Located north of Pondsford, Minnesota, is a place where hundreds of Boy Scouts gather each summer. Here, near a lake surrounded by tall birch trees and mighty pines, is the camp known as Many Point Scout Camp. Scouts from across Minnesota, and in fact from across the USA, have a great time at Many Point canoeing, swimming, sailing, climbing towers, shooting rifles and bows, and learning scoutcraft.
    Thirty Scouts from Melrose Troop 68 attended Many Point during the week of July 11-17. Jay Hinnenkamp, Pat Christenson, Jesse Wolbeck, Ben Kociemba, Jacob Duclos, Jeremy Lang, Keith Faber, Andy Kleinfehn, Nick Ellering, Brett Moening, Benji Imdieke, Nick Schwieters, Jamie Wolbeck, Brandon Denn, Mike Linnemann, Ryan Bergmann, Kyle McClure, Darin Christenson, Matt Waldorf, Jason Lang, Chris Berg, Alex Ellering, Mike Viere, Jonathon Wolbeck, Nathan Ellering, Mike Orth, Josh Duclos, Marc Wensmann, Dave Ostendorf, and Jacob Ellering spent the week at camp with adult leaders Steve Borgerding, Eymard Orth, and Jeff Duclos.
    A typical day began with breakfast at the dining hall. The morning hours were divided into four sessions. The first three were used for merit badges classes. The fourth was used for a troop activity. After lunch the troop had some free time, a camp wide event, or more troop activities. In the evening all program areas throughout camp were open for the Scouts to enjoy. Most evenings saw the gang around the campfire before hitting the sleeping bags for a good night's rest.
    Troop 68 participated in several troop activities during the week. On Monday, the troop had a troop swim and a Dutch oven cooking demonstration. On Tuesday, the did a camp service project as part of earning the Super Troop award, and then spend a couple of hours sailing on Many Point Lake. A few troop members completed in the camp's triathlon know as the Ironman.
On Wednesday the troop took part in the ethics for action program which helps the troop to develop team skills while playing games that involve problem solving. The afternoon was spent at the beach again when the troop had another troop swim period. The Scouts also spent a little time preparing their songs and skits for the Friday night campfire program.
    The troop gathered at the beach again on Thursday morning for the greased watermelon game. It is played like water polo except that a watermelon, covered with lard, is used as the ball. During the afternoon the Scouts were at the camp's climbing tower. Volleyball was also a popular afternoon activity.
    The Scouts finished work on most of their merit badges Friday morning. Most of the afternoon was spent at the archery and rifle range. The troop was divided into two groups at the ranges, the experienced and not so experienced. 
    When it came time for the experienced group to shoot the 22 rifles they chose to do the ‘egg shoot’. Each rifleman would get three practice shots to site in his target. Then, the paper target were replaced with an egg. Most of the eggs were raw, but a few were hard boiled. The object was to hit the egg with one of the remaining two shots. If a Scout missed the egg with both shots then he had the choice of eating the egg, or wearing it. Only three Scouts missed the egg, but a fourth Scout received a penalty egg for trying to hit someone else's egg. Three guys choose to wear their egg but hitting it on their forehead. One of them was please to discover that his egg was hard-boiled. However, the one who choose to eat his egg was not pleased to find that it was not hard-boiled.
   Most of the troop headed to the camp's fire tower and history museum after supper. Then it was time for all troop's in the camp to gather for the Friday night closing campfire program. The camper's energy was high as the program began, and continued high throughout the campfire. Troop 68 was the only troop to perform during the program. They sang their song MPSC, which was based on the Village People's YMCA. An Order of the Arrow call-out ceremony was held after the campfire program.
    But troop members were not ready to back to their campsite yet. They headed to the site of Minneapolis Troop 195 for another campfire program. Both troops had a great time performing their favorite songs and skits for each other. Many of the staff stopped by to join in the fun.
    As Saturday morning arrived the troop began to pack for its journey back home. Most Scouts agreed that the week flew by too fast and could hardly believe the time had already come to go home.
    All three adult leaders agreed that this was one of the best summer camps that the troop has attended, mainly to the fact the the Scouts were so well behaved. In fact, as they all agreed, it did not even seem like there were thirty troop members in attendance.
    If you would like to see more about this year's trip to Many Point Scout Camp check out Troop 68’s web site at www.melrosetroop68.org. As our pictures are developed the best will be placed on the web site. 
 

Members of Troop 68 raise the flag at the morning ceremony before breakfast.	Thirty Scouts and three leaders from Troop 68 attended camp this year.	The climbing tower was a popular place to spend one's free time.
They spent one afternoon at the rifle and archery ranges.	Scouts who missed their egg target on the rifle range got to wear their target.	This was the biggest catch of the week for Troop 68.
Sailing is always a popular event at camp, if there is enough wind.	Somewhere in the middle of this crowd is a greased watermelon.	Another popular sport of Troop 68 was volleyball.