We did learn a few things as well. We had 1 Scout who was upset homesick. We did a pretty good job at calming him down each night of trouble, but we had another Scout who was homesick and showed it a different way. He was defiant. I'd never personally experienced that before. He would quit on activities and refused to get up or participate at times. It was very difficult to handle. We dealt with it, but it took us too many days to figure it out. We also had a few kids that didn't want to eat. We had 1 Scout who was a returner that will only eats few items, none of which are good and healthy for him. I had a long talk with his mother and she just refuses to make him eat properly. The sad part is, I don't think he has the drive to become an Eagle. Sometimes I wonder if he even wants to be a Scout. The last part of our learning process was the partial merit badges. The council had told everyone what the prerequisites were for each merit badge. We, as leaders, passed that on to the Scouts and their parents. But, some just didn't listen to the advice. Summercamp is expensive in today's world, whether or not the Scouts earned their way or their parents paid their way, partials just suck. We will push even harder next year for those merit badges that have prerequisites. They must be done!
Our Order of the Arrow lodge has gotten a new advisor. When I was a Scout, the ceremonies team memorized their lines. Last year, when my son got his brotherhood, they read off of cards and the ceremony sucked. It was disappointing. This year, when an Assistant Scoutmaster crossed over to Brotherhood, they memorized their lines and the ceremony was incredible. The ASM said that he felt like he was 14 again and going through Ordeal all over again. We all got goosebumps. On the Friday night campfire last year, the tap-out was weak. This year, again it was breathtaking. After it was over, every Scout in our Troop said it was awesome. It was so good, I want to go up again to watch the tap-out ceremony again. Great job to the Scouts and their new advisor!
All in all, it was a great week. The coffee cart that comes around every morning is one of my favorite things. Our Scoutmaster and myself even drive it a couple of mornings. We've talked about maybe looking at a different camp, but with meeting all of the out of council Troops that were there this week, I can't see why we would. Yes, our council is small and very weak as far as program goes, but our Camp is a great one. It's the staff of camp mostly that makes it so great, but our Ranger makes that camp what it is too. He cares about having the best camp around. He's proud of the fact that so many out of council Troops come here that he's creating new campsites to accommodate more Scouts.
Thank you too all the staffers out there who make summercamps fun. Thank you to all the leaders who take vacations to be therefor their Scouts. And thank you to all the boys who go and experience the greatness of summercamp. We can't wait for next years week!!
Until next time, Yours in Scouting,
Eagle Scout Doug
No comments:
Post a Comment