Re: Summer camp
Jim Peterson (kupete@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU)
Wed, 29 Apr 1998 08:45:03 +0100
>OK, I shouldn't forget this kind of stuff, but I've been a career explorer too
>long in between Scouts.
>
>I remember that a screen tentt to study for Merit Badges saved my troop from
>becoming like others at camp. So did my laptop and printer and access to the
>camps photocopier (Yeah, a unit paper with the scheduled events so you KNOW
>the scouts know where they're supposed to be). But I'm going back to summer
>camp for the first time in 4-5 years, what else is useful or handy that camps
>tend not to have or have in inferior quality.
>
>Besides hand tools. Lots of hand tools. Saws. Drills, etc.
>
>So what else goes in the car this summer?
>
Tom,
I suppose it depends on the camp...for instance, our camp doesn't allow any
additional tents OR screened-in flys to be used. Better check. I think it
has to do with knowing where folks are sleeping in case of emergency and
the flammability issue. We take down a couple of those big free standing
dining flys (about 12x20) for MB and craft work.
Now to the goodies:
Make some woodcarving "vices" by simply taking a pieces of 1/2 ply about
12"X4", gluing and tacking on a strip of ply 2"X4" on each end. Place on
picknic table to give scouts something to push against while carving. This
is one of the slickest camp gadgets I've discovered. Our issuance of
Fingercarving Merit Badged dropped dramatically.
Make a clothes washing bucket by taking a 5gal plastic bucket, cutting a 1"
hole in the center of the lid, pare the lid latches down to four "tabs" to
make it easy to get on and off.....insert a clean stool plunger through
hole and voila!...a scout powered automatic wasing machine. This is always
a hit!
I have two craft chests that I take to camp that are packed with tons of
goodies and tools. Everything from plastic craft lace, leather sheets for
making knife holders, both cheap plastic and very good glass and bone
beads, stuff for the Micosay and OA guys to make chokers,
breastplates....feathers of all kinds, both expensive and not so, bells for
the dancers, six beading looms, leather tools of all kinds, needles,
punches, jewelry tools, about 50 woodcarving tools of various types, large
gouges, saws and tools for doing totem pole work, leather punches, flint
and steel, waxed cords of various colors, felt, deerskin, all kinds of
craft findings (jingles, brass findings, conch shells, cowrie shells)along
with a regular assortment of hand tools and a cordless drill and saw with
tons of pre-charged batteries.
Buy your bandaids in the metal tins, tape the tins chest high on the poles
of your dining fly so scouts have easy access to them. It cuts down on
leaders haveing to answer questions about where the bandaids are kept.
At our camp and cart is a must....for both hauling block ice back to camp
and for bringing in part time leader's gear from the parking lot....about a
two miles away. I welded up a cart that is simply a frame with two steel
rods protruding from the front about 4".....BIG 12" wheels for the rocks.
Small mirrors tied to a tree are magnets for scouts....so I post readings
from Baden Powell or the scout handbook....or Native American wisdom above
them.
Don't forget to take a rug.
Hope this helps.
BLUE SKIES!, Any day above ground is a good day!
Jim Peterson Eagle class of '63
BS RT Comm, Pelathe Dist
Heart of America Council Brotherhood, Tamegonit Lodge
ASM, T-55, Lawrence, Kansas Mic-O-Say: HW "Shieldmaker"
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
