Events Log

1030 22 July - Met at Maynard Street parking lot and departed for Camp Bell.

1330 22 July - Arrived at Camp Bell.

During the week at Camp Bell, our two patrols participated in a variety of the activities offered by the camp. The schedule was as follows:

	Buccanneers	C Co.
Monday	Swimming and Tubing	Patrol Challenge
Tuesday	Farm Mechanics	Archery
Wednesday	Mountain Man	Climbing
Thursday	Lumberjack	Swimming and Tubing
Friday	Climbing	Pioneering

In addition to these activities, the patrols prepared all their own meals, participated in campfire programs on Sunday and Friday evenings, and had individual program time in the evenings.

0930 28 July - Parents arrived at Camp Bell for pickuup and began departing.

1330 28 July - All participants were home.

Analysis

Once again this year, our week at Camp Bell was a big success. The following comments pertain to the program elements that we participated in:

• Swimming and Tubing were very successful. Those Scouts who qualified as swimmers were also able to complete all of the 2nd and 1st Class lifesaving and clothes inflation requirements.
• Farm Mechanics was "OK" but the program could have been improved somewhat by the addition of more working machinery. The Buccanneers showed a lot of good Scout Spirit as they participated in the restoration of an antique hay rake with wire brushes and sandpaper on a very hot and humid day.
• Much of what could have been done in the Lumberjack program was rained out. The Scouts did have the chance to earn Fish and Wildlife Management merit badge that day.
• Both patrols enjoyed their days at the Climbing program and several of the older Scouts were able to do enough climbing to complete the Climbing Merit Badge.
• C Co did not complete the Pioneering Merit Badge, primarily because everyone was pretty well tired out by Friday. They did, however, build a great bridge and get a chance to make rope so they have the hard parts of the badge completed.
• C Co had several good experiences in the course of the Patrol Challenge. The obstacle course did take its toll, though, as one Scout was bitten on the knee by an "attack rock" in the mud pit.

Meal preparation went very well this year. Two improvements were noted over last year: First, we did not waste as much food because we had learned our lesson from the previous year and not ordered as much. Second, we produced much less trash because the camp has discontinued the use of paper and styrofoam plates and plastic cutlery.

Lessons Learned

This year, we discouraged the mass shipment of "care packages" from home to camp that happened last year. The reasons for discouraging these packages are: candy in large quantities upsets the regular flow of good food at meal times, and shipments of candy make for "haves" and "have nots" which can lead to morale problems. Continue to discourage the shipments next year.

Next year we should set up a process by which the Scoutmaster at camp can contact the transportation coordinator in Hanover on Thursday or Friday to get the exact details on the transportation plans for every Scout. Although we had plenty of cars and seats on Saturday morning, we were not sure exactly whether a couple Scouts were supposed to ride with someone or whether their parents were enroute to pick them up.

We should return to Camp Bell next year.

Thanks to Stan Crane, Jeff Postupack, Ted Simpson and Harold Frost for the time they spent with us at camp. Because they gave their time, we always had at least three adults in camp.

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