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