Troop 1131 at Raven Knob Scout Camp 2006

Raven Knob 2006 #2

Troop 1131:

Happy Fourth of July to all. Our first full day at camp, yesterday, went very well. The boys really got into their merit badge classes, and except for a few last minute changes, everyone is doing what they signed up to do. The camp staff has worked hard to make the changes that our boys wanted. I guess the boy with the longest hike to a merit badge class is Karl Owen; his family just moved into Burke from Florida so Karl, a Second Class Scout, is new to our troop, but he seems to be making friends and fitting in just fine.

Our new scouts got into the water for swimming merit badge, and both the leaders who helped at the aquatics area, and the boys themselves seemed to really enjoy themselves. I got to see them for a while at their First Aid merit badge class. One of the first aid instructors, Larry Adams, is from Trinidad-Tobago, "mahn," and he plays steel drums.

The shooting sports staff selected our troop to get one of only two coveted Troop Rifle Shoot slots and Troop Archery slots. So after dinner yesterday, most of our boys and leaders went to the ranges. Many of our scouts are excellent marksmen. Jonathan Pratt, 11 years old, had a target with ten holes in the center bulls eye. His shots were arranged tightly, in an area less than the size of a quarter. The rifle range instructor was so impressed that he asked Jonathan to try out for the National Postal Competition, Thursday. Ryan Kavanaugh, our Senior Patrol Leader, also shot exceptionally well, and I encouraged Ryan to also try out Thursday.

Each day, our campsite is inspected, and James Tiffany along with his Coyote Patrol was the duty patrol yesterday. We got a 100 points (max score) the first day! Now the other patrols have a standard to work toward.

Ryan Kavanaugh and several other scouts are building our aluminum foil oven. It's about half done, but will be completed in time for making pizza this evening. Brian Watson and Wade Robinson helped Mr. Ferrell set up our troop's banner at the entrance to our Piney Ridge Campsites. They used Tom Farrell's pickup truck as a platform to get the banner high over the entrance to the campsites.

Joey Rainey is working on the Raven Knob religious award. He has to complete seven out of twelve requirements, and attend Vespers four or so evenings. Joey seems very enthusiastic about the award.

We had a campfire in our campsite last night, and the boys had s'mores. I read some of my standard stories like the "Cremation of Sam McGee," "Reincarnation," and "Prinderella and the Cince." Even the boys who have heard these in the past, enjoy hearing them again.

Some of our scouts are taking Nature merit badge, or Reptile and Amphibian Study merit badge. Last night, at taps (10:00 p.m.), they went on a frog hunt. So it was harder to get the rest of our scouts to bed. I made the final bed check at 11:30 p.m., and found several boys still up. Elon Smith and Sean O'Grady had not even gotten into their sleeping bags yet. As you might expect, we had some bleary eyed boys this morning when we woke them at 6:30 a.m.

More tomorrow.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131