Camp Olmsted - Thursday/Friday

Hello from Ashburn,
I was so busy on Thursday night and Friday that I wasn't able to complete post a blog entry until now.

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Today is Thursday and we are getting close to the end of our stay here at Olmsted and I don't think we have any boys jumping up and down ready to go home.  They have gotten very settled into their daily routines and comfortable at our campsite now.

Today three of our adults leaders finished their IOLS training and I took Scoutmaster Conference and Board of Review training.  We are all a little smarter about scouting!

We ate lunch at the Archery range today.  After they ate, our Troop was able to practice their archery skills.

After dinner, the camp opened up their shooting sports program areas to any scout that wanted to shoot.... and they got to shoot anything they wanted... anything, except, of course, people, animals, etc.  Our boys shot their playing cards, their Olmsted hats, a pen (which in fact had to be a very good shot!) and small packages of applesauce.  It was definitely a fun way to show off their shooting skills!

On Thursday evening, the Scorpion patrol went off to their overnight campout at the parade field.  They enjoyed a campfire with s'mores with the camp staff.  Back at our campsite, the rest of our Troop had a campfire.  I cooked my world famous Apple Cobbler and another adult bought a few packages of popcorn.  As I said before, these scouts will not go hungry at camp!

After seeing a neighboring Troop do this, we had 3 scouts decide to sleep overnight in their hammocks for the first time.  I think we will be having some scouts sleeping from the trees on future outings!  They really enjoyed it and said it was surprisingly comfortable.

As we woke up and started our day on Friday, we learned from the rest of the camp that a black bear visited Camp Olmsted during the evening, rummaging through trash cans looking for food.  This was a great opportunity to teach the scouts that when we go camping, we should never bring food into our tents.  It should always be stored in a bear box or in someone's car.  After all, the forest is the home of black bears, raccoons, skunks, and other animals and we are just visiting.

Friday was a day to finish up any incomplete MBs and to have some fun.  Mr. Bonina, Mr. Parikh and Mr. Van Hulle took a few scouts on a hike that overlooked the lake at camp.  Some scouts went fishing and some stayed back at the campsite, played cards and practiced their fire making skills.  Also, I held 3 Scoutmaster Conferences for rank advancements.  Later in the afternoon, the camp held an "Olympics" competition where Troops competed against each other in events like tug o'war, water ballon toss, knot tying and soccer and a few others.  Our Troop did a great job competing.
Friday evening was the closing campfire, where the Scouts at camp had the opportunity to perform skits for all of the Troops at camp.  It was a great time.

As you can tell, I didn't include pictures on this post.  Mr Parikh and I will be compiling the rest of the pictures and posting them in the Troop Photo albums.  Once we're done, we'll send a message so everyone can go see.

Camp Olmsted - Wednesday

Hello to everyone at Ashburn.  We are half way through the week and we have a group of very happy scouts ....  and maybe a couple of parents homesick for their scouts.  As Mr Bonina eluded to in his Sunday email, please refrain from trying to reach out to your scouts at camp.  Our scouts are doing great and phone calls from homesick parents is the worst thing for scouts.

Every morning, all of the Troops at camp this week start the day with a Flag Ceremony and camp announcements in the parade field.  Today, our SPL, Rohan Parikh, led seven Troop 58 scouts as the Color Guard, raising the US Flag, Virginia State flag and the Maryland State flag.  A very proud moment indeed for our Troop!

Scout Law 32: A Scout is hungry!  After a breakfast of eggs, sausage and cereal, they were off to their first MBs of the day.  By now, we know not to get in the way of Scouts in the dining hall.  They look more like hungry wolves than scouts.  We get about 20 minutes to eat, and by the time 10 minutes goes by they are looking for any uneaten food that might be left, especially the older boys.  Nobody goes hungry as the adult table always has extra food that easily gets consumed quickly by our boys.

Today we ate lunch at our campsite.  Scout Law 11: A Scout is Clean!  After lunch, it was time to clean the Latrines and the campsite.  The Patrols are assigned these daily duties, as well as serving food and cleaning up the tables at meals times.  Today was the Watchdogs turn.  Also during free time, the boys prepared the fire circle for tonight's campfire program.

For the evening campfire program, Tommy Bonina was the MC.  We were treated to stories, jokes, and we even had Nihar sing songs for us!  Also, we had scouts stand up and share things about their cultural backgrounds.  We were told about life in Mexico, India, Germany, Ecuador and Columbia.

Photos from Wednesday are found in the Online Photo Gallery.
 

Camp Olmsted - Tuesday

Hello from Camp Olmsted,

After serious discussion about being respectful of others at camp the day before, we (as well as many other Troops that slept near us) were treated with being able to sleep until close to 7am this morning. A Scout is Courteous!  

I would like to highlight a very proud moment for the Troop as Steve Meree, very easily I might add, volunteered to say the morning Grace on the parade field to the entire Camp during B Breakfast this morning.  Steve represented out Troop well!

