Saturday, September 27, 2008

Scouts Participate in Fall Camporee


At about 4:30 pm on Friday, September 26, members of the troop and adult leaders left to participate in the Cascade District Fall Camporee. Rae Eatough and Dan Williams helped prepare the troop for the outing by getting tour permits, purchasing food, and preparing equipment. Zach Jarman was Senior Patrol Leader. The troop met at the home of Morgan Hunter, an 11-year-old scout participating to help satisfy his requirement for Tenderfoot. Iain Hunter (Morgan's father) and Greg Jones (Scoutmaster) provided adult leadership. Stephan Dartiguenave, Morgan Hunter, and Tyler Rife were part of the group that left from the Hunter Home.

The troop was among the first to arrive at Kelly's Grove. After setting up tents, the troop built a fire and then prepared foil dinners (hamburger, onions, carrots, potatoes). Morgan did a lot of this work to help him in his rank advancement, and the scouts and adult leaders provided help and training to support him. Of their own initiative the scouts began exploring how to best prepare a piece of toast on an open fire, with remarkable success - - they even prepared garlic toast. About this time Landon Ledingham arrived with his father, and recently released Scoutmaster, Steve Ledingham. They were unable to arrive earlier or stay the night because of schedule conflicts (including Landon's football game on Saturday morning), but they participated as much as they could and provided a lot of energy and support. They joined us at the campfire program held during the evening in which we heard Curtis Hanson tell of lessons he has learned preparing for triathlon competitions; the presentation included an inspiring story and video of Dick and Rick Voyt, and father and his disabled son who have participated together in numerous marathons and triathlons, with the father transporting his son in each event. The rest of the evening the scouts had fun and a "cracker barrel" snack time in which each scout and Brother Hunter told of something for which they are grateful, and the Scoutmaster shared a "Scoutmaster's Minute" message. Lights were out and all were in their tents by 10:30 pm, although that did not mean all were asleep by that hour, or that all were able to sleep through the night.

Zach Jarman woke everyone at 7 am on Saturday, as we had planned. We ate muffins and milk for breakfast, packed up, then participated in a district flag ceremony, games, an awards ceremony, and then each scout and the adult leaders took turns reviewing Tenderfoot requirements with Morgan Hunter (knot tying, poisonous snakes and plants, memorization of the scout law, oath, and motto, and first aid training). We stopped at a Dairy Queen in Springville for a treat on the way home.

This was a nice campout in which the scouts had fun, served each other, got to know each other better, learned some things, and helped the adult leaders learn some things as well.

Photos from this campout are posted at www.troop797.net under the "Troop 797 Photo Album" link.

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