Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 19:02:14 -0500
Reply-To: SCOUTS-L Youth Groups Discussion List
<SCOUTS-L%TCUBVM.BITNET@pucc.
From: Peter Van Houten <peterva@QM.WV.TEK.COM>
Subject: Back from Camp!
Well friends and fellow scouters! I have returned from one week at Webelos camp and another week plus of vacationing. First, my vacation was very good...went through Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park. Picked up a great T-Shirt along the way when we visited the Shoshone-Bannock Indian PowWow. It has an Indian chief on horseback with the sun setting behind him, encircling the scene is a full headress, and along the top of the headress is the text 'On the PowWow Trail'. My fellow PowWowee's will be very jealous when they see it!
The week at camp was by far the VERY BEST experience I and my webelos boys could have had! I can't say anything bad....it was GREAT! It was a new concept in resident camping being tried out in our council. They took a unused Boy Scout Camp and converted it into a Webelos Camp. No fancy themes, just focused on Webelos activities and getting boys excited about crossing over into Boy Scouts. I took 19 boys and 4 additional adults with me. We shared a campsite similar to what Boy Scout camp is like. Ours was located on the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean (not bad). The program areas were focused around the outdoor activity badge group, as well as readyman, and sportsmanship! It also included Craftsman, and the usual BB Gun and Archery range. The food was superb specifically selected for a Webelos appetite. The staff was well trained and boy focused, emphasising the ultimate in leader qualities, while being a friend at the same time.
We had great campfires, both in our campsites as well as the campfire bowl. We did hikes, ocean walks, tide pool exploring, campfires on the beach, kite flying, sand castle building contest (they split my group up into two groups and we won 2nd and 3rd place). We went on a midnight hike to the beach to experience fluorescent alge. This was major cool! In the moonlight the waves rolling in looked like giant glow sticks rolling into shore. You'd pick up a handful of sand, shake it, and it would glitter like tinker-bell. Throw the sand onto the wet beach and its was like throwing a handful of lighted glitter onto the ground. Again it was totally cool!
One of the favorite songs (wish I could sing it to you so you'd get the tune right) was the 'Belly Button Song'. Song with a Jamacan feel, the words are:
CHORUS:
Me take care of me Belly Button, me like to keep it nice and clean.
Cause if me neglet me Belly Button, in it grows the fungus green.
'Yell: Fungus Dance" Stand up, scream, wave your hands and turn around.
1. When I was a little baby my mother looked and she adored
The doctor made me a Belly Button, when he cut off my umbilical cord.
2. Some people they have an 'Inny", deeper than the Grand Canyon
Some people have an "outy", bigger than the Astrodome.
3. In the winter time I wear my sweater, the one my Aunt Nellie sent
And when I take it off at night time, my Belly Button is full of lint.
The kids loved this song, and it is now become one which will live long in the repertoire of Pack 383.
Anyway, bottomline is that the did a great job, kids loved it and I hope this program expands throughout the nation because it is well worth it.
In Scouting . . .
Peter Van Houten
Peter Van Houten / E-Mail:
peter_van_houten.techsupport@qm.wv.tek.com
I thought that I would pass along my views of Session 1 of Cub Scout Adventure Camp at Shin-Go-Beek. The dates were from 1:00 P.M., Sunday, June 26, through 12:00 Noon, Wednesday, June 29th. For the Scouts-L readers, Shin-Go-Beek is one of the camps of Des Plaines Valley Council, which is based in La Grange, Ill. (Western and Southwestern suburbs of Chicago, Ill.). The camp is 40 miles (64 Km) due west of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which is about 80 miles north of the Illinois/Wisconsin border.
Program:
The program went very well. The theme was "Sea Adventures", so the staff built a replica of a ship out behind the barn on the property. I helped a little with building this ship. Three pieces of sewer pipe were the masts, with wood strips lashed to the top holding pieces of old tarps for the sails. Posts with lines tied to them formed the outline of the ship. This was the stage for Sunday's opening campfire (whose program was provided by the staff), and Tuesday night's closing campfire (whose program was provided by the campers). Everyone camp in costume for the Tuesday night program. Monday night's program was split: the Wolves and Bears went to the barn for a tournament of games. I cannot report on this, as I was with my son on the Webelos overnight campout.
The standard program areas (Games, Sports, Handicrafts, Nature, Swimming/Boating, Fishing, Archery, and Shooting [BBs]) were all well organized and had a good program to present. There was a downpour during the first afternoon program period on Monday, which interfered with Swimming, Archery, and Games. However, the other areas progressed. Nature (which is where I was at the time) gave the Scouts a couple of games to play. The Scout running the area wrote the names of all the local flora and fauna he had described on pieces of paper. Each Scout held the paper up to his forehead, so that everyone else but him could read it. He then asked the other Scouts questions about what he had until he could guess it (do I fly? do I eat insects? how many legs do I have?). Thus, even though we could not go on the Nature trail, the Scouts still learned something and had some fun. The Scouts in Handicrafts had fun building boats. The fishing went well, as everyone had live bait to catch hungry bluegills on, and we got an extra thrill when two snapping turtles showed up and grabbed dead bluegills off of the Scouts' lines!
Kudos to all the staff on the program!
Webelos Overnight:
After the Monday night meal, all the Webelos Scouts went on a hike to the Pioneer campsite. On the way, we stopped in the main campfire bowl, where Jim Margalski, in a Native American outfit, gave a talk on camp traditions, and how the Scouts were now starting their progression to Boy Scouts by hiking into, and camping in, areas of the camp that are used only by Boy Scouts, not Cub Scouts. Then we hiked around a moraine that had a replica of a totem pole mounted in the bottom. The Webelos had been asked previously to find a stone around camp, in an area significant to them, and mark it with their name. They were now asked to toss the stone into the bottom of the moraine where the totem was. After that, we hiked into Pioneer campsite. The total length was about 1.5 miles, I believe. At that point, a custom that has occurred every year I have been at Shin-Go-Beek was observed: just as the Webelos started to set up camp, it started to rain. Fortunately, this time it was a gentle shower, and everyone managed to get their gear under canvas before it got wet. There were sufficient tents and tarps to accomodate everyone. The staff had built a large fire, and cooked up 6 cobblers in Dutch ovens. My favorite was Apple cobbler using chocolate cake. Lots of songs were sung, and the pine needles on sandy soil made for a soft bed under my Therm-a-Rest mattress. We were all in good spirits as we marched back into camp Tuesday morning.
Dining Hall:
Shin-Go-Beek has a dining hall, and the Cubs had a lot of fun there. The food was quite good this year: Liz is doing a great job with the food and with her kitchen staff. The layout is different than those of you in the Council have seen before: instead of individual 8 and 10 man tables, there were about 7 long rows of tables with benches down the sides. This allows the hall to accomodate more people, which was necessary as the session was oversubscribed about 33% (around 200 campers were in camp). The spirit in the dining hall was remarkable. Lots of Pack yells back and forth across the hall, good songs too. It reminded me of the dining hall meals when I was a Scout at Camp Child (Old Colony Council, southern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts). The spirit made both the Scouts and the staff enthusiastic and carried over the whole session. This session exemplified everything good that can come from a dining hall program.
In summary, a good time was had by all. Pack 69 had 17 adults and 20 Scouts in camp, and we'll be back next year.
YiS
Ron Fox
Cubmaster, Pack 69
Des Plaines Valley Council
Pachsegink Lodge
Last modified 12/12/95