Troop
News
2010
Scouts
attend 2010 National Jamboree at Fort AP
Hill, Virginia
From July 26 - August 4, tens
of
thousands of scouts
gathered at the military base Fort AP Hill
for the 100 year anniversary
2010 National Jamboree. Activities
at the jamboree included
scuba, rapelling, bmx racing, archery,
black powder rifle, and many,
many more. There was a merit badge midway
where a scout could work on
any merit badge offered by the Boy Scouts
of America!
Counselors
were ready to teach auto mechanics,
dentistry, nuclear science, and
oceanography!! Several nights the
boys were entertained by
the
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Miss
America Caressa Cameron,
and Bob McDonnell, Governer of Virginia as
well as music performances
by Switchfoot and The Honor Society.
The closing ceremony was
the
largest ever with fireworks, a visit by
special guest Mike Rowe of
Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, and the
announcement of the new
location of the 2013 National Jamboree at
the Summit Bechtel Family
National Scout Reserve in West Virginia.
Patch trading was
one of
the main activities during their free time
and several of the scouts
were able to trade patches with scouts
from troops from all over the
world.
Scouts
heading off to the 2010 BSA National
Jamboree: Sam G, Mensheng R,
Kevin M, Evan S, Alex G, and
Nick D.
Learn more about the 2010 BSA National
Jamboree here!
_____________________________________________________
Scouts
attend
Florida
National
High Adventure Sea Base
___________________________________________
Troop
News
Archive
___________________________________________
Scout
Adventures
Alex B. reports on
Camp Durant
- Summer 2009
Assistant Shooting Sports Instructor
Alex
B. worked at Camp Durant as an
Assistant Shooting Sports
Instructor. He was paired with an older
staff member (Mark Bittinger)
and together instructed two
sessions of archery in the morning
and
two sessions of Rifle in the afternoon.
Alex worked for six
full
weeks plus two staff-development
weekends in the spring; one week was a
staff training week with no campers.
There were five full weeks of
campers, including one week with Cub
Scouts, Webelos, and Boy Scouts
all in the same week. Every Monday, the
Shooting Sports area held a
scoutmaster Turkey Shoot, where
scoutmasters competed in came around
and shot archery, rifle, and shotgun.
Tuesday and Thursday, we held
Open Shoots for any scouts who came
down. There was a campfire every
Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday night.
Sunday and Wednesday campfires
featured skits from the staff, Wednesday
featured an OA tapout
ceremony, and Friday featured skits from
the different camper troops
and awards from the different staff
areas. The Shooting sports team did
not perform any skits except for one
special skit for the Cub scouts
due to our extra busy schedule with open
shoots or competitions every
day. On Fridays, scouts made up any
missed work from earlier in the
week, and then came to the rifle range
for the NRA Postal Shoot. They
shot a special target from the prone
position, which we then mailed to
the NRA for scoring. Friday afternoon
was filled up with the Tomahawk
Race, where scouts from each troop ran
around camp to the different
areas and competed in a specific task in
each area. Rifle and Archery
were the last two legs of the race, so
we were not finished until
around 4:00 to 5:00pm.
Northern
Tier
July 12 - 21, 2009
Reported
by
Alex G.
This
summer,
4 scouts and 2 adult leaders went to
Northern Tier, a Boy
Scouts National High Adventure camp
based in Ely, MInnesota.
Northern Tier is based in the
boundary waters on the
American-Canadian bborder. Our group
left on July 12th and returned on
July 21st. We spent a total of
seven days and six nights on
the
water and two nights at the base.
It rained for five days
straight while we were on the water, but
we did have two days of
glorious sunshine.
On
the
12th, we flew up to Duluth, Minnestoa
and spent the night in a resotr,
named Giant Ridge, that caters to Boy
Scouts. The following
morning we visited Soudan mines for a
tour. We were taken
half a
mile underground to the 27th level of
the iron ore mine. We
got
to see how the mine operated and how ore
was moved from inside the mine
to the outside. After our tour we
got back inour van and were
driven into Ely. Once in Ely we were
taken to the Spirit of the
Wilderness shop where we were given a
fishing seminar. Later,
we
went to the base itself. At
Northern Tier, we met our gide,
Brian, and were given a brief history
lesson on the northern traders
that used paddle the boundary waters.
Finally, we were taken
to
get our gear. We spent the night
in one of the cabins
privided by
the base. On the morning of the
fourteenth, we gathered our
gear,
got our food fo rthe trip, and checked
out our canoes. Then
we
launched.
Each
day we
paddled between four and six hours for
about ten miles a day.
Our
days usually went like this: At 5:30 we
woke up and packed up our
stuff. Then we ate breakfast and
finished packing up.
We
left the camp site around 8:00 and
paddled until around noon.
Next we ate lunch and set up camp.
After camp was
set up we
had free time. We fished,
swam (to retrieve lost
lures),
scratched mosquito bites, and some of us
read. We ate dinner around
5:00 and went in our tents to play cards
until around 8:00, in fear of
having all our blood sucked out of ous
from the swarms of mosquitoes.
On
the 20th
we got off the water, returned all of
our gear, and finally got a
shower. Our group went to a
rendezvous campfire
with other
Scout groups who were out on the waters.
We again spent a
night
in a cabin provided by the base and on
the morning of the 21st we
returned home with lots of fun memories.
 
World
Jamboree 2007
After
attending
the National Boy Scout Jamboree in
Summer 2005, Mark K.
became interested in attending the
World Scout Jamboree in Summer 2007.
The
World
Scout Jamboree is a gathering of
scouts from all the 180
countries in the world that have a
scouting program. This summer was
the 100th anniversary of scouting, and
for that the World Jamboree was
held in Chelmsford, Essex, England at
Hylands Park. North Carolina sent
a troop of 36 boys and 4 leaders from
3 councils. We arrived 3 days
before the start of the Jamboree and
we toured Windsor and London. We
arrived at the Jamboree site on July
27th and within a few hours we
turned our small patch of grass into a
campsite for 40 people with all
our stuff and places to cook and eat,
along with 40,000 other Scouts!
The Jamboree's focus was to promote
tolerance and friendship between
scouts from across the world. Every
day there were activities planned
including 3 offsite days where we did
water activities, high adventure
activities, and a service project.
We all met people from other countries
and learned about other
cultures. It was very cool to be able
to see scouts from places like
Israel and Pakistan getting along, and
leaving behind the struggles of
the world to make friends not
judgments. The World Scout Jamboree
was
truly an amazing experience
that showed the power of friendship
and how something so simple can
bring the whole world together.
The
next
World Scout Jamboree will be held in
Sweden in the summer of
2011, and the next National Scout
Jamboree will be Summer of 2010. If
you have any questions, or have any
interest in attending
a
Jamboree, either National or World,
please contact me or visit the
Websites:
www.worldjamboreetroop219.org
and follow the links
www.worldjamboree.net;
Mark
K.
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