American Scout Camp in England
Ian Ford (ianford@DIRCON.CO.UK)
Sun, 24 Jul 1994 00:14:16 BST
Following the discussion a while back about mess hall vs. patrol cooking on
Summer Camp, I thought I'd share the experience of troop 401 at Camp
Baden-Powell, held at Hesley Wood Scout Centre, nr Sheffield, England.
Having spent the first day telling all the troops to check their tents in
case of rain, we had a week of brilliant sunshine with temperatures in the
80s. There was one brief shower on Wednesday, which recorded 2mm of
precipitation, and dried up within two hours. (In previous years we have had
to dry out Scouts following rain storms and strong winds - so much so that
there is an established and well-practiced storm procedure for the staff to
check troop campsites.)
Because British Scout camps do not have mess hall accomodation patrol
camping is the only option ! The food was bought in bulk and stored in the
Commissary. Milk and eggs were delivered daily and collected by troops
between 06.45 and 07.00 from the building which served as Camp Office. Other
supplies were delivered by truck to drop-off points near troop sites each
morning and afternoon, and the truck also carried additional staples such as
peanut butter, jelly, cooking oil etc. for troops as needed.
The menus were basic, the normal camp food of burgers, barbecue chicken,
beef stew etc. and the main meal was prepared in the evening. Lunch was
usually cold cuts, salad or something easy like that.
On Wednesday there was a competition to " feed the staff " and each troop
had two staff members join them for dinner. I was on staff, but got to join
my troop as it was the SM's birthday. The other guest was a fourteen
year-old Eagle Scout who was the assistant to the Program Director. The
troop had supplemented the camp rations from the local supermarket, and the
menu was :
Pitta bread with salad and yoghurt dressing
Barbecue chicken served with green beans cooked in garlic butter
Devil's Food Chocolate Sponge
Sodas served with the meal and coffee to follow.
Our troop had two kids who enjoy cooking, Habib ( a first year camper who
specialised in Turkish cooking) and Philip who prefers French cuisine. When
the Commissary Officer asked if there were any comments or complaints about
the catering the request from Philip was " Why can't we have Dijon mustard
instead of this American burger stuff " ! ( The SM bought a jar from the
supermarket, so he was happy.)
Habib, Philip and his brother Oliver are bilingual, and were often found
arguing in heated French over the cooking stoves ... Incidentally, this
was a bonus when it turned out that there were two Scouts from the
International School in Bruxelles who only spoke French. With a bit of
reorganisation we managed to schedule it so that the two boys did merit
badge classes with my Scouts, who helped interpret. Fortunately the Camp
Director speaks excellent French, and he was also pressed into service as
interpreter. I discoverd that my " O Level " French from 25 years ago was
very rusty indeed, and I will need to work on it again for next year.
Activities including an artificial climbing wall / rapelling tower, and an
obstacle course for second year campers. This had the traditional high wall,
scramble net, crawl tunnel, etc. and the kids became <very> muddy as the
result of the judicious use of a fire hose by the British camp staff. (There
are special shower booths outside the main shower block where kids can
shower fully clothed to get the worse of the mud off before entering the
main showers and changing area ! )
It was a good week, our eleven Scouts got through a lot of advancement and
had fun as well. Habib, Oliver and Matthew participated in the ACE program
and earned quite a few rank requirements as well as first aid MB. Actually
most of the ACE program Scouts took first aid, and the counselor ended up
having to run additional sessions. The final testing involved the two camp
EMTs plus about eight other qualified Scouters at bases and the Scouts
rotated through with a check list for each requirement to be tested and
signed off.
The opening campfire was a great success, with each area contributing a song
or skit. The opening was done by OA members in Indian costume and used the
old favourite of potassium permanganate and glycerol. The four Indians gave
the opening words " From the North ... from the South ... from the East ...
from the West ... " and the MC said " Brother Scouts, we declare this
campfire open ! " There was a short pause, a flash of violet flame and the
fire lit ! The closing was also well done, with the singing of " America
the Beautiful " followed by the Camp Director's Minute and Scout Vespers.
As the troops left to the staff humming Vespers the bugler played " Taps "
from the woods. [ Those of you who saw the Normandy commemoration on CNN
may have seen a Scout bugler playing at the Arramanche cemetery as the US
Ambassador laid a wreath ... that was Tim, our camp bugler and Scoutcraft
instructor. ]
The closing campfire was MC'd by two Scouts from T401 who did very well
apart from forgetting the matches to light the fire ! It went on a little
longer than intended as some of the troops' contributions dragged out a bit.
There were a number of awards, including two awards to Nick Airey, the
Program Director, who was presented with the chapter's " Arrowman of the
Year " plaque and the Scoutmaster Award of Merit. There were also other
special awards including several " Scout Spirit " certificates for campers
who had been nominated by staff.
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Ian N Ford ASM Troop 401 (American School in London)
London, UK (Transatlantic Council)
Phone : +44 81 855 4312
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