A Scoutmaster's Blog

After supper on Saturday, the Order of the Arrow set up several “carnival” style activities to keep the Scouts busy until the evening’s Call Out ceremony was scheduled to begin. Stations included activities like throwing a ball to knock down the stacked blocks, throwing a football through a hoop, and throwing darts at balloons. Candy prizes were given to Scouts who were successful. There was even a softball game and an Ultimate frisbee game being played.

The four Boy Scouts from Troop 68 were having fun going from one station to the next. Just before the stations were closed down for the evening we walked by a station which caught the boys attention. Two Scouts would stand on a 2×4 piece of lumber and then try to push or pull the other Scout off balance. The first to step off the 2×4 and place his foot on the ground lost the game. The winner stayed on the board to accept a new challenger.

A female troop leader had been playing the game with the boys and had won several contests. She was a larger woman and did have weight on her side, but the boys only saw that as a greater challenge. One of my 14 year old Scouts decided to get in line to give it his best shot.

When it came time to face her on the board he seemed to have a few second thoughts. How was he going to get her off the 2×4 when so many before him had failed? He finally decided to charge her with his shoulder down, hoping that brute force would knock her off. She caught him in a near bear hug and threw him off to the side. He laid there for a moment, accepted her hand to help him up, smiled, and then cracked a joke as he rejoined his buddies. We walked back to the barracks to get ready for the Order of the Arrow call out.

As we were changing into our uniforms this Scout went off to the bathroom. When he returned, he told me that he was not feeling well, had just thrown up, and had a bad headache. I told him to lay down for awhile and asked my assistant scoutmaster to sit with him while I took the other three boys to the OA call out. On the way to the call out I met the same woman who had challenged the Scout on the 2×4. She happened to be walking with the camp nurse so I asked them if they would go up to our bay and check the Scout who was not feeling well.

When the three boys and I arrived back to our bay after the ceremony we discovered that a few council people and the nurse were hovering near the bed of the ill Scout. The nurse said that the Scout had a concussion. The council staff had already phoned his mother and they all thought that we should take him to a nearby hospital in Little Falls to have him checked out. When the Scout tried to sit up to go to the car he got very dizzy and his head pain increased. His vision was blurred. He immediately laid back down. Oh no, did he have a neck injury also? We decided that it was time to call for an ambulance, just in case it was worse then we thought.

As a scoutmaster you never like to see anyone get hurt although you know the small chance of it happening is always there. You hope that there will never be anything more then a skinned knee or a little bruise. When something like this happens you think about the worst, but are hoping for the best. I tell you, it is almost like being a parent.

To make a long story short, I rode along in the ambulance to the hospital so that he had someone with him that he knew. The hospital staff asked him a lot of questions, attached five electrodes to his chest to check his vital signs, did a cat-scan of his head, and sent the scan to a hospital in Australia. After an hour in the emergency room they determined that he did indeed have a concussion, but nothing more. He uncle, who had met us at the hospital, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Since the Scout was feeling a little better they released him to his uncle’s care with instructions on what to watch for over the next day or two. I went back to Camp Ripley with another Scouter who had followed the ambulance to the hospital.

The council staff, the first aid and venture staff, the paramedics, and the hospital staff all did a great job. Everyone stayed calm and professional. But it was a bit of excitement that none of us really needed, especially the Scout himself.

By the way, I visited with the Scout and his mother Sunday evening when I dropped off his gear from the weekend. He still had a bit of a headache and a little tunnel vision, but he was doing much better and seemed to be almost back to his usual self. His mother was going to take him to her doctor on Monday to make sure everything was going well.

Saturday morning at the Central Minnesota Council’s Ripley Rendezvous started out well. The Boy Scouts awoke, got dressed, and made it to the dining hall a little early for a great breakfast of french toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage links. Even the weather was cooperating. The forecast had been for a wet cool day but the sun was shining through partly cloudy skies.

The day quickly soured for the Scouts of Troop 68 when we discovered the program schedule had changed. Our Scouts, who were all 14 years old and older, had registered for the Outdoors Experience program which was to introduce them to the various high adventure bases and have them participate in team building exercises. It sounded like it would have been a good program, but it did not happen. The people in charge of the Outdoors Experience had backed out of the activity too late for a new program to be planned in its place.

So our boys were placed into the First Class Adventure program, designed for 11 and 12 year old Scouts who were working on their Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class Ranks. This was a big mistake. Within 45 minutes my Scouts were so bored they decided to head back to the barracks. I now had four teenage boys on a military base with nothing to do. Not a good situation. I needed to get them in a program fast or we may as well load up the gear and head home.

