|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
View PDF
(72k)
|
|
|
|
Boy Scout Happy Hour: How
Eating Together Builds Pride, Leadership
by Dave
Tracewell
Senior Editor
Having served as a Scoutmaster for over ten years, Wood
Badge staff, and as a veteran of three National Jamborees, I
feel confident that my experiences provide credence toward
having adults eat with their patrols.
Not that I was always of the opinion that the boys should
cook for me and the adults at camp… I, too have vivid
memories of cold hot dogs, mayonnaise and ketchup
sandwiches, and burnt pop-tarts for breakfast. But with a
little training and preparation, it not only became the best
way to eat at camp, but rather enjoyable and a great lesson
for the Scouts as well.
It didn’t happen overnight. A good Scoutmaster takes
training the boys in cooking at camp very seriously, and
plans entire troop meetings around cooking, clean-up, and
planning good meals. A Dutch Oven cooking demonstration, a
class on utensil-less cooking, or even a whole meeting
devoted to cooking desserts can really gets the Scouts’
attention. The boys get into being able to cook
“fancy” meals on a camp-out, usually at the same
cost or cheaper than hamburgers and tuna fish. Ultimately,
they would wind up trying to out do each other, both
individually and by patrol.
In my troop, as the boys got better, the adults started
“campaigning” to be invited to certain patrols. We
required that all camp menus had to be approved two weeks in
advance of a camp-out. The word usually got around what each
patrol was planning, and it was fun watching the Assistant
Scoutmasters and Patrol Dads vie for invites… of which
the Senior Patrol Leader had control. This not only promoted
good, healthy meals on camp-outs, but also a sense of pride
and leadership among the boys when they knew what they were
doing was good enough to impress their dads and adult
leaders.
Think about when you invite guests to your home for lunch
or dinner. You try to impress your guests, by making things
a little nicer, and trying to be on time. The same concept
applies when adults eat with patrols. What lessons are we
teaching? We always sit together, and say grace at each
meal. The adults have a chance to interact with each of the
boys in a more personal setting. It also gives the boys a
chance to show off, and impress adults with not only the
meal, but also maybe their campsite, patrol box, camp
gadgets they may have made, and with themselves. (For us,
dinner– the evening meal– always required a full
uniform. The boys seemed to take that to mean their camp
also had to look its best!)
The idea of adults eating with the boys on camp-outs is
not just a simple matter of showing up and eating what the
boys cook up. It is a whole concept of teaching the Scouts
how to plan and cook good food in a clean and healthy
manner. It is a way to build team spirit, enthusiasm and
self-respect. It becomes a learning experience for many
Scouts on how to look and act at mealtime, and a
reinforcement of our twelfth Scout Law when we say grace at
meals. So when someone asks if I think it is important to
eat with the boys, I say Yes, it is an essential part of our
Scouting program that is often overlooked. We owe it to our
boys to help them become better Scouts.
|
