Day 5: Beach Bonanza Blog!

Our week at camp is drawing to a close.  This morning most of the boys are working to finish up merit badges and we'll be getting ready for a fun afternoon of Hullabaloo, a relay race and the Octopus cup.  Exactly what each of these events entails, I don't yet exactly know, but I think they'll involve chaos, effort and a lot of fun!  Our younger scouts have been spending a couple hours each morning working on "advancement requirements" - learning skills such as rope lashings, first aid, water safety and basic rescue techniques and how to do flag ceremonies. 

Troop 15 adult reinforcements began to arrive yesterday - first Blair Savidge and later in the day, Andy Dym.  Gerry and I welcomed the extra sets of hands and the counter-melody of snoring that Blair and Andy contributed to the scout-leader cabin last night. 

In addition to our Troop Time activities, we had a lot of fun at the Beach Bonanza last night after dinner.  It was a time for running jumps off the end of the pier, a sock hop in the craft lodge, beach volleyball and other games.  The dads were able to participate by baring our chests in the Scoutmaster Belly-Flop competition.  I made it into the final round but was only able to get third place, far short of the amazing performance of two dads nick-named "The Tsunami's" - aptly named for the water displacement created when they entered Hood Canal.  :) 

Last evening ended with a staf performance of the Wizard of Oz - an original and highly distorted version that was adapted specifically for Camp Parsons.  The staff here are great - they're in the 8th week but still have seemingly endless energy and work really well with our scouts.  It didn't take much coaxing to get the boys to sleep last night - they were all pretty tired from a busy day and the cumulative impact of the week.

In yet another display of Troop 15 prowess, Gerry won first place in the Scoutmaster golf tournament this morning - on the basis of his amazingly intricate, hand-crafted golf club.  I don't know that his kilt contributed to this significant honor but it was good for a laugh!

The boys all seem to be doing well - the only mishaps have been a few cuts and scrapes.  They're all pretty dirty by this time of the week, despite encouragement to wash up periodically - but this is camp and there's only so much you can do with a group of boys! 

Not sure that I'll have time to post another entry before we depart tomorrow morning so thanks again for letting your sons come to camp this week and for supporting their interest in scouting.  We've all had a great time and Gerry and I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the boys this week.  As I've said before, they're a really good bunch of young men!

Signing off, Tom

Day 4: Cresting the Half-Way Point

There were moments yesterday when I felt a sense of anticipation and even excitement about reaching the half-way point in our Camp Parsons adventure.  But by the time lights were out last night and I drifted off to sleep with the sounds of the ebb-tide off in the distance, I began to wax a little sentimental about the close of the week bearing down upon us.  It's been a great week!

Before the boys headed off to their bunks last night we had a "friendship fire" with Troop 448 from Renton down on Mystery Beach.  After making a small bonfire with scraps of driftwood, we shared treats, played guitar and got to know the boys and leaders from 448.  It's a nice way to keep the boys from becoming too insular in their own Troop and helps them to better conceptualize the larger community of scouting.

Our Troop Time activities yesterday were the Craft Lodge, Fingerprinting and round two of the Canoe Swamp.  The boys improvised bailers from old milk-cartons, soda bottles and other, random pieces of trash...but to little avail in the dreaded Canoe Swamp.  Most of us were swamped at least twice by other canoes but we all hardly seemed to notice that the temperatures had dropped by about 15 degrees since earlier in the week.  The sunny skies and balmy waters of Hood Canal took our minds off the otherwise chilly day!

As I mentioned earlier in the week, a key focus of scouting is getting the boys to demonstrate leadership and help run the troop - teaching, leading and supporting one another (it's called the "Troop Method").  At a couple of our recent flag ceremonies before meals, several boys were more interested in goofing off than showing respect for a few minutes.  Yesterday evening, we met as a troop and I posed the question to the boys "...how do you think we've been doing as a troop at flag ceremonies?"  To their credit, they acknowledged that we weren't putting our best foot forward.  We talked about how this didn't show respect for the flag, for the other boys, for our troop but most of all, for ourselves.  With no prompting or discipline from Gerry or me, they were on their best behavior during the opening flag ceremony this morning.  As I've said before, they're a good bunch of boys!

Tom

Day 3: "On my Honor..."

The Boy Scout oath begins "On my honor, I will do my best..."  If you read the entire oath (including the part about obeying the Scout Law) it's a highly aspirational promise - take a minute to read it and think about your typical day: 

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts.aspx. 

Any of us would be hard-pressed to fully live the words of the oath on any given day but falling short is not failure.  Failure is not making an honest effort to do your best.  Our Troop 15 scouts have been making their best effort this week to learn, have fun, support one another and to behave with integrity - they're a good bunch of boys and Gerry and I have appreciated the opportunity to spend the week with them! 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a goal of scouting is to develop leadership.  Part of that is encouraging the boys to work together to do much of the work of running the troop.  An example of this at camp is working with their Senior Patrol Leader (for this week, Aldo Eyasman) to schedule what activities they want to participate in at Troop Time every day.  Yesterday's troop meeting was entirely led by Aldo, and the boys discussed their preferences in a spirited but respectful way so Aldo could represent the troop in the Senior Patrol Meeting  and sign up for the next day's activities.