I walked to the event’s headquarters and just happened to catch most of the event’s leadership in the office. I calmly explained my troop’s situation, that the boys and I were pretty disappointed, and that we were thinking about going home. They understood the problem, made a quick phone call, and were able to get the boys transferred to the range program if I was able to drive the boys to the site which was a few miles away from the barracks area. I agreed, went back to the barracks to talk to the boys, and soon found myself driving the Scouts to their new activity. The boys spent the rest of the morning rotating between the archery, rifle, shotgun, and black powder stations. The rain stayed away. The sun kept shining. The boys had a good time.

We returned to the barracks with two hours of free time before supper would be served so we decided to visit the Camp Ripley Military Museum. This became a highlight of the weekend as the boys looked at the uniforms and weapons used by the National Guardsmen over the generations through the wars. They were also able to climb onto many of the tanks and military vehicles that were on display outside of the museum.

A potentially bad day had turned out well. Unfortunately, the day was not yet over, and the worse was yet to come…
(To be continued.)

This year’s Central Minnesota Ripley Rendezvous proved to be challenging for me as the scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 68. It almost felt like Murphy’s Law was trying to prove to me that it still applies even after nearly three decades of being with the troop.

The troop originally had five Boy Scouts and three adults registered for the annual event. Four days before the outing I received a phone call from the father who had planned to attend. Due to a family matter that came up he had to back out. My assistant scoutmaster and I still were still going so we were still covered in the two deep leadership department.

A few days before the event I got a phone call from the oldest Scout of the troop telling me he would not be attending. A Scout who did not register in time but wanted to attend filled in this spot after a few calls were made. Then, a few hours before we were to leave, I received a call from a mother who explained that her son had been sick for the last two days and would not be able to attend the outing. That brought our total to two adults and four Boy Scouts.

Another small snag occurred as we gathered to leave on Friday night. When one of the Scouts discovered his buddy was sick and not going along he suddenly decided he was not going to Ripley either. His mother said he was going. He said he was not. But after I had a short talk with him he decided to go along. (He ended up having a good time.)

Checking in at Camp Ripley was quick and painless. The council had send out an email with information so we already knew which building in which we would be staying. It was a simple matter of checking in with the barracks supervisor. Each of the barracks had eight bays, four on the main floor and four on the second floor, each with 23 cots. We were assigned to Bay 6 which was located on the second floor. We would be sharing the bay with two other troops.

The evening program went pretty well. Lights-out was scheduled for 11:00. The third troop in our bay had arrived late in the evening and were not quite ready when the time came for lights out. At 11:15 I announced to the bay that the lights would be going off in five minutes. All the Scouts were ready by then, but the other troop’s adults needed another minute. Finally, it was time to sleep.

Well, maybe not. The boys in the next bay were still yelling at each other and creating a lot of noise. After five minutes of listening to this I got out of bed, walked to the next bay (which had the lights out), and announced to the boys that a Scout is courteous and that they should be in bed and quiet so that everyone could get some sleep. I walked back to my bay and crawled into my sleeping bag. In five minutes there was nothing but silence from both of the bays.

As I laid on my cot I thought to myself, “Why didn’t the adult leadership in the other bay take responsibility to keep their boys quiet?” I should not have had to tell their boys to go to sleep. I felt like the grumpy old scoutmaster that I never had wanted to be. Oh well, it was quiet now. Time to get some sleep for the next day.

Little did I know what surprises were in store for me the next day…
(To be continued)

What song is the most common song used to close a Boy Scout campfire program? I would have to say that it would be “Scout Vespers”. Vespers has probably been used by Boy Scouts since the program began. It is a great song. When it is sung the boys and leaders know that the day has come to an end and we will soon be sleeping in our tents.

The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 are very familiar with Scout Vespers. They have used it many times to close their own campfire programs. They have also used it to end each of their thirteen Laughs For Lunch Shows. And that brings us to today’s video for the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast.

This video was taken from the troop’s 1996 Laughs For Lunch Show. I could have taken it from a newer show, one that was filmed with a digital camera, but I wanted to present a video in which all the boys shown have grown up, moved on with their lives, gone to college, began full time careers, and even started their own families. This video is dedicated all the former members of Troop 68.

Be careful where you watch this video. You may find yourself humming or singing along with the troop.

Leave a comment here using the link below, or at the PTC Media forums. You can also rate the videos of Melrose Scouting Productions at the iTunes Music Store. It really is great to hear what you think about the podcast videos.

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That is the slogan Boy Scout Troop 68 will be using during a spring recruitment drive to be held on Saturday, May 9th. The Boy Scouts, troop leadership, and committee are planning an afternoon of fun at the city park to introduce new boys and their parents to the adventure of Scouting.

The troop plans to have five areas of activity, four for the boys and one for the parents. The parents’ area is actually a place for the committee to talk to parents about the Scouting program and what it has to offer their families.