A Scout is Reverent

After a big breakfast of pancakes, sausage and yogurt, the boy were ready to start their 2nd day of Merit badges and rank requirements.  Lunch starts around 12:20pm and the next MB class starts at 3pm so they have lots of free time.  As is the tradition here at Olmsted, we don't eat our lunch inside the dining hall.  The boys found it quite easy to grab a few picnic tables under the trees where they quickly prepared and served chicken sandwiches and a fruit cup to the Troop. 

A Scout is Helpful!

After lunch, we had another Troop shoot but this time at the shotgun range.  There were a couple of scouts that embarrassed the adults with perfect scores at skeet shooting.  Also, our scouts took this time for patrols to go take showers!   Yes.... it's true, they took a shower at camp.  It might be the only one for the whole week.  Also it was during this time that we discovered that Justin and Felix were probably lumberjacks in a past life!  The ax yard has been a pretty popular place during free time.

Chopping wood for our campfire tonight

Chopping wood

In the evening, after the boys' afternoon MBs, we started to prepare for cooking our foil dinner at our campsite.  On the menu was precooked Kielbasa, potatoes, carrots, and PBJ sandwiches.   For dessert, we were treated to apple pie.  Of course, since we had a fire, Jack Entsminger took the opportunity to lead us in a campfire program with skits, music and the singing of vespers.  A perfect way to end the day!

Photos from Tuesday are found in the Online Photo Gallery

Arrival at Camp Olmsted

Good Evening Troop 58 Family,

It has been a great 24 hours at Camp Olmsted.  I hope to provide you a peek into the lives of your sons' while we are at Summer Camp.  I haven't taken as many pictures as I had hoped but I know that Mr Parikh and Mr Bonina have taken some as well as our Troop Historian Jack Lawrence.  As you may have heard, the cell phone service and internet access here at Olmsted isn't very good but we will add to the Picasa Photo Albums when we can.

We got to Camp Olmsted on Sunday around 12-12:30pm and one of the first things that we did was get acquainted with where will be calling home for the next 5 days.  The boys picked their tents, setup their mosquito netting and sleeping bags, and said Hi to the prior residents (the daddy long leg spiders) as they swooshed them out the door.

Then we got a tour of the camp and were introduced to the staff at each program area: Scoutcraft, Handicraft, Ecology, Trailhead, Shooting Sports, Aquatics, etc.

On their way to the pool, learning about all the program areas.

Once we got the the Lake, all the boys got to show off their awesome swimming form!

The boys are ready to go swimming!

After that we were able to go back to the campsite and continue to setup their tents and get explore a little.  This week we are just one of many Troops at Olmsted and there will be a little more than 500 scouts and adults.  With so many at camp, they break our meals into shifts: A and B.  Our Troop has B meals, which means we eat breakfast at 8:20am and 6:20pm.  On Sunday night, we met at the parade field at about 6:15pm ready for the flag ceremony and, of course, all of the boys were hungry and ready to eat.

After throwing down the Taco dinner that the camp provided, we went back to the campsite until we had to leave for our Opening Campfire at 8:45pm.  This was a great traditional opening campfire with skits and songs by the camp staff.  After the campfire, the Troop returned to the campsite to go to sleep.  As is customary with the Troop: in bed at 10pm, and lights out and quiet at 10:30pm.  The boys didn't quite make it at those times, but were close.  This will ensure they will be extra tired for tomorrow night.

Photos from Sunday are found in the Online Photo Gallery.

Camp Olmsted - Monday

The next time your boys tell you "It's too early".  Don't you believe it!  

Troop 58 Scouts were up around 6am this morning with lots of energy, while the adults leaders were quite happy to stay in bed until closer to 7am.  The Scouts must have been very eager to start their merit badge classes.  We started off with a pretty good breakfast of eggs, hash browns and bacon.  After eating, the boys were off to start their week full of MB classes!

After a morning of MBs and a pretty good lunch of chicken sandwiches, we headed off to our first Troop Shoot at the rifle range.  With the range reserved for just our Troop, the boys got in a lot of target practice.

Troop Shoot at the rifle range

 

Monday started off great with all of the scouts attending their merit badge classes, but a thunderstorm loomed in the distance threatening to dump a lot of rain on us.  Despite the flash flood warnings that were reported by the staff, we got really lucky and only had about an hour of light rain right before dinner time.  With their merit badge classes over, the boys wasted no time dancing and playing in the rain.  A boys dream, huh?

Playing frisbee in the rain

After dinner, we headed back to our campsite just as the rain stopped but our evening of fun was cut a bit short.  The Camp staff rang the emergency alarm and all of the campsites were on lock down for about 90 minutes.  The emergency ended up only being a false alarm.  One of the scouts at camp forgot his buddy tag on the board after he got out of the Lake, and nobody could find him.  It was very reassuring that the camp staff was on the ball with locking down the campsites and finding the scout that left his tag on the board.  Some lessons are learned the hard way!

Photos from Monday are found in the Online Photo Gallery