday
With the rain gone we finally get some sunshine this morning and of course with the humidity rising we can now complain about the heat. We had to get up before 7 AM this morning in order to conduct the Order of the Arrow Elections. We had 5 second year scouts that were eligible to be voted on by the troop for induction into OA. The outcome of the vote would not be known until the evening ceremonies so after the election it was off to breakfast and a long day of waiting for the evenings activities. The evening activities would start with a water carnival and the arrival of parents for family night. The water carnival was fairly uneventful, I believe we took 5th in the relay race and second in the buoy race, which would have been good but there was only 2 teams. You can always tell the 1st and 2nd year scouts on family night they start looking for their parents around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and they begin to get nervous when their parent isn’t one of the first ones to arrive. By their 3rd and 4th years all they want is their favorite food from home and usually some extra cash for the trading post. Finally everyone’s parents arrived and had plenty of time to visit with there scout. Mike Scallorns brought us a couple of surprises enough watermelon for everyone and our Troop T-shirts and hats. We would also gain 3 extra parents for the rest of the week, Richard Hargrave, Dennis Rainey and Rick Samples missed us so much they decided to stay. Do you remember that Matt had set up a tent for him and his dad earlier in the week? Well it seems that Matt’s tent guest must not have been taking their showers because when Dennis opened the tent to put in his gear he quickly decided to set up his own tent. By the way Dennis and Rick we will loan out our troop tents to adults, because I know you guys couldn’t stretch out or stand up in the little baby tents you guys had. Around 7:45 we said goodbye to all the parents who left to go to the campfire and OA callout ceremony and we all changed into our Class A uniforms for the evening. Wednesday night campfire was great the Camp Staff is introduced and skits or songs are performed by the scouts. After the fun we move around the lake for the OA callout, a huge bond fire with 20 ft flames lights up the area and we are entertained by the OA dancers from various districts. Several from our troop helped with the dancing and the callout, we had 5 scouts and 1 adult called out to join the Order. They names were announced to the crowd and they were taken into the woods to begin their preordeal activities which included sleeping under the stars for the night and making an arrow out of a piece of cedar to wear until they complete their ordeal and receive their sash. The Scouts that were called out are Travis Gentry, Alex Bonhert, Ethan Seats, Tyler Samples, Ross Joslin and Letraonna Gentry. Congratulations on a job well done and I hope you can all complete your ordeal at the Fall Reunion.
Day 5 Thursday
Thursday morning is sleep-in day which means an extra hour or so of sleep and breakfast is served at your campsite instead of the dining hall. All of the scouts that had slept out for OA return to camp around 7 AM with a good start on carving their arrows, and we find them some twine to make a strap so they can wear them around their neck the rest of the week. Thursday is a good day to take a look at how everyone is coming with their merit badges and see if anyone needs help completing their requirements. It seems that Matt and Jason are having a little trouble catching fish for their fishing merit badge, they have to have at least 2 and they must be different kinds. In steps the great fisherman Dennis Rainey, he decides to go to class with them and see what the problem is and help them catch those fish. They did a little better that morning each catching 1 fish each, but Dennis not being one to give up easily has a plan, he will go and get some bait and after dinner they will try again. I’m not quit sure what kind of bait he brought back but I do know that before they were threw both boys had 14 fish apiece and were talking about having a fish off to break the tie. We also had scouts building shelters for wilderness survival, finishing wood working and leather working projects for merit badges along with various other projects. Thursday evening after supper is always time for the Mount Logan trip or a trip to the lake for smores and games. Richard Hargraves took 3 scouts up the mountain to spend the night and Craig Nadler took 3 more to the lake. About 9 PM it begin to thunder and both activities had to be cut short, which meant a walk back down the mountain about an hour after the got to the top. Activities at the lake were also stopped but not before a couple of kids got stung by hornets or yellow jackets, nothing serious. With everyone back in camp for the night the threat of rain had missed us, but the cooler air made for a good nights sleep.
