Mackinac Island

[willysjeep 10]

Hey! How many of you scouts are planning on going to Mackinca Island this year. My troop is the only one from my half of the state that does it, and it's our island! We allways seem to have trouble getting enough people to comit, and we allways have more from outside our troop than from within. DOes anybody else have these problems? We can't take all of this time from our normal program without loosing something so we are going to ask another troop to take the reigns next year, if anybody will.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Hey Willy, been meaning to ask, how far from Escanaba are are you?

[MomScouter 10]

My son is in a new troop this year, and they band with a few other local troops to get the number needed to serve at the governor's Honor Guard. This will be his first trip to Mackinaw (with Boy Scouts).

[LauraT7 13]

this is something I havenot heard of -

 

I visited mackinac on a vacation a number of years ago and it would be a great place to take scouts - our troop LOVES bike trips - and island with bike and horse only transportation would be right up their alley!

 

what do they do there ? is it some kind of program they sign up for?

 

can someone e-mail me a link or information on it?

 

tlaurat7@hotmail.com

[willysjeep 10]

Starting in the 1920's Boyscouts have served om Mackinac. The camp is called Mackinac Island Scout Service Camp, or MISSC for short. The fort at mackinac had been abandoned for years and had fallen into disrepair. Vandals had carved their names all over the woodwork in many historic buildings. The first scout service camp was comprised of all Eagle scouts and they stayed inside the fort in the commisary building. They served as interperetors for a display of artifacts and tour guides for the only building open at the time, the north blockhouse. Scouts would serve on the island for six weeks. In the 1930's a large barracks was built for the scouts by WW1 veterans. This barracks still serves today but has been expanded to accomodate more scouts.

 

Later on Girlscouts also expressed interest in the program. Currently every other week on the island is supposed to be for girlscouts to serve.

 

Now troops or special contingents serve on the island for a week at a time. Scouts must pay about $130 for the privelage. The MISSC is run by the State Park. Scouts must provide their own cooks and food. The bunkhouse has showers, an infirmary, laundry facilities, a dining room and kitchen, and a large bunkhouse type sleeping area for youth, and a smaller room for adults. Scouts raise and lower all of the 26 state run flags on the island, and serve as guides at many historic locations within the fort and historic down town. Scouts may ride bicycles in their free time, but not in any class A uniform for some reason. They may not go to town without an adult supervisor and must be in uniform for that. The Grand Hotel allows scouts to use their swimming pool if you ask them, and will make some discounts for scout groups on their Grand Lunch Buffet, which is really great to go to, but you must ask early. Scouts often go in small groups with adults down town to go shopping and see the sights. They can explore all of the island but town with their buddy. Campfires can be held at nearby Greeny Grove for troop programs. My troop is form the Upper Peninsula so we feel the need to represent on the island, it's part of our half of the state you know.

 

It takes a group of about 53 scouts minimum to do the flags well, and have enough scouts so that they only need to serve one guide duty shift per day. It is a lot of fun, but it is also the absolute most marshal and militaristic thing Scouts do. They must march everywhere on offical business, wear their full ocmplete Class A uniform while on guide duty and for flags, no exceptions. They can't go to town without an adult due to some past problems with large groups of unsupervised boys, but are free to explore the rest of the island and participate in games and sports, and advancement in their free time.

 

We just had our first weekend long training campout this past weekend. We spend Friday evening and all of Saturday working on flag ceremonies, marching, and island knowhow to prepare the boys for their service. We hav another day long training scheduled for August second to refresh everybody and to train in one or two more boys who weren't signed up yet. We allways have trouble getting enough people but it looks like this year we won't have as much of a problem.

 

If you do go to the island, please don't wear your class A uniforms on bicycles. Even though you might not be in our group the State Park Comission doesn't want us to wear our class A's on bikes for some reason and if they see anybody on a bike in a class A they tend to get peaved at us.

 

Along with guide duty scouts clean up Marquette park on the island, deliver the mail from the state park office to the post office (There are only post office boxes on the island, no mail delivery), do a few service projects like shoveling gravel alongside the roads, pick up trash in the fort, act as guides within the fort assisting people and keeping them out of where they shouldn't, and have fun in their leisure activitys.

 

If you want to go to Mackinac Island you need to apply to them. They will offer you a date which they would like you to serve, and you can refuse it but seniority dictates which date you will get. We usually draw near the end of the season and sometimes have conflicts with sports and the beginning of school because we've only done it sporadically for the past five years. You also need to have 50 boys in full class A uniform who can march and raise 26 flags at the exact same time. You will need a first-aider, a cook and assistant, adult leaders, a bugler, a senior patrol leader, and anybody else oyu think you might need. You provide all the transportation tothe island, the bicycles you need to provide, along wiht the food, and all of the leadership. CHeck out the Mackinac Island State Park webpage, I don't have the address, for more information. It's a lot of work but it is also the most honorable and marshal thing most scouts ever do. You actually serve as the Honor Guard for the Governor of Michigan on the island so it's important to be able to do it perfectly.