Summer Camp 2015

The scouts and leaders have just returned from a very successful summer camp.

18 scouts from seniors to newest scouts that just graduated into scouts, all attended and had a successful week. Many merit badges were completed and a few will return with partials.

The most important tool for camp

Here is Mr Grisgraber's report:

we're number 1.......07!

Another summer camp complete, and I think everyone will agree it was a very successful one!

We now have a new Troop cheer, see above...

Ian did a great job as Senior Patrol Leader. We tried to focus on running the Troop with the Patrol Method, and in general it was successful. I think Ian and his Patrol Leaders have a better idea now of how it can work, and the benefits of making it work. Hopefully this experience will play forward into the future leadership of the Troop.

The younger Scouts showed that they've learned a lot since their first experience last year, and have made a lot of progress. The older Scouts especially showed a lot of good leadership abilities, we're looking forward to seeing more. Everyone was working together well.

Hammocks seem to have become the most popular sleep system of the camp, but some hard lessons were learned the first night with the torrential rain. It's a learning process.

We performed several Scoutmaster Conferences and Boards of Review for rank advancements.

The Scouts took a wide variety of merit badges. Metalworking was very popular among the older scouts. Rifle shooting was another popular badge since the age limit was lowered a bit for this year. Everyone seemed to enjoy their classes, and the longer-format class seems to be working well. Many were able to get two merit badges for one class due to the new format. Three scouts completed the FROGS program, giving them a head start into Tenderfoot, Second, and First Class advancements. Great job everyone!

There are many partials, we will start going over how to finish them on an individual basis in the next meeting. We will also have the actual badges that were completed to hand out. We will also be going over what we can apply from camp toward rank advancements, ie First Aid, so make sure you bring your Scout Handbook to the next meeting. There will be a quiz.

We had two new members tapped out to be inducted into the Order of the Arrow, Ian and Mr. Cannizzaro. In addition, five Ordeal members successfully converted to Brotherhood: Sean, Michael, Dylan C., and Harrison R. Congratulations guys, now that you've seen a little more of how active the OA is at camp, hopefully that appeals to you and you'll continue that path.

Due to this being the 100th anniversary of the OA, the tapout ceremony was particularly special, including a drum team and grass dancers. Very impressive - if you haven't seen it, next Thursday would be a great opportunity to go up to camp and check it out. 

Family night went especially well due to the camp cookery of Doug - what a feast! The staff we invited were especially grateful to be finally eating the barbeque that they had been forced to smell all day while it slow-cooked, I heard we tortured the entire side of the camp. We received nothing but positive comments about the meal, and your generous donations covered the costs.

The leaders were quite busy as well - I can't remember anyone actually taking a nap! Highlights included:

• José was by far the most motivated of all of us, completing both the Swim & Water Rescue and Paddlecraft Safety programs. He is now able to administer the BSA Swim Test. As the newest leader, he may have been showing off, we'll see if he's still as motivated after his 10th camp!
• Allen and Phil completed Scoutmaster/Assistant Scoutmaster Specific Training, which is now required for leaders for our next rechartering. 
• Allen and Bob created some tasty entries for the Scoutmaster Ice Cream Making Competition.
• Doug and Bob were able to show the fish in the lake who's boss.

• Bob and I shot sporting clays on the new 5-stand shotgun course, and tied for second place among our 5 shooters. The course is new this year, and extremely challenging. Those who take the shotgun merit badge in the future will be using various parts of it for the merit badge.
• We won first place for the Scoutmaster Dutch Oven Cook-off in a very close race - sampling them all was the best meal of the week for the adults!.

As I mentioned previously, next year's camp has been reserved for week 3, July 3-9, 2016. This date was chosen to cause the least interference with the Catholic Heart Work Camp mission trip of St. Paul's if any Scouts would like to attempt doing both camps. We will be in the same campsite, Chippewa A, everyone seemed to like the site. Unfortunately, the 4th of July is on that Monday, but we didn't want to go any further into the summer. Hopefully that won't deter anyone from attending.

Thanks for everyone's work that made this possible, and especially the leaders for keeping great coverage all week.

Camp site improvement project

 Leaders at Flag