Day 6 Friday
Things are winding down today we checked again to make sure everyone had completed their merit badges and tried to help out with any incomplete projects. A couple of merit badges will have to be completed at home but for the most part we finished them. I am looking for a good archer to teach 5 scouts how to shoot a bow it seems this merit badge was extremely hard to master, in fact I heard rumor that only 1 out of 17 scouts completed this badge at camp. Friday afternoon we had 5 scouts complete the mile swim and had the competition for Golden Arrow and Silver Bullet. You may recall that I won the Golden Arrow for the adults last year, well that was my 15 minutes of fame because this year was not a pretty site. However if you want to learn to shoot a rifle I have a scout you might want to talk to. It wasn’t his best shooting for the week but it was good enough to win the Silver Bullet for the youth. I’m sure Lance will try to take the credit for his skill but I don’t think he can out shoot his son. Josh Lemonds can put 5 shots in a target with a .22 rifle that you can cover up with a quarter, he tells me on a good day you can cover them with a dime but he didn’t want to show off, I wonder if he still has that target? Friday night brings the closing campfire, one last chance to get together with the entire camp for some fun and recognition. Halfway through the campfire we start to here thunder and then we see the lightning, things had to be cut short again. It was a good thing we did because just minutes after getting back to camp the sky opened up let us have it again, so we finished the week the way we started it WET. We all gathered in the pavilion to wait out the rain, Rick Samples had decided to sleep in there for the night and even with 20 or so scouts in his bedroom he still snores. The rain passed and we were able to make it to our tents for our last night before heading for home.
Day 7 Saturday
Lots of work to do this morning everything has to be packed up and cleaned up before 10:30 AM. and with the rain the night before lots of things were wet again. However we did finally manage to pass inspection and they let us leave, I still had to go and check out at the office and collect our paperwork for the week. All in all we between 16 scouts we earned 50 merit badges, 2 BSA Life guard certifications, 5 mile swims, and 2 completed Voyager training for first year scouts. The adults attended various training during the week including Child Protection, Safe Swim and Safety Afloat training, Liquid fuel usage and Safe Trek Training. We are gearing up for a great fall program which will begin with a trip to a Cardinal baseball game Monday August 1st. Thanks to everyone for the help at Summer Camp and to the Kiwanis Club for their support, keep up the hard work everyone
Freddy Gentry
Scoutmaster Troop 272
With the rain gone we finally get some sunshine this morning and of course with the humidity rising we can now complain about the heat. We had to get up before 7 AM this morning in order to conduct the Order of the Arrow Elections. We had 5 second year scouts that were eligible to be voted on by the troop for induction into OA. The outcome of the vote would not be known until the evening ceremonies so after the election it was off to breakfast and a long day of waiting for the evenings activities. The evening activities would start with a water carnival and the arrival of parents for family night. The water carnival was fairly uneventful, I believe we took 5th in the relay race and second in the buoy race, which would have been good but there was only 2 teams. You can always tell the 1st and 2nd year scouts on family night they start looking for their parents around 2 o’clock in the afternoon and they begin to get nervous when their parent isn’t one of the first ones to arrive. By their 3rd and 4th years all they want is their favorite food from home and usually some extra cash for the trading post. Finally everyone’s parents arrived and had plenty of time to visit with there scout. Mike Scallorns brought us a couple of surprises enough watermelon for everyone and our Troop T-shirts and hats. We would also gain 3 extra parents for the rest of the week, Richard Hargrave, Dennis Rainey and Rick Samples missed us so much they decided to stay. Do you remember that Matt had set up a tent for him and his dad earlier in the week? Well it seems that Matt’s tent guest must not have been taking their showers because when Dennis opened the tent to put in his gear he quickly decided to set up his own tent. By the way Dennis and Rick we will loan out our troop tents to adults, because I know you guys couldn’t stretch out or stand up in the little baby tents you guys had. Around 7:45 we said goodbye to all the parents who left to go to the campfire and OA callout ceremony and we all changed into our Class A uniforms for the evening. Wednesday night campfire was great the Camp Staff is introduced and skits or songs are performed by the scouts. After the fun we move around the lake for the OA callout, a huge bond fire with 20 ft flames lights up the area and we are entertained by the OA dancers from various districts. Several from our troop helped with the dancing and the callout, we had 5 scouts and 1 adult called out to join the Order. They names were announced to the crowd and they were taken into the woods to begin their preordeal activities which included sleeping under the stars for the night and making an arrow out of a piece of cedar to wear until they complete their ordeal and receive their sash. The Scouts that were called out are Travis Gentry, Alex Bonhert, Ethan Seats, Tyler Samples, Ross Joslin and Letraonna Gentry. Congratulations on a job well done and I hope you can all complete your ordeal at the Fall Reunion.
