Date: Fri, 27 May 1994 12:23:10 -0500
From: Jim Sleezer JHS8%OSUVM1.BITNET@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Camporee Mystery Event
One of my favorite mystery events at a Camporee tests "A Scout is Helpful."
The first time we used it, my parents were visiting from out of state and came out to visit. They were carrying their canoe on top of the car. They were both retired and looked like elderly types. We stationed them on an old road beside the lake which everyone took enroute from station to station.
As a patrol came along, they "struggled" to get the canoe loaded. If a patrol offered to help, Dad would pull out his scout hanky and wipe his brow saying something like, "that's ok." If the patrol went on, they were called back and awarded 5 points. If they made any additional effort to help they were awarded 10 points. If, they ignored the situation and just went on, they were asked something like "hey, could you give us a hand?" If they then came back to help, they got 3 points. Otherwise, they got none.
About a quarter of the patrols were too intent on the competition to come back to help. At the campfire that evening, we recognized the top finishers in the competition. Mom and Dad were introduced and their event explained. Several "I told you we should have helped them" responses were heard from the scouts.
We did a similar event at camp with an older camp commissioner trying to push a heavy lawnmower up a steep ramp to a truck. Less than half the patrols were willing to help. One patrol was so intent on helping they loaded the mower before Dan could say anything. And then they just trotted off down the trail to make up for lost time. Dan was left with the mower on the truck. It really was too heavy for one person to move on the steep ramp so he had to call for help to get it off again. BTW, that was the only patrol to get 10 points. Only five patrols (out of about 40) even offered to help and as I said, over half were too intent on the competition to respond to a request for assistance.
Another version I heard about was a fisherman with what appeared to be a fishhook caught in his leg. He was adjacent to a staging area for one of the water events. Several patrols noticed him but made no offer to help. Some just didn't seem to notice, even when he started complaining in a loud voice.
It was always interesting to hear the comments when we announced what the "mystery" event was.
jim Sleezer
Roundtable Commissioner, Pawnee Bill District, Will Rogers
Council
Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 18
Stillwater, Oklahoma
JHS8 at OSUVM1.BITNET JHS8 at VM1.UCC.OKSTATE.EDU (Internet)