The four boy areas are designed to introduce the new boys to the fun Scouting has to offer. One area will be a model campsite at which boys will have the chance to set up a tent. The second area will feature fire building and fire safety. (What boy doesn’t like to sit near a fire?) The third area will feature dutch oven cooking. Boys will be able to help make various dishes and then eat them.

The fourth station is the biggest. We will be setting up the council’s bouldering wall on which the boys will climb horizontally instead of vertically. We expect this to be the big draw that brings the boys down to the park.

The Cub Pack is also hoping to organize a station to talk to boys and their parents about the Cub Scout program. We are hoping they are able to get their leadership together for this event. The Pack could use more Scouts just as much as the troop does.

The troop plans to advertise the event pretty heavily through all the free ways we can think of. We have created our own flyers which will be going to the three elementary schools in the area. The flyers were sketched by me and feature pictures of the four activities. (See the picture with this article.) A local business created the final version and printed 300 copies for us at a very reasonable price.

The troop also plans to get press releases out to the local weekly newspapers and the local television stations. We will also contact the banks and credit unions to get a notice run on their outdoor marquees. Posters will be placed around town and we hope to get a few large banners to place across the school, at the local grocery store, and on the fence along the park.

I really hope all this effort will pay off. I would hate to see all this work being done and then only see a couple boys show up. I will keep you posted to how things turn out.

During lunch today I read an article that was linked in an email to the Boy-Scout-Talk Yahoo group. It was a link to an article written by Rebecca Hagelin titled simply “Boy Scouts”. Here is a small portion of the article:

“Turn on the television for 30 minutes and show me how boys and men are portrayed – you can watch just about any station at any hour and the image will be the same. When sit-coms and commercials contain family groups or interactions between the genders, the man is usually stupid, lazy, and doltish.

If our media culture showed positive male images and if we actually put effort back into teaching boys that real men are also gentlemen, we would get more of the behavior our society needs to survive.

What the nation really needs are more Boy Scouts. And I mean that literally.

As a mother of two Eagle Scouts (now ages 20 and 21), I can personally testify about the tremendous positive impact that Scouting continues to have on their lives.”

I thought the article was very well done and hit some good points.

I have recently been guided to watch a video placed on Youtube by the Middle Tennessee Council – Boy Scouts of America. The council recently held its 17th Annual Patron Luncheon. One of the speakers at that luncheon was Eagle Scout Daniel Wakefield. He gave quite a speech. A very well thought out and motivational speech. I would like to suggest that you watch and listen to it.

If you would like to pass this on to people you know, then pass along this blog post, or pass on the Youtube feed which is http://www.scoutingnews.org/2009/04/13/middle-tennessee-council-boy-scouts-luncheon-2009/

He was a small tenth grader. Many of the eighth graders were as big or bigger then he was. When he received his drivers license at 16 years old he was 5′-2″ and weighed only 88 pounds. He was the weak skinny kid who would get pinned during wrestling in phy ed in less then 15 seconds. He was shy and quiet and would blend into a crowd, trying not to bring attention to himself. He was not physical enough to join a high school sports team so he became the team’s student manager for basketball and baseball.

He was also a Boy Scout. He enjoyed Scouting: the camping, the hiking, and the other activities. Even though he was two or three years older than most of the members of the troop he had found a group in which he could participate and have fun. He served as the senior patrol leader for much of his three and a half years in the troop.

This little twerp finally hit a growth spurt during his high school years was became a skinny 5′-8″ teenager when he graduated from high school. He continued his education at a two year vocational college. He often thought that it would be fun to get involved with a Scout troop once he found a job and settled down. And he did. Within a month of graduating college he had found a troop and became a nineteen year old assistant scoutmaster.

He worked well with the troop. He got along great with the boys. He earned the respect of the parents and committee. Shortly after he turned 21 years old, after spending only one and a half years as the assistant scoutmaster, the committee appointed him as the scoutmaster of the troop. He was very nervous during his first court of honor as an adult leader. His hands were shaking. His voice cracked. But he got through it. Over the years he became more comfortable talking in front of the troop.

During his first decade as a troop leader he took part in nearly every training course offered by the district and council. He was invited to become a staff member for several of the training courses. He even joined the district roundtable staff and began a junior leader roundtable which lasted for a couple of years.

This young man continued with the troop as the decades began to pass him by. He took the Boy Scouts to the High Noll Trail in Virginia and the Charles Sommers Canoe Base in Minnesota. He went backpacking with five crews at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. The only years he missed the annual week-long trip to summer camp were the years he was attending a high adventure base.

This small tenth grade Boy Scout who grew up to become the scoutmaster of his hometown troop can celebrate 29 years of being a Scout leader this month. He is a little bigger then he used to be, unfortunately only growing in the direction you don’t want to be growing as you approach your late 40’s.

By the way, if you have not guessed it by now, that twerp of a tenth grader was me.