Troop 281 Cincinnati, OH

We successfully checked in on Sunday.  All scouts received an orientation to camp.  We ate dinner together in the dining hall and then went to chapel.  Many scouts went fishing with some good success!  We reviewed their individual schedules and where they would go for each class they had signed up for.  Their was a lot of energy in camp last night... some slept better than others.  We will try to post some comments directly from the scouts in the coming days along with pictures from camp.  I hope you enjoy the pics.  ps. This is my first time blogging, so I am definitely a beginner!  Ken W.

This week we had a meeting and a Court of Honor.   At the Court of Honor, Scouts were given their merit badges and rank cards.   The new leaders were sworn in during the Court of Honor.   The meeting was a pizza party.

This week there were two events, a meeting and a campout.   The meeting was D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education).   Deputy Mary Walsh from Claremont county police came in with a drug sniffing dog to talk about drugs.   After that we had senior patrol leader nominations, the two nominees are Alex S. and Justin D. The campout was at Ceasar’s Creek State Park which has a very large lake and hiking trails.    On the campout, the crews going to the Boundary Waters canoed 8 to 10 miles on Saturday.   At one point, we also had to portage or carry our canoes over land. The people not going to the Boundary Waters went on a hike.   Sunday those canoeing paddled about 2 miles back to the spot they put in at on Saturday morning.

This meeting was swim night.   To get the swimmer level you had to swim three laps on your stomach (crawl, breast stroke, butterfly, etc.), one lap on your back (back stroke, elementary back stroke), and then float on your back.   After the test it was open swim.

On Saturday we painted our patrol boxes.   First we had to sand them, after that we could paint them.   Painting them was really fun.   At the meeting we learned about troop gear.   We learned about how to take care of tents, wash dishes on a campout, and how to sharpen an ax.   You wash dishes using three different basins; one for washing, one for rinsing, and one for sanitizing.

This meeting we did phase one of the patrol box competition/cleaning.  We unloaded everything from the patrol box and took inventory.  After that we cleaned them with brushes and soapy water.  Finally we power washed them.