District Camporee Summary
Camp Reeves
April 13-15, 2007

Troop 216 is part of the Crosswinds District of the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  The Crosswinds district consists of about 53 Scout Troops. This Camporee is attended by the District’s 53 Scout units and their guests.

There is always a theme for the Camporee and the theme this year was pioneering. That means a lot of rope work and knot tying.  The rope work includes making “machines” or tools out of rope and poles to pull, lift, carry, bridge and much more.

With that introduction, let’s go back to the beginning.  We arrived at camp about 6:45 PM on Friday night. The Patrol leaders toured our assigned camp site with the Senior Patrol Leader (SPL).  The SPL assigned each Patrol Leader a specific area for his patrol to set up their camp.  The Scouts were told to set up a dining fly first (because of the expected rain) and then put up their tents. The adult patrol put up our huge 20 x 40 foot canopy and set up our kitchen area.  The large canopy acts as back-up shelter for the Scouts just in case theirs don’t do the job.

After the camp was set up the Scouts started a couple of camp fires and sat around and talked and told stories. A few older Scouts and adult leaders had to attend Camporee meetings to gain information on the program for Saturday and on the activity that Troop 216 would be running.  Lights out was at 11 PM.

We were up at 6:30 AM on Saturday morning. The camp smelled great with the aroma of bacon, pancakes, eggs and more being cooked in each of the Patrol cooking areas.  The best smell for me was the fresh hot coffee.  After eating and cleaning up, we were off to the flag raising ceremony that took place at 8:45 AM.  The day’s activities started at 9 AM. The Scouts were off on their own in patrol groups to go from activity to activity.  Our older Scouts ran the Polish Skis activity.  As I spent time at that activity is was clear that our older Scouts were having just a much fun running the activity as the Scouts participating in the activity.  As best I can tell, all the Scouts had a great time during the day’s activities.

During the day we took a break for lunch back at camp from noon to 1 PM. And, then the Scouts were back out for more activities.  The program wound down about 4 PM and then there was an inter-Troop competition activity that used many of the skills the Scouts learned and practiced during the day’s activities.  Our Troop was to show up for the competition with the SPL and a patrol of 8 Scouts with a list or required equipment. The competitive teams assembled on the field and “ran” the race. We made up our competing patrol by having each of our real patrols pick one Scout to represent their patrol on our competing patrol.  So, we had Scouts of all ages in the competition. I don’t think that was true of the other Troops.  Bear with me as I share the challenge.  The SPL was at one end of the field and had to lay out a backpack full of gear on a tarp and then undress and get into his sleeping bag.  At the start horn the SPL had to jump up, get dressed, pack all his gear into his backpack and run to the other side of the field. In relay fashion now four Scouts had to build a “Roman Chariot” by lashing together several polls. After lashing together the poles one Scout climbs on the “chariot” and two other Scouts drag the “chariot” with the Scout on-board across the field.   When the Scouts get to the other side three other Scouts take over and disassemble the chariot and then use two of the polls and a tarp to make a stretcher and carry one Scout in the stretcher across the field. After reaching the other side of the field the Scouts all work together to lash three polls together (end-to-end), attach a patrol flag to the end pole and raise their flag pole.  As soon as the flag pole is up with three guy lines held with three tent pegs and is free standing that team is finished. 

Now for the play by play.  Our SPL was the first one back across the field.  Two other troops beat us across with the chariot. But, being the “parent” of my 65 Troop 216 Scouts, I have to call foul.  None of the other competing teams actually built the chariot as described in the instructions. And none of the other teams dragged their Scout across the field – they all put the poles together making a litter and carried their Scout across the field.  That meant that our competitors didn’t have to take time to do lashing or take time for lashing disassembly.  Our troop was the only one to follow the instructions on the competition. So, we were maybe the 6th or 7th troop to get across with the chariot. Then we were maybe the 7th or 8th to carry our Scout across in the litter.  Then we were a machine in building the flag pole. We passed up 4 or 5 teams and came in third place by being the third team to complete the free standing flag pole. In my mind we were first place because we followed the rules.  All that aside, it was a great competition with lots of cheering from the sidelines and lots of back slapping when our team came off the field.

After that we were back to camp to make dinner.  I saw Scouts cooking hotdogs over an open fire; the adults had chili and garlic bread. One Troop Guide made a chocolate cake in a Dutch oven over charcoal for the first year Scouts. ASM Dave T. brought a birthday cake for the Troop to celebrate his son’s (Chris T.) birthday which was Saturday.  Saturday had been a nice warm, mostly clear day, but as night came it was getting cool and windy as the storm front was approaching. We were periodically checking the weather forecast (yes we carry weather radios) and it was looking like there would not be any rain until after midnight.

About 7:30 we went down to the field so we could get a front row seat for the Camporee campfire and evening activities that were to start at 8 PM. We had several Scouts who had put together a skit for the agenda, but all the skits were canceled because of the Camporee organizers being concerned about the rain starting early. Our Scouts did the skit for our troop and the other early arrivals at the campfire.  The agenda started at 8 PM as planned and the program consisted of the awards and recognition for the day followed by the Order of the Arrow (OA) induction ceremony.  We received our third place award for the end of day competition.  It was an emergency preparedness starter kit. One of our patrols submitted a dish for the Camporee cooking contest. They made chicken casadillas.  And, yes they won an award for their dish – I believe it was a cook book. Scouts Alex G., Daniel M., Jack K., Andrew H., Joe L. and adult leader Tom Brawn were the OA inductees from Troop 216. The OA is the Scout honor society and service organization.  Candidates must have completed several requirements and receive yes votes for membership from more than half the Troop in a Troop election.  The campfire program ended about 9 PM. 

We made the decision to completely pack up the camp Saturday night because of the pending storm. So, everything was packed into cars and the trailer except for the tents and sleeping bags.  We were concerned that we would be packing up in the rain in the morning.  The Scouts were all down and in their tents for the night by 9:30 PM.  We had a couple of Scouts who were a little concerned about the coming storm, but we talked to them and helped them get down for the night. The rain did start about midnight, but there was no thunder and lightning or high winds.  We just had rain all night. About 11 PM one Scout asked me for help with a tick on his stomach.

7:30 AM was wake up time since the three cars that were arriving for transportation would come at 8:30 AM.  It was not raining – yea! We had a few wet tents and discovered that some of the rain flies didn’t cover as good as they should.  We also discovered that it was time to replace a couple of tents. We did the usual pack-up – clean-up, headcount rituals and we were on the road home by close to 9 AM.

Based on the comments I heard from the Scouts, it was another great campout.

Bob De Contreras