If it werent for scouting...

[dScouter15]

We recently asked our scouts to make a short list of things they wouldn't have experienced had it not been for their involvement in Scouting. We intend to use some of their responses in our post-summer camp court of honor program. The answers ranged from silly to serious to profound to inside jokes to insightful to well, not insightful. Here were some of the better responses:

 

Camped and hiked through 72 hours of non-stop rain

Met my best friend

Camped out in the snow

Started a fire in a downpour

Seen a moose

Cooked in a Dutch oven

Splashed down into a dunk tank

Learned how to actually use a compass

Seen the northern lights in the middle of the night

Ridden on a dog sled

Gone door to door selling popcorn

Seen the view of a forest from the top of a mountain

Camped in a tree house

Made a shelter out of a trash bag and twine

Found 458 uses for duct tape

Built a computer

Found waterproof boots that weren't

Completed the mile swim

Found out that tents aren't sound proof

Camped on an army base

Learned that my tent could withstand 70mph winds

Learned that the troop dining fly could not

Seen a woodpecker

Made chocolate fudge in a ziploc bag

Canoed 60 miles in four days

Bake cookies on a camp stove

Camped through all four seasons in one weekend

Seen a bald eagle

 

Feel free to add to this list from your own experiences, or survey the scouts in your troop.

[NJCubScouter]

That's a great list, dScouter. I especially like "camped through all four seasons in one weekend."

[shortridge]

Personally speaking ...

 

Learned the art of knots from a U.S. Coast Guard commander

Swam a mile

Cycled 50 miles

Organized and led large-scale group events for 150+ people (OA service projects, summer camp games and outings)

Discovered that I like teaching and public speaking

Learned first-aid skills that come in handy on a daily basis 20 years later(This message has been edited by shortridge)

[moxieman]

"Camped through all four seasons in one weekend"

 

This actually happened to me...on my first camping trip as a boy scout. We had gone to an invitational international camporee outside of Sherbrooke, Quebec. We left the May spring weather in Maine and arrived in heavy thunderstorms that Friday Night at the camporee site. It got up to the mid-70'sF Saturday afternoon and I watched someone waterski on the lake we were camping near. As the sun went down, the temp started to drop. As we packed-up on Sunday morning, it was snowing lightly. The two Canadian units present thanked the 14 American units present for allowing them to attend their camporee.

[CBell87]

I would've never worked at the best summer cap ever.

I wouldn't have made the great friends that I did.

I wouldn't be who I am today.

 

[Eagle92]

CBell,

You worked at Camp V Bar too. here's my top 5 list.

 

1) Taken a 64 mile canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness.

 

2) Taken a training course that not only reinforced my Scoutcraft skills, but enabled me to better teach those skills to younger scouts.

3) Spend 3 months in British Scout camps as part of the European Camp Staff Program.

 

4)Met my wife.

 

5)Be comfortable taking my five year old out camping when invited by a pack we were looking at.

 

 

 

[NJCubScouter]

"Camped through all four seasons in one weekend"

 

Now that I think about it, if you count a hailstorm as winter precipitation, it happened to me, not just in a weekend, but in a couple of hours, at Philmont, and I assume many thousands of other Scouts have had the same experience there. Maybe for you folks from mountainous areas that is normal, but for a group of teenagers from New Jersey, the last thing we were expecting was to be attacked by iceballs from the sky in the middle of July on the top of an actual mountain. (I forget which one.) Of course, maybe that doesn't happen anymore, due to global warming.

[Gunny2862]

@NJCubSScouter

I assure you that the hail storms at Philmont in July are still occurring - having just returned from Crew 713-E and having experienced several. Some of those storms produced quarter or slightly larger size hailduring storms that had a hail duration of 20-30 minutes, which is no joke when your only protection is hugging a tree with your pack on your head and shoulders.

[CBell87]

Eagle92,

What's Camp V-Bar?

[CalicoPenn]

My list would be terrifically long so here's just some highlights:

 

* wake up from dreaming that my dog was licking my face to find a red fox sitting on my chest licking the salt off my forehead while on a backpacking trip around Isle Royale.

 

* swim 14 mile swims in one two-week camp session, including one 2 mile swim (2 back to back mile swims) with the second mile faster than my poor Scoutmaster could keep up with me in the rowboat (I was a high school competitive long distance swimmer and got into the zone).

 

* raise three orphaned raccoons for release into a forest preserve during a six week Cub Scout Day Camp season at the camp with the Scouts as Nature Director.

 

* wake up a High Adventure Base full of tired Scouts and Scouters at midnight on the last night of the season so they could all see the first Northern Lights of the season in Maine. The campers weren't happy with me at first but once they saw the display, stood awestruck, with the adults telling me the next day that it was one of the highlights of their trips.

 

* Build and camp in a quinzhee every weekend in January and February one winter while leading Troops on an Okpik course at a high adventure base in Maine.

 

* Recite the Legend while standing on a lifeguard hill overlooking the ceremony site while "heat" lightning from a storm in the distance gave a visual show behind me.

 

* Learning at 16 how political the BSA can be at the adult volunteer level when I was fired from my job as summer camp trading post manager after 6 weeks on the job, purportedly because the trading post was a disorganized mess when the camp inspectors came through (on the morning I was closed for the weekly inventory) but learning later, with apologies from the Camp Director, that he was pressured to let me go to get the "A" rating because the guy in charge of the camp inspection disliked my father. With his apologies was a check for the last two weeks of camp salary, a bonus, and a job offer to be trading post manager the next year - turns out that in my 6 weeks, I had loss from theft/damage of $26, and in the last 2 weeks of camp, there was loss from theft/damage of $320.

 

*Everything that has happened in my life since then.

[acco40]

I was never a Boy Scout. If it were not for Scouting, I would not have had the opportunity to get to know the boys, including two of my own sons, as well as I have had. For that, I am eternally grateful.

 

For my sons, seeing/hearing their father scream like a girl right after just miss stepping on a rattle snake (the snake saw me first and gave me a warning) in the New Mexico back country was a treat. So was shooting your boxers, a convenient target, at 100 ft with a black powder rifle and bringing them home to mom. Finally, attending a bonfire, in the snow, on the beach, in a foreign country (no fireworks fo course) was memorable too.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[Scoutfish]

This might sound corny, but so what:

 

If it wasn't for scouting -

 

I'd never have to explain the sound of a leaf falling on the side of a tent at 3am.

 

I'd never have seena group of boys sitting around a fire talking about everything BUT video games, tv show, movies, etc,,,,.

 

I'd never had the chance to actup and be as silly and young as a bunch of boys and parents be estatic about it!

 

And I would have never had the chance, nor would I understand the honor of the opportunity to mentor young boys

[Engineer61]

....lol....

 

I'd see my wife on Monday evenings and most weekends.

 

My stepson wouldn't be ...

 

...carrying on about having to go to meetings every Monday evening,

 

...griping about packing or unpacking for campouts,

 

...sniping about getting up early on Saturday morning to paint a fence.

 

My stepson would be ...

 

...more engaged in school activities.

 

...more engaged in school friendships.

 

[perdidochas]

I wouldn't have the opportunity to see my sons interact with a variety of other adults and children.

 

I wouldn't have seen my oldest take lessons I've taught him and teach them to his peers.

 

I wouldn't have done the Teapot Dance in front of 100 cubs, parents and siblings in order to get my lost tent pole back.

 

 

 

 

 

[perdidochas]

Engineer,

 

Are you sure you need to stay with scouting? It sounds like you have ill feelings towards it, unless I missed some sarcasm there.