Spring Camporee

Testing their lashings in a race

Like last year, this year's spring had been "extended" (for a limited time only...) So yes, we had snow and freezing rain right up to Friday morning. Boys went off to school wondering if their parents had the fortitude to let them go to the Spring Camporee. Parents sent their boys off to school wondering if their sons might freeze to the ground that very night. Never mind the forecasted lows were a good 50 degrees warmer than our coldest winter days... that's really not saying much in these parts.

By the time school let out, the weather had cleared, and it was almost easy to ignore the forecast for freezing temperatures overnight. Two Troops and a handful of Scouts backed out, but only one of our boys.

So... the weather Saturday was beautiful with blue skies, a significant warm-up, and lots of sunshine with Sunday bringing more of the same.

And the camporee? It came off without a hitch. Let the others gnash their teeth in envy, Scoutmaster Carl organized and pulled off a really great event with a lot of  help from a lot of really great Scouting folks from our Troop and others. With everyone pitching in, we all got to have a lot of fun.

Fun like...

• testing visual memories
• challenging navigation skills
• patrol sprints using only four legs and four arms (eight legged monster)
• a canoe portage challenge course
• fire building
• match splitting (with a hatchet)
• readiness testing (Scouting essentials)
• Dutch oven entree and dessert cooking 
• and lots of lashings (knot tying)

Of course, we've got a photo album of a lot of the fun stuff, but there was so much going on, there was no way to capture it all!

The boys got off to a great start Saturday morning

One special feature for us included using the "Patrol Method" for the first time. Carl organized the boys into three patrols, each with a patrol leader and assistant. The patrols planned their own meals and duty rosters, set up their own tents, prepared their own food, and cleaned up their own messes. 

"How did that work out for you?" you may well ask. Well... I heard lots of yelling and arguing and debating and trial and error, and they got a lot done, too. 

The "Patrol Method" forms the heart of Scouting. It was new to most of our Scouts, but it's a really great tool to teach leadership skills, self-reliance, teamwork, and so much more. All the boys slept in tents, no one missed a meal, and the campsite was cleaner when we left than when we arrived. More importantly (probably), the boys have started learning how to organize themselves and work together as a team.

From a parent's point of view, watching the boys employ the Patrol Method was like watching five boys all learn to ride the same bicycle all piled on at the same time. But by standing back and watching them work things out for themselves, they learned far more far faster than they would have during any Troop meeting. 

A lot more.

Lock-in!

The night went a lot like this...

It's winter and the boys sometimes get squirrelly, so what's a Troop to do? Lock. Them. In! It's an idea so brilliant, it makes you wonder why we don't do this every month... Volunteers? Anyone?

So we locked the boys in, and we had a enough volunteers that Carl didn't have to wander the hallways muttering to himself. And the boys and their brothers and their friends went about the very serious business of having fun.

Video games abounded with Flappy Birds causing the most buzz - and frustration. Next door a non-stop game of  "capture the fort" dominated the gym. The boys turned hockey sticks into rifles or canons, a scooter became a scout car, and with only a little prodding, they conscripted two trash cans on wheels to serve as battle tanks.

It's also true that a few sleeping bags saw limited service as sleeping bags, but that wasn't discouraged. There's more evidence of good times here in this album, too!

Pack 321 Webelos Cross Over...

On My Honor...

... with a little help from their friends in Troop 321 and Boy Scouts' honor society, Order of the Arrow.

Families, Scouts, and leaders all attended this significant and solemn event, and many of the boys from Troop 321 participated.

These former Cubs will now choose a Troop to join, and we expect many of them will choose ours.

Additional event photos may be found in our album page.