Resident Camp turnout

[Pack212Scouter]

After the first session of Webelos Resident Camp this year, I have some concerns about what the turnout for next year will be. Camp was after the recent tornado at the Scout camp in Iowa. Well, this brought an intense safety conciousness, along with some issues this year. On the second night of camp, an intense storm blew through, along with a tornado watch a bit to the north. Well problem one was that nearly EVERYONE had brought weather radios and had them cranked, so the entire camp was awoken to alarms going off everywhere. This then resulted in many adults not thinking or exercising discression and discusing tornados. The two of these together wound up freaking out about 99.9% of the Webelos there. Following this, there was a forcast of very high winds with this storm, so the camp opted to require everyone to gather in a very crouded dining hall....with glass windows ALL around (virtually glass walls from 2 feet up), for the remainder of the night. At this point, about 95% of our pack decided that the boys were now terrified, that staying wasn't worth it, and taking what they could carry, threw their gear in their cars and departed rather than spend the night in the dining hall. The one good thing is that most of the activities had already been done, so they had a fun day right before everything turned into a nightmare

 

Now my thinking is that this will probably severely impact the turnout by Webelos 2's next summer. Has anyone dealt with a situation like this? How did it affect the next turnout and what can be done to alleviate the impact?(This message has been edited by pack212scouter)

[Basementdweller]

Our districts weeb camp had 40 register and only 16 showed up. The cub camp only had 40 out of 100 spots.

 

I don't get it.

[PACK15NISSAN]

I think it is just something in the air this year that parents don't want to send their boys to camp or boys just don't want to go.

 

For our Day Camp we only had 3 Webelos 1's out of 10-12, and 2 Webelos 2's out of 10-12. We haven't had our Resident Camp (coming at the end of July) but we only have 3 maybe 4 Webelos 1's same boys plus one other, and we have no Webelos 2's.

 

Whatever is causing this I sure hope it stops next year.

[deerfieldmom]

knowing how those little minds work and what memories are kept in filing cabinets deep in their brains, those boys will remember that trip to summer camp for many years.

 

whenever i get together with my old scouting friends, we still recall the 5 day trip over washington's birthday weekend when the stomach virus hit at about 10pm on sunday night. about 60 out of the 75 attendees were stricken. horrible at the time and yes,parents blamed the food though 1/2 the school was empty the next week as the virus hit hard. the next years trip was poorly attended as some moms felt being cooped up in a lodge in winter with wet from snow kids made us sick.

BUT... darn if that trip hasn't gone down in history as the one we "survived". (that was 1978 - wow 30yrs ago!)

[ccjj]

I just finished our Webelos Summer Camp (Resident camp) and we had 110 boys and around 70 adults for a long weekend. We made sure to go over weather precautions and where to go in case of bad weather. We had a little bit of rain and wind, but nothing serious.

All of our camps are down in numbers, but I think that is due to the economy.

I spoke with many of the boys this weekend, and they are all looking forward to a week long camp next summer as a boy scout. Most of them had heard about what happened in Iowa, and weren't really worried about it. They know that weather can happen at any time, and sometimes it just does. They talked about how the scouts in Iowa were doing what they were supposed to do, and that sometimes bad things just happen.

 

ccjj

[Lisabob]

All our cub resident camps are pretty full around here. I sent 38 boy scouts off to camp yesterday too, including 12 new scouts, and while parents of younger boys worried about a variety of things, not one mentioned weather worries. Actually I had had a conversation the week before camp with our SM about the new BSA severe weather training because I was expecting parents to be more worried. So I think this may be a local thing.

 

Sounds like your guys got quite an experience though, and here's hoping they aren't scared for years to come.

[shortridge]

Good to hear that folks brought weather radios! The late-night wakeup might've been inconvenient, but better safe than sorry.

 

Alas, one can't prepare for adults failing to use common sense in discussions in earshot of youth.

[Gold Winger]

" At this point, about 95% of our pack decided that the boys were now terrified, that staying wasn't worth it, and taking what they could carry, threw their gear in their cars and departed rather than spend the night in the dining hall. "

 

What a much better solution! Bad storm coming so you get into your cars and hit the road. Make sense to me.

[Pack212Scouter]

Come on GW...I know you can annylize better than that.

 

Issue: Storm with high winds.

 

Solution 1: Get in car and drive 30-40 minutes home, most likely in front of it all. Get terrified kid in his bed.

 

Solution 2: Sit in a glass walled dining all with 300 other people and trees all around. Hope that nothing falls on it or breaks windows. Watch wide eyed kids be scared to death.

 

I personally may have stuck it out. But A) the parent needs to decide. B) While options were limited, I'm not so sure that the dining hall was the best idea around. In the case of a tornado sure...your inside...with shards of glass from 40 2x6 foot windows swirling about at 100 mph.