Day 5 Thursday
Thursday morning is sleep-in day which means an extra hour or so of sleep and breakfast is served at your campsite instead of the dining hall. All of the scouts that had slept out for OA return to camp around 7 AM with a good start on carving their arrows, and we find them some twine to make a strap so they can wear them around their neck the rest of the week. Thursday is a good day to take a look at how everyone is coming with their merit badges and see if anyone needs help completing their requirements. It seems that Matt and Jason are having a little trouble catching fish for their fishing merit badge, they have to have at least 2 and they must be different kinds. In steps the great fisherman Dennis Rainey, he decides to go to class with them and see what the problem is and help them catch those fish. They did a little better that morning each catching 1 fish each, but Dennis not being one to give up easily has a plan, he will go and get some bait and after dinner they will try again. I’m not quit sure what kind of bait he brought back but I do know that before they were threw both boys had 14 fish apiece and were talking about having a fish off to break the tie. We also had scouts building shelters for wilderness survival, finishing wood working and leather working projects for merit badges along with various other projects. Thursday evening after supper is always time for the Mount Logan trip or a trip to the lake for smores and games. Richard Hargraves took 3 scouts up the mountain to spend the night and Craig Nadler took 3 more to the lake. About 9 PM it begin to thunder and both activities had to be cut short, which meant a walk back down the mountain about an hour after the got to the top. Activities at the lake were also stopped but not before a couple of kids got stung by hornets or yellow jackets, nothing serious. With everyone back in camp for the night the threat of rain had missed us, but the cooler air made for a good nights sleep.
Day 6 Friday
Things are winding down today we checked again to make sure everyone had completed their merit badges and tried to help out with any incomplete projects. A couple of merit badges will have to be completed at home but for the most part we finished them. I am looking for a good archer to teach 5 scouts how to shoot a bow it seems this merit badge was extremely hard to master, in fact I heard rumor that only 1 out of 17 scouts completed this badge at camp. Friday afternoon we had 5 scouts complete the mile swim and had the competition for Golden Arrow and Silver Bullet. You may recall that I won the Golden Arrow for the adults last year, well that was my 15 minutes of fame because this year was not a pretty site. However if you want to learn to shoot a rifle I have a scout you might want to talk to. It wasn’t his best shooting for the week but it was good enough to win the Silver Bullet for the youth. I’m sure Lance will try to take the credit for his skill but I don’t think he can out shoot his son. Josh Lemonds can put 5 shots in a target with a .22 rifle that you can cover up with a quarter, he tells me on a good day you can cover them with a dime but he didn’t want to show off, I wonder if he still has that target? Friday night brings the closing campfire, one last chance to get together with the entire camp for some fun and recognition. Halfway through the campfire we start to here thunder and then we see the lightning, things had to be cut short again. It was a good thing we did because just minutes after getting back to camp the sky opened up let us have it again, so we finished the week the way we started it WET. We all gathered in the pavilion to wait out the rain, Rick Samples had decided to sleep in there for the night and even with 20 or so scouts in his bedroom he still snores. The rain passed and we were able to make it to our tents for our last night before heading for home.
