Of Survival Skills and Geometry
At last week’s Troop meeting, things got a little crazy. First, the youth staff announced that in November there will be a uniform inspection conducted every meeting to make sure scouts are in complete “Class A” uniform. There was a small commotion when it was added that wearing the “Class B” shirt (the white shirt with the Troop 281 logo on the front) was part of the Class A uniform, since it would be almost completely hidden under the Class A shirt, but eventually the situation was sorted out. After some more announcements, Greg B. told the scouts to form a “half-circle-nonagon” (A nonagon is a nine-sided polygon) for the skill session, although in the end the scouts just formed a half-circle.
Confusing geometric-related commands aside, Greg did a good job of covering the basics of Wilderness Survival, the next campout (location still unknown to most of the Troop). He covered the essentials and the top 7 things anybody needs to survive in the wild for a little while: Water, the ability to assess the situation, food, a fire, shelter, signals, and a flashlight. The scouts who are going on the actual wilderness survival part of the campout will need those skills to survive for the 2-3 days they will be lost in the wilds of…wherever they’ll be.
When the skill session was over, the scouts got to play a game of “Spud”. For those who don’t know, the game “Spud” is kind of like dodge ball, but with a few twists: Each scout is given a number, and when one scout tosses the ball in the air, whoever has the number that is called out must catch the ball and shout “SPUD!” At that point, all the other scouts who were running away from the ball must freeze, and the scout who has the ball gets three steps before he must toss the ball at another scout. If the ball makes a hit, the unlucky scout is out of the game, but if it’s a miss, then the game just restarts.
When it was time to circle up to close the meeting, the scouts fell in as usual for the end-of-meeting announcements. SPL Avery R. got a little creative towards the end, however, and taking a page from Greg’s book had the Troop “nonagon-up”, but the Troop still ended up making more of an amoeba shape than a polygon.
Confusing geometric-related commands aside, Greg did a good job of covering the basics of Wilderness Survival, the next campout (location still unknown to most of the Troop). He covered the essentials and the top 7 things anybody needs to survive in the wild for a little while: Water, the ability to assess the situation, food, a fire, shelter, signals, and a flashlight. The scouts who are going on the actual wilderness survival part of the campout will need those skills to survive for the 2-3 days they will be lost in the wilds of…wherever they’ll be.
When the skill session was over, the scouts got to play a game of “Spud”. For those who don’t know, the game “Spud” is kind of like dodge ball, but with a few twists: Each scout is given a number, and when one scout tosses the ball in the air, whoever has the number that is called out must catch the ball and shout “SPUD!” At that point, all the other scouts who were running away from the ball must freeze, and the scout who has the ball gets three steps before he must toss the ball at another scout. If the ball makes a hit, the unlucky scout is out of the game, but if it’s a miss, then the game just restarts.
When it was time to circle up to close the meeting, the scouts fell in as usual for the end-of-meeting announcements. SPL Avery R. got a little creative towards the end, however, and taking a page from Greg’s book had the Troop “nonagon-up”, but the Troop still ended up making more of an amoeba shape than a polygon.
Ben Hallenbeck, Troop Historian
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