Fall Camporee 2006 –

This weekend I took my scout troop to compete against other scout troops in a fall camporee at Usery Pass. Our troop has taken first place at this annual event as long as anyone can remember (except for last year when another troop CHEATED…leaders that let their scouts cheat make me sick). This year, they got a perfect 100 out of 100 points. The boys were assessed on uniforms, discipline, friendly service, camp cleanliness and head to head competitions.

It seemed to me, that the feeling in the other troops was that if you do everything that is asked you won’t have any fun. It will just be a burden. I’m glad my boys know that by being obedient you are rewarded, acknowledged and respected. I truly believe that my boys had the most fun of any group just because they got their assignments done fast and early. After the work was done they got to play and do their own thing without guilt or fear of some adult telling them what to do.

The theme this year was Emergency Preparedness. For several weeks we have been preparing for this event by practicing first aid, learning search and rescue, and discussing principles to follow in an emergency.

The main event was a search and rescue of an 80 lb dummy. The dummy was hid out in the desert and the boys were given a map and had to organize themselves to do a sweep of the area to find the dummy, administer first aid, and then transport it back to base camp. I built our dummy, but couldn’t weigh it, so it ended up weighing 93 lbs. instead of 80. Oops.

Even though the dummy was placed outside of our search grid, our troop was one of the first to find the dummy, and definitely the quickest to administer first aid and get it back to camp. They used walking sticks and t-shirts to make a stretcher and carry the 93 lb dummy. As was expected, our dummy was extra difficult to find, and was placed under a palo-verde tree but on top of a cactus.

The kids were prepared with gloves and got in there to splint the leg, harness the arm, put a bandage on his head, load him on the stretcher and carry him out. As leaders we didn’t tell them how to do anything (because we taught them everything earlier this month, and by telling them now would be cheating). I did have to remind them to focus a couple of times and get to work, but overall I was very pleased with their performance.

It is sort of hard to complain when they get 100/100 points.

Here are some pics.

Scott

Our Senior Patrol Leader

Our Dummy
(which was the best out of all the groups, hands down)

Being awarded with the first place feather