In what appeared to be our last day of hot weather this week, we opted to spend a lot of time in the water yesterday, at swim beach and doing the infamous pier jump!  Several of the boys overcame their fears and made the 15 foot plunge into the cool but refreshing waters of Hood Canal.  They also learned about "tracking" animals through the woods in addition to everyone working on their advancement and merit badges throughout the day.  After dinner last night we finished off the day's troop activities with shooting at the riflery range.

Thanks to my son Thomas' birthday being in this week, we ended the day with birthday cupcakes, some singing and and a few presents.  Then it was time for a few stories around our "campfire" and a quick read of one of my favorite poem's by Robert Service, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".  Shortly after lights were out, the wind kicked up and our heat wave of the last few days came to an abrupt close.  Last night was great sleeping weather, despite the winds howling through the trees overhead.  Day 3 had come to a close.

Signing off for now, Tom

Day 2 Update: Badges, Advancement, Shooting, Swamping and Climbing

Another day has passed at Camp Parsons.  The boys all seem to be doing well.  They're covered with one more day's worth of dust and dirt but have smiles on their faces and are enjoying camp.

I believe a couple of the boys have showered but we've all had a couple "rinses" in Hood Canal and we encouraged the Troop to brush teeth and wash faces this morning - whether they needed it or not! :)  Don't look too closely and you won't see the film of dusty grime that seems to cover everything and everybody at camp after a long, rainless stretch in the shadow of the Olympic Mountains!

After yesterday's departure of a couple other dads, Gerry Eyasman and I are leading the boys until reinforcements begin to arrive tomorrow and Thursday.  Now, you might think this is yeoman's work for two scout leaders to keep track of 21 boys.  To a certain extent, yes, but part of Boy Scouting is about leadership development, so we do have help from the ranks of our boys.  The older boys are expected to teach and set an example for our younger scouts and all the boys are expected to help run the Troop.  So, while Gerry and I are not necessarily kicking back relaxing, it's no hardship being here at camp with Troop 15! 

A typical day at camp begins at about 6:30 am as the boys begin stirring - with or without a little encouragement from their friends and our patrol leaders.  After our troop flag ceremony and camp assembly in front of the dining hall, we eat breakfast and head back to our campsite to get organized for the day.  Our younger scouts spend the morning working on scout skills for advancement while our older scouts work on merit badges.  After lunch, we have "Troop Time" and a little free-time before dinner.  Troop Time is my favorite part of the day because it's all about fun!  For example, yesterday we did archery and the famed "canoe swamp" competition in the afternoon.  After dinner we braved the climbing wall and tested our strength and agility with bouldering. 

We ended the evening with some musical entertainment at "Parsons-Stock" and a "campfire" of sorts.  Due to the high fire danger on this side of the Olympics, we aren't able to have fires in our campsite so we improvised last night with a lantern in the fire ring, some stories and a few jokes.  Lights were out....to a certain extent....by about 10:00 pm and the boys were definitely quieter and more tired last night than on day 1.  It was a good day for everyone involved.  And fortunately, the only casualty of the day was my camera - which was safely stached in my pocket during the canoe swamp. :( Good thing my Blackberry is still charged and working.

Best from Camp Parsons.

Tom

Camp Parsons Day 1: All's Well!

We're just a little more than 24 hrs into our week at Camp Parsons.  To a person, the boys are doing well so far - everyone in good spirits, still reasonably-clean and (most importantly!) safe. 

After departing Seattle Sunday morning, we drove to the Edmonds Ferry to Kingston and stopped for a delicious pizza lunch in Quilcene before checking into camp in the afternoon.  Upon arrival, it was several buys hours of checking and double-checking medical forms, doing swim checks, getting settled into camp and ready for our first meal last night.  We're in an amazing campsite named "Dungeness".  It sits up on a hill and overlooks Hood Canal - clearly one of the best sites in camp!

After dinner last night, we participated in evening vespers then signed up for merit badges for the week.  To end the evening, we went down to the campfire bowl for an inspirational and entertaining kickoff campfire.  At about 10:00 we headed back to camp - tired and with a sense of anticipation for the week to come.  After brusing teeth, it was off to bed....sleep came a little later when the giggling from the boys' cabins faded away and the last headlamp went out for the night.

This morning the boys are all off working on rank advancement and merit badges.  We're all looking forward to some fun activities and a little down-time this afternoon during Troop Time and free time.  I can tell already that this will be a fun week and I appreciate everyone supporting their son participating in Scouting and sending them to camp.  They're a good bunch of boys!

Tom