Troop 43 Family Camp Out Scott Co Park May 30th to June 1st, 2008UPDATE: Pictures are postedWell, the troop 43 family camp out has come and gone for this school year. As with the last several years it was held at Scott County Park at the Sac Fox Campsite. We had a good turn out again. 18 scouts and 5 leaders camping with the troop and several troop families camping. We also had several Cub Scouts and their families camp or come out for a time from the Adams School and Harrison School Packs. Thank you Mrs Bierl and Mr Barton for arranging that for us.
The camp out was overall a good one. It rained Friday morning, which made it wet, but didn't rain the rest of the day. That made camp set up a lot easier. The 3 patrols and the leaders all had their own separate tent areas, and the cubs had their own areas as well. Friday night was pretty much like always. Set up camp, eat the sack lunch suppers, free time and lights out. Saturday was a little more eventful. It started out with breakfast having a "Flaming Dutch Oven" courtesy of the Viper patrol. They were trying to make donuts and let the oil get too hot. Flames were at least 2 to 3 feet off the ground. All day there were scouts leaving and coming back, which made the duty rosters tricky. In the afternoon our older scouts put on Scout Skill Demonstrations for the 2 Cub Packs and our younger scouts. Demos included: Knots, Lashings, Tent set up, First aid and An axe yard. Thank you to: Ben Wells, Adam VanHoosier, Eric Middleton, Joe Bierl, Alex Underwood, Chris Meeks, Kyle Sager, Nate Wells & Mitchell DeFauw for putting on the demos. You all did a good job as you were able to hold every group's attention. Supper was eventful again. During the cooking it it started raining buckets. Since most were cooking on the open fires, it made keeping the fire going a challenge. We even had a moat around our fire ring. We got through it though and found the scouts enjoying hamburgers, hot dogs (My fault for not banning hot dogs ahead of time) and etc. Meanwhile, the leader patrol suffered with Roasted Chicken, Carrots and Onions, Mashed Potatoes, and Pie. (How could we ever have made it with food like that?) After supper, and the leaving of patrol stuff scattered throughout the camp site, we had a great campfire program which was MC'd by our Scout in Charge for the weekend, Mitchell DeFauw. There were skits put on by all the patrtols and by both Cub Scout Packs. And we even had some Cub Scout awards presented. All the time there was a great fire going. After the camp fire things were pretty much normal, including still looking at all the stuff sitting around on the tables and ground. The scouts must have been tired as lights out went smoothly and even a little early. Sunday morning came at 7 AM. The scouts had their traditional cereal and the leaders had eggs in a basket. We got the camp taken down and cleaned up. Adam VanHoosier and Mitchell DeFauw checked all the cook kits and made sure they were cleaned and in order. Mr Middleton did inventory of the left over food and supplies in the trailer. Thanks to those 3. Several times during the camp out we had comments from the Patrol Leaders that it was very hard to keep within the food budget and have quality meals. They also suggested that we raise the amount each scout pays for the meals to $9 or $10.00. Something for the committee to discuss later.
The Last Court of Honor was on Sunday. The weather was a bright sunny day. We had the Indian Hills shelter across from the pool. The shelter was a little small, but we set up our dining fly and we were able to seat most people in the shade. The cooking went well and we were actually ready a few minutes before the scheduled 1 PM starting time. After dinner we had several announcements, including a summer camp review, Yellow River Camp out review, and a thank you to all the leaders. We then gave our patches from MALT, and several merit badges. Topping off the awards with 22 rank advancements. Congratulations to the following:
Scout Rank: Issac Covey, Tyler Erskine, Michael Moeller, Jacob Thune, Gavin Wright
Tenderfoot: Noah Kirshbaum, Michael Moeller, Keelan Ryan, Andrew Shipman, David Solbrig, Matthew Underwood
2nd Class: Jeremy Erskine, Andre Menard, Alex Underwood, Brody Welch
1st Class: JP Menard, Alex Underwood
Life: Ryan Adair, Joe Bierl, Ryan Ellenberg, James Lange, Eric Middleton
I want to thank all those that helped at the camp out and Court of Honor to make it a success.
Don Coker
ASM
Scouts camping with the troop: Patrol Leaders: Joe Bierl, Alex Underwood, Kyle Sager
Patrol members: Adam VanHoosier, Noah Kirshbaum, Tyler & Jeremy erskine, Matthew Underwood, Issac Covey, Chris & Nick Meeks, Zach Thobe, Reed Sager, Andrew Shipman, Jacob Thune, James Gilkison, Gregory Klepzig, Gavin Wright
Leaders with the troop: Mr VanHoosier, Mr Barton, Mr Shipman, Mr Heinselman, Mr Coker (Adult in Charge)
Families that I remember from the troop: Wells Family, Middleton Family & Mitchell DeFauw (Scout in Charge), Menard Family, Covey Family, Wright Family, Spencer Barton
And thank you to Mrs Meeks and Mrs Sager for help driving us out to camp, and the Cub Scouts from Pack 373 and Pack 43, and to all the other family members that came out for part of the days.