Day 7 Saturday
Lots of work to do this morning everything has to be packed up and cleaned up before 10:30 AM. and with the rain the night before lots of things were wet again. However we did finally manage to pass inspection and they let us leave, I still had to go and check out at the office and collect our paperwork for the week. All in all we between 16 scouts we earned 50 merit badges, 2 BSA Life guard certifications, 5 mile swims, and 2 completed Voyager training for first year scouts. The adults attended various training during the week including Child Protection, Safe Swim and Safety Afloat training, Liquid fuel usage and Safe Trek Training. We are gearing up for a great fall program which will begin with a trip to a Cardinal baseball game Monday August 1st. Thanks to everyone for the help at Summer Camp and to the Kiwanis Club for their support, keep up the hard work everyone
Freddy Gentry
Scoutmaster Troop 272
7/25/2005
Summer Camp 05 (part 1)
A View from the Camp (Year 2)
As I prepared for my second year of camp as Scoutmaster, things were beginning to fall into place and I was looking forward to a relaxing week away from all the hectic activity at home and work. It started out very different from what I had planned, first off I had to put my truck in the shop on Friday and now I had no way to pull the trailer. It just so happened that Mr. Nadler had recently purchased a Suburban to replace his van and with a little persuading he agreed to pull the trailer for us. Since I was down to one vehicle and I had to take my youngest son to stay with Grandma for the week I was unable to meet with the rest of the troop on Sunday morning at the scout hut. Mr. Nadler graciously offered to step in and do the job of getting everyone packed up and on the road, however he did later explain to me that he was an assistant scoutmaster and not to ever let that happen again. After making my 210 mile journey to cover the 90 miles to camp we all arrived safely around 2:30 and the fun began. 16 scouts, 5 adults, 11 tents, medical check in and swimming test were all completed with time to spare before dinner at 6 PM that evening. We did have a few extra adults helping with the setup and I want to thank them for driving up and helping, however they must have been staying in another camp because I didn’t see them again until Wednesday, (I wonder if there tents leaked too). Before dinner we all met at the flag pole to retire the flags for the day and get more instructions on what to do if the sirens were sounded to alert us of fire or bad weather, they also informed us that with well over 200 campers we were the largest group of the summer. After filling up on spaghetti we had an hour or so to relax before attending the opening campfire, or so I thought, of course there was an adult leader meeting to attend and a Senior Patrol Leader meeting for our SPL, but at least most of us got to settle in to our new home for the week. Opening campfire was AWESOME as usual we were introduced to the camp staff and they showed us their enthusiasm with skits and songs. A couple of staff members got extra loud cheers this week, we are proud of both Brandon Hargrave and Zach Vavak for doing a great job and I hope to see more of our scouts on staff next year, keep up the hard work everyone. It took a while for everyone to wind down Sunday night, but we had them in their tents by 11 although a few flashlights were seen spotlighting raccoons (and waking up assistant scoutmasters) well into the night. You guys know that there were no raccoons in Shelia and Jamie’s tents at 2 in the morning but I’m sure they appreciated you checking just to keep them safe.
