Venturing Summer Camp & OA Conclave

Last week I mentioned being at Venturing Summer Camp and writing about that. I got some pictures to use from the Unti’s. The summer camp is held at Canyon Camp and is designed specifically for Venturers and older Boy Scouts. The camp is open for many of the normal camp activities like swimming, crafts, and shooting sports (including the new paint ball range) but also has activities geared toward being able to complete the Venturing Bronze award (e.g. First Aid, Leave No Trace, and Land Navigation requirements). There are also opportunities to go canoeing on the Mississippi, taking a day long bike ride, and a hike/float through the Apple Canyon River. The Venturers all had a great time. My thanks to Crews 957 and 159 for allowing my crew to join with them for the week.

Caving
Volleyball with homemade net.

Founders Hike through Apple River

Canoe trip.

Several staffers foolishly tried to capture the Zip Zip Bird and paid the price.

Canyon Camp presents an award to a unit based upon participation and enthusiasm. This year the award went to Crew 957.


This weekend was the Order of the Arrow Conclave for Wulapeju Lodge and was held at Canyon Camp. For those of you not yet familiar with the OA, it is a society of honor campers elected by their units after fulfilling certain requirements. The new candidates go through and “Ordeal” following which they become Ordeal Members. This takes Friday night and most of Saturday to complete. The rest of the members work on service projects to benefit the camp in the morning and in the afternoon have different instructional sessions and some free time to go swimming or play kickball. Other OA members work to become Brotherhood members by going through a process to learn about the traditions of the Order of the Arrow. Brotherhood members are eligible to be nominated for the Vigil Honor. It was my great honor to be nominated this year and I spent Friday night doing my Vigil along with the other nominees including Don Reiss, Rick Rhoads, and our Lodge Chief Dan Dick. At dinner Saturday we were presented with our certificates which contain our new Indian names. I was given the name Amendchewagan Milcemosswagon which means Solid Minded Worker.

OA members at the Saturday evening flag ceremony.

Free time kickball.

Providing cheerful service to the camp.

Father Mac conducts mass.

A Century of Values

On August 25 at 10:00 am the Detriot Area Council will be in our council to present us with a copy of the mural “A Century of Values”. The Detroit Area Council commissioned the mural and is traveling across the country presenting copies to every council. The presentation will be in Rockford at the Keeling-Puri Peace Plaza at Riverside and McFarland. Copies of the mural and patches will be available for purchase at the event.

For more information and to see the mural, go to: http://www.acenturyofvalues.org/.

August 6, 2009

We had a McHenry County Distinguished Citizens Dinner planning meeting in the morning. The dinner is really shaping up to be another great event this November.

Then it was out to Camp Lowden to help with the storage closets in the maintenance building. Rick Rhoads started by adding a couple of closets for NYLT and Wood Badge storage. Dave Savone and others framed three additional closet spaces to finish out the side. Two will be for summer camp storage. On Thursday Dave Savone, Don Reis, Steve James, and Jim Zeigler were adding the roof portion so there can be additional storage on top for larger items.

As things were going pretty well, Dave added a new rack for the paddles and oars since the old one was about to fall apart.

After finishing the work for the day Dave and I stopped at the Boeger Leadership Lodge. Wow, what a difference a few days makes. With the stain on the outside and the area being graded it really looked great.

Then it was off to Canyon Camp to be with my Crew for the last couple of days of the Venturing Summer Camp. More tomorrow on that.

2013 National Jamboree

This is a setback. A note on the National Capital Area Council website.

"National Scout Jamboree Site Selection Withdrawn
We regret to inform you that the Boy Scouts of America has decided to withdraw its interest in Goshen Scout Reservation as the permanent site for the National Scout Jamboree. The BSA identified too many potential obstacles in developing the Goshen site to its fullest and is pursuing other venues.
The National Capital Area Council will continue to support the outstanding outdoor programs offered at Goshen Scout Reservation. This process has identified many areas that offer great potential in strengthening our service to youth. Goshen Scout Reservation will continue to serve as our council’s classroom for character far into the future.
We appreciate your support during this long and interesting process."

This will make it difficult to find a suitable location and get the infrastructure in place by 2013.

Boy Scout Handbook

Look what I got at the service center yesterday. It comes with a Centennial Timeline pamphlet that has some pretty good graphics.

August 1 Trek

Today Mary and I took a drive out to Camp Lowden with Bill Reilly and his son, and new Eagle Scout, Billy to do some measuring for trim and counting light fixtures at the Boeger Leadership Lodge. While out at camp I ran into Rick Sanner who was out for the weekend supporting one of the Scoutreach Troops that was conducting their first campout at Camp Lowden. They were getting to do some shooting sports when we saw the group. We also had the start of the Wolf/Bear summer camp overnight. It looked like a lot of activities planned.

We are looking to add some barn wood as trim in certain areas. If you have barn wood to donate or know of someone who would be willing to donate some please drop me a note.

The display loft and the projector screen alcove with dry wall hung.

Kitchen washing area.

Youth bunk room with dry wall hung.

Railing around deck on east side.