Troop 1131 at Raven Knob Scout Camp 2007

Raven Knob 2007 #4

Troop 1131:

Wednesday, the Fourth of July, was great. We had lunch and dinner in our campsite. The camp provided us with sub rolls and cold cuts for lunch, and we prepared our traditional, sensational Taco Bar for dinner. Several scouts helped and leaders helped. Nick Abbott, Hal Tchalekian, and Andrew Green along with a few others cooked 20 lbs. of ground beef in two Dutch ovens. They added taco seasoning as the meat browned. Other scouts, William Cash, Matt Levonian, Elon Smith and others helped chop onions and tomatoes, and shred lettuce. Along with Bruce Summers scouts wet the table with hard and soft tortilla shells, heated up refried beans, put out crushed green chili, sour cream and grapes. In short, we had a feast.

The campfire program was exceptional as forecast. The Fourth of July tribute to America included a salute to our Armed Forces, and a quartet from the area leading us in patriotic songs - "God Bless America," the National Anthem, and others. One of the members of the quartet did a stirring rendition of "I'm Proud to be an American." Additionally, veterans from the audience were called to the front to be recognized. Then, the Order of the Arrow took over with Indian Dancing and Singing and Drumming. Some our scouts who are taking the Indian Lore merit badge joined the costumed dances for one of the performances. The OA Call Out at Raven Knob is one of the best in the country. Scouts dressed as Indians shoot flaming arrows into the lake to signal the war canoes to come to shore. The canoes have red flares, and another Indian swam out to an island with a torch to light other fires and an Order of the Arrow frame. I am attaching a picture of this. Our scouts were really impressed with the performance.

At our PLC meeting after the campfire, we had to decide if we were going to do our Polar Bear swim. James, our SPL, wanted to issue an "Executive Order" to do the swim. A few of the other leaders objected and so we took a vote; eight to three in favor of doing the swim. So at 6:00 a.m., we woke the troop and headed to the lake. The boys had a lot of fun. Randy and James were the big guys in the shallow water where all the new scouts could attack them. I've attached a picture of this too.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131