Day 2 Monday
Monday morning at 5 am I here the pitter patter of, not little feet, but raindrops falling on my tent. I decided to go ahead and get up to check out the camp and see what might need to be moved out of the rain. It was a good thing I did because the first thing I saw when I came out of my tent was Ethan Seats, or at least part of him. Half of his cot was sticking out the end of his tent with him on it, and half of his stuff was scattered about the tent. It’s a good thing Edra took our advice and packed his clothes in zip lock bags at least they will stay dry when he forgets to put them back in his footlocker. After picking up a few other things, I joined Mr.Nelson of troop 25 for our morning coffee. We have been sharing a campsite with his troop for several years now and who ever gets up first has to fix the coffee. Excluding the wet weather the rest of Monday went by fairly uneventful. Everyone made it to their merit badge classes with out too much trouble and the rain was fun for the first 8 hours or so. Tents were beginning to leak so we pulled out every tarp and ground cloth we had to try and stop the rain inside our tents. Did I say things were uneventful, I do recall one of my assistant scoutmasters slipping in the mud and taking a hard fall, Shelia we really didn’t laugh. The rain let up just long enough to have the OA BBQ Monday night, which is actually steak but they do grill it so I guess you can still call it a BBQ. The rain was here to stay and evenings planned activities had to be cancelled. The Staff of Camp Lewallen was not about to let a little rain dampen our spirits, and the alternate plan was a movie night complete with popcorn and candy in the dining hall. The double feature was Shrek II followed by Star Wars Episode IV (the one that started it all). I set in on the ending of Star Wars because I hadn’t seen it since I saw it several times in the theater many moons ago. Lights out, most scouts were dry for the night however Ross’s sleeping bag was damp on the inside so I loaned him one of my dry blankets to get through the night.
Day 3 Tuesday
Tuesday morning brought more of the same RAIN and by this time is was no longer any fun. As I made my way from tent to tent wishing everyone a good morning I found something odd, Ross Joslin and Stephen Craig’s tent was empty. But my years of scout training kept me calm and I yelled “has anyone seen Ross and Stephen” this got an immediate response from Matt Rainey letting me know they were safe and sound in his tent. Matt had a tent by himself for a couple of nights, since his dad was coming up later in the week, so Ross and Stephen thought he was lonely and gave him some company. I’m not sure who invited who but the story was their tent was leaking and Matt’s was dry, since it had been raining, I couldn’t dispute that story. The rain was keeping the temperature down and also dropping the temperature in the swimming pool. It was discussed at the leaders meeting that if the water temperature continued to drop the pool would have to be shut down. Luckily the rain would stop by late afternoon and as soon as that humidity came back the pool was saved. However things at the campsite were still pretty wet, so I put in a call to Mike Scallorns to relay a message to all the parents coming up on Wednesday to expect mud and bring some dry clothes for their scout. It seems that most of my scouts were way ahead of me and had already called home requesting dry things. As we were having dinner Tuesday night Gerald Collins showed up, he had brought a few dry things for Ben and Patrick and decided to spend the night. he set up a cot in our pavilion where he could stay nice and dry. Tuesday’s evening activities, Camp Wide Game Night, was slowed a bit by all the mud but since the rain had quit we still had an extra free swim and disco night at the trading post.
As I prepared for my second year of camp as Scoutmaster, things were beginning to fall into place and I was looking forward to a relaxing week away from all the hectic activity at home and work. It started out very different from what I had planned, first off I had to put my truck in the shop on Friday and now I had no way to pull the trailer. It just so happened that Mr. Nadler had recently purchased a Suburban to replace his van and with a little persuading he agreed to pull the trailer for us. Since I was down to one vehicle and I had to take my youngest son to stay with Grandma for the week I was unable to meet with the rest of the troop on Sunday morning at the scout hut. Mr. Nadler graciously offered to step in and do the job of getting everyone packed up and on the road, however he did later explain to me that he was an assistant scoutmaster and not to ever let that happen again. After making my 210 mile journey to cover the 90 miles to camp we all arrived safely around 2:30 and the fun began. 16 scouts, 5 adults, 11 tents, medical check in and swimming test were all completed with time to spare before dinner at 6 PM that evening. We did have a few extra adults helping with the setup and I want to thank them for driving up and helping, however they must have been staying in another camp because I didn’t see them again until Wednesday, (I wonder if there tents leaked too). Before dinner we all met at the flag pole to retire the flags for the day and get more instructions on what to do if the sirens were sounded to alert us of fire or bad weather, they also informed us that with well over 200 campers we were the largest group of the summer. After filling up on spaghetti we had an hour or so to relax before attending the opening campfire, or so I thought, of course there was an adult leader meeting to attend and a Senior Patrol Leader meeting for our SPL, but at least most of us got to settle in to our new home for the week. Opening campfire was AWESOME as usual we were introduced to the camp staff and they showed us their enthusiasm with skits and songs. A couple of staff members got extra loud cheers this week, we are proud of both Brandon Hargrave and Zach Vavak for doing a great job and I hope to see more of our scouts on staff next year, keep up the hard work everyone. It took a while for everyone to wind down Sunday night, but we had them in their tents by 11 although a few flashlights were seen spotlighting raccoons (and waking up assistant scoutmasters) well into the night. You guys know that there were no raccoons in Shelia and Jamie’s tents at 2 in the morning but I’m sure they appreciated you checking just to keep them safe.
