Troop 1131 at Raven Knob Scout Camp 2006

Raven Knob 2006 #3

Troop 1131:

We had a great day. Several of our scouts qualified for the Postal Competition and will compete tomorrow. David Mazzocco and Grant Skipper did incredibly well shooting. During the day, we attended regular merit badge classes, then in the afternoon the boys came back to the campsite to discover a neighboring troop in the middle of a water balloon fight. It didn't take our guys long to get in the middle of the action. The other troop had large rubber slingshots and could hurl a baseball size water balloon 300 feet across a deep ravine and into the "enemy" position. Our guys brought the bag of balloons up to our campsite to fill with water, and to throw at each other too.

Ten scouts passed boards of review for Tenderfoot and Second Class in the evening, and I collected all the New Scout Handbooks to give Jon and Judy Cecchetti when we get back.

Mike Johnson, Timmy's dad, picked up shovels, rakes and saws for our scouts to use in a campsite improvement/service project. One of the trails leading out of our campsite and down a hill had eroded badly, and the retaining logs had rotted away. So Randy Froehlich, our Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, organized most of the New Scouts and several other older scouts to pull out the rotten timbers, and replace them with new ones, and to shore up the soil on the trail. They did a great job.

At assembly before dinner, there was quite a bit of thunder around us, and I opted to not allow our scouts to stand out in the open field. I spoke to the camp director about the safety aspects of the assembly, and he agreed to talk to his staff to avoid having scouts assembled on an open field when there is a danger of lightning. We didn't get much rain, only a sprinkle or two, but during dinner it was pretty windy. However, later last night, after we were all in bed, it did rain. By morning everything had cleared up and we on our way.

With all the concerns about weather at dinner, I forgot to retrieve the pizza supplies stored in the camp's refrigerator. Of course, the boys finished the aluminum foil oven, and got the charcoal going around 8:00 p.m. back in the campsite. Then when they asked where the pizza supplies were, I remembered that I forgot to get them. So off I went to the dining hall only to find the walk-in refrigerator padlocked! I tracked down the camp director, Keith Bobbitt, who gave me the key. Drove back to dining hall and got the supplies, returned the key and got everything to the campsite around 9:00 p.m.. The boys opened the cooler only to find it did not contain the pita bread that we normally use to make pizza. It had the tortillas that were for our Taco Bar tomorrow night. Not to worry, we had Mexican Pizza, plain cheese and pepperoni, of course. They were actually very good.

Some of our scouts knew that we had left over marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars. So in addition to pizza, there was a lot of sugar to go around. I have been watching the boys in the dining hall too, and they are all eating well. For example, last evening's dinner was chicken patties on buns, with vegetables, fruit and the standard salad bar. Many of our scouts, including our new scouts take seconds not only at this meal but at lunch and breakfast too. However, even with eating well at meal time, the boys and leaders are so active that our food at the campsite, in the evening, is always welcome.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131