Day Camp

I just waved good-bye to Joshua and Peter as they set off for their last day of Senior Boys' Day Camp. Dressed in T-shirts and jackets against the cold weather they hopped in our friend's car with their water bottles and lunches. They have enjoyed their last two days, and are excited to find out what they will be doing today. I love seeing that kind of enthusiasm!
 
In past years, our boys have attended the District Cub Scout Day Camp, which traditionally involved five days of rotating between six stations in a huge mass of boys, indistinguishable in their matching shirts and hats, with only a different colored bandana to tell which group the boy was supposed to be traveling with. Three days into the camp, our boys were tired and exhausted, sick of wearing the same stinky shirt, moaning about having to attend one more day.

This year, frustrated with the official scout bureaucracy and the high costs, our stake decided to break away, and have their own day camp for the cub scout aged boys in the stake. This meant they couldn't call it an official "Cub Day Camp" so it was dubbed a "Senior Boys' (as in Senior primary) Day Camp." They had to find teachers for all the classes - which wasn't much harder than past years because we were providing most of the teachers anyway. It also meant a smaller group of boys - maybe one hundred rather than several hundred. The boys were divided by rank - Wolves, Bears, and Webelos, rather than by pack, and each rank got a different colored T-shirt to wear so it was easy to tell which boy belonged with which group. In designing the program, the leaders also looked at the achievements and requirements each rank needed to do so that the activities they did would help them advance. The boys in each group were given enough time to do the activity they were doing, and weren't rushed through so five other groups would have time to do the same exact activity. The camp was also shortened to only three days.

A large snake (maybe a bullsnake?) we saw on our hike yesterday

Yesterday, Steven and I got to attend camp. Steven led hikes through an open space near the stake center where the camp was held, teaching them "Leave No Trace" principles and about the ten essentials that scouts should bring with them when hiking or camping. Boyscout helpers then taught the cubs how to make bracelets out of para cord, and played kick ball before they hiked back to the church. I was an adult helper, and so I got to accompany the Bears as they went on the hike in the morning, and then learned about tall tales after lunch followed by shooting slingshots and throwing tomahawks. The throwing of the tomahawks was hampered by a storm that came rolling in about that time. The gusty winds blew over the cardboard targets, and all the scouts had to retreat to a pavilion for a five or ten minutes while the rain poured down. The cubs were good sports about it all and seemed to have fun in spite of the weather.

 While my Bears were tossing tomahawks and shooting slingshots, and Peter and the Wolves were hiking with Steven, Josh and the other Webelos got to make go-carts and race them in the parking lot. How fun does that sound?!

Today is the boys' last day. Tonight the families are invited to join them in the late afternoon to watch a program the boys will have prepared, and then eat a dinner, also prepared by the boys. I don't know if Steven will get off work early enough for us to go (He's missed a lot of work lately due to camping trips and helping out yesterday) but I think this is a great way for the scouts to share some of the things they have learned and share the fun with their families.