Day 2 Monday
Monday morning at 5 am I here the pitter patter of, not little feet, but raindrops falling on my tent. I decided to go ahead and get up to check out the camp and see what might need to be moved out of the rain. It was a good thing I did because the first thing I saw when I came out of my tent was Ethan Seats, or at least part of him. Half of his cot was sticking out the end of his tent with him on it, and half of his stuff was scattered about the tent. It’s a good thing Edra took our advice and packed his clothes in zip lock bags at least they will stay dry when he forgets to put them back in his footlocker. After picking up a few other things, I joined Mr.Nelson of troop 25 for our morning coffee. We have been sharing a campsite with his troop for several years now and who ever gets up first has to fix the coffee. Excluding the wet weather the rest of Monday went by fairly uneventful. Everyone made it to their merit badge classes with out too much trouble and the rain was fun for the first 8 hours or so. Tents were beginning to leak so we pulled out every tarp and ground cloth we had to try and stop the rain inside our tents. Did I say things were uneventful, I do recall one of my assistant scoutmasters slipping in the mud and taking a hard fall, Shelia we really didn’t laugh. The rain let up just long enough to have the OA BBQ Monday night, which is actually steak but they do grill it so I guess you can still call it a BBQ. The rain was here to stay and evenings planned activities had to be cancelled. The Staff of Camp Lewallen was not about to let a little rain dampen our spirits, and the alternate plan was a movie night complete with popcorn and candy in the dining hall. The double feature was Shrek II followed by Star Wars Episode IV (the one that started it all). I set in on the ending of Star Wars because I hadn’t seen it since I saw it several times in the theater many moons ago. Lights out, most scouts were dry for the night however Ross’s sleeping bag was damp on the inside so I loaned him one of my dry blankets to get through the night.
Day 3 Tuesday
Tuesday morning brought more of the same RAIN and by this time is was no longer any fun. As I made my way from tent to tent wishing everyone a good morning I found something odd, Ross Joslin and Stephen Craig’s tent was empty. But my years of scout training kept me calm and I yelled “has anyone seen Ross and Stephen” this got an immediate response from Matt Rainey letting me know they were safe and sound in his tent. Matt had a tent by himself for a couple of nights, since his dad was coming up later in the week, so Ross and Stephen thought he was lonely and gave him some company. I’m not sure who invited who but the story was their tent was leaking and Matt’s was dry, since it had been raining, I couldn’t dispute that story. The rain was keeping the temperature down and also dropping the temperature in the swimming pool. It was discussed at the leaders meeting that if the water temperature continued to drop the pool would have to be shut down. Luckily the rain would stop by late afternoon and as soon as that humidity came back the pool was saved. However things at the campsite were still pretty wet, so I put in a call to Mike Scallorns to relay a message to all the parents coming up on Wednesday to expect mud and bring some dry clothes for their scout. It seems that most of my scouts were way ahead of me and had already called home requesting dry things. As we were having dinner Tuesday night Gerald Collins showed up, he had brought a few dry things for Ben and Patrick and decided to spend the night. he set up a cot in our pavilion where he could stay nice and dry. Tuesday’s evening activities, Camp Wide Game Night, was slowed a bit by all the mud but since the rain had quit we still had an extra free swim and disco night at the trading post.
Look for Part 2 later this week.
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