Post edited 5:32 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo
Post edited 5:43 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo
Post edited 6:14 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo
Post edited 6:20 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo
Post edited 6:22 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo
Post edited 6:26 pm – May 31, 2010 by ScoutingAsWeGo

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Greetings!  I mentioned that we had a Pack camp out this month and now that it has come and gone, I thought some might be interested in a camp report of sorts.  I know CM Chris wants us to call in and leave a message while we are out at our events, but calling TX from my cell phone in Austria would be a very expensive call, so we'll go this route.  I warn you now – it's long, rambling and I included some photos and links.  Enjoy if you're so inclined.

So here's the background.  Our little pack is about to enter a huge transition as a ton of our families are leaving Vienna this summer (to include my family).  We are a very transient community. Our Cubmaster was scheduled to leave the country on Friday, May 28th – the day before our campout.  This meant that he was out of the picture (and we were to be without a Cubmaster) for our campout.  The way our little pack has worked all year is this:  we just make it happen.  Whoever wants something to happen just steps up to the plate and makes it happen.  I know, it doesn't sound reliable, but it has worked out well this year thanks to some dedicated and hard working volunteers who always come through in the end.

We were aware several months ago that the CM would be gone and no one else was really jumping up and down to plan and run a camp out, so my fellow Webelos Den leader (she's the lead, I'm the assistant) decided we would take it upon ourselves to orchestrate the entire thing.  We had just run a Webelos only overnight in April, so we felt seasoned and ready to take on a camp pack out.  At our last pack meeting (earlier in May) we gave out a flier, a packing list and general info and then asked (begged) for some parents to step up and volunteer to take on a job.  The jobs available were:  camp kitchen helpers, "keeper of the flame," campfire storyteller, lead a prayer service, and then a variety of openings for people to teach classes, lead games/sports, etc.  We didn't get a ton of solid commitments so we knew we had our work cut out for us. 

Oh, and another little piece of this puzzle was that the tiny Cub Scout pack from Bratislava, Slovakia (about 45 mintues away) was going to join us . . . with us doing the coordinations of course. 

My co leader took care of a ton of the communication and I planned the campfire program.  Together we planned the meals, shopping (which we delegated to a helpful parent), and we attempted to plan some camp activities, but we knew that if we didn't get parent help, that the activities would be scrapped and we would end up having one of those kinds of camp outs where the boys had a ton of "free time."  Which, to be honest, we were okay with.

So enough on the background here is what happened.

My co-leader and I left for camp a few hours before everyone else.  Many boys had Saturday morning sports and activities and everyone had said they couldn't really make it till the afternoon anyway.  We arrived at our campground (http://members.chello.at/roten…..rplatz.htm, an Austrian scout camp in the Wienerwald, or Vienna Woods) around 10:15 AM, coordinated with the caretaker who only spoke German (yikes, we muddled through) and picked our spots.  He kept saying that another group of around 10 people were coming and that they were American and we couldn't figure out who he was talking about.  We knew our Junior Girl Scouts were camping, but we were certainthat they were at another campground.

Co-leader and I got our tents up with the help of our own Scouts, lickity split and then organized our kitchen gear.  The cooking area was awesome with two grill spots and RUNNING WATER with a REAL sink right at the site!  It was a bit luxurious if I do say so myself.   We were organized and ready and by 12:30 some people started showing up . . . to include the 10 mystery Girl Scout??? campers/adults who we were not expecting at the same campground.  Our 4th grade Webelos Scouts were suddenly very interested in spying on the Girl Scouts, so co-leader and I were a bit concerned that the dynamic of the camp out was going to change. It ended up not really being a problem though as the small group of Girls kept to themselves on a lower camping area.  It helped that the leader of the Junior Girl Scouts is the mom of our Webelos Den Chief, so she knew to do her best to keep the girls to their area and not let them get worked up about our menacing boys and vice versa.  Ha ha!!!  

The Bratislava folks started showing up and we all hit it off nicely – they were SUPER helpful!  They had a very International group with families from Denmark, Belgium and England in their pack.  Tent set up went well, but people did show up late which knocked us way off our of time schedule – always seems to happen, right?  No stress.  While I was waiting for everyone to get their tents set up (we HAD to set them up because there was a slight chance of rain), I pulled my Webelos aside and went over a few skits and songs with them which paid off later at our campfire.

We opened with a nice flag raising ceremony and then I did a few ice breakers so that the boys from Vienna and the boys from Bratislava could mingle and get a chance to introduce themselves.  I also taught the boys a song that we would later use at our campfire program.  At first I was worried at the response to my teaching a song – I was worried that the Bratislava pack would be put off by all of our singing.  Our pack LOVES to sing and I had a ton of songs to use throughout the day.  I don't think they were fully on board this early in the game, but come the campfire program at night, they were singing right along.

As soon as everyone was ready to go we headed out on our hike to Naturpark Sparbach (http://www.naturpark-sparbach.at/, a Nature Park in the Vienna Woods).  The Scout camp we were using was right next to the park, so it made for a great place to explore.  The park had some animals, a great playground, and a trail up to some 800 year old ruins!  Talk about a cool Cub Scout experience!  We had one incident on the hike – a random bloody nose.  One of the Bratislava moms was a nurse and had a great first aid kit and tons of tissue packets in her bag, so she came to the rescue.  Oh, and my daughter fell at one point and cut her hand, but that was easliy dealt with as well. 

A photo of our flag raising: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..sCR-XL.jpg

Checking out some animals in the nature park:  http://photosfromclarksylvania…..PA4-XL.jpg

The boys went nuts when they spotted these 800 year old castle ruins in the distance – they insisted that we hike up there: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..XgY-XL.jpg

Parents were interested in the history, boys just wanted to climb: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..gef-XL.jpg

Group shot in front of the ruins: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..Ax8-XL.jpg

Exploring: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..qkZ-XL.jpg

The ruins: http://photosfromclarksylvania…..jwy-XL.jpg

We totally lost track of time and my co-leader and I realized that she and I better run ahead back to the campsite to start prepping dinner, leaving other adults in charge of the boys at the park for another 30 minutes or so.  We had two nice dads from the other pack join us and we hustled back to set up our tin-foil dinner making station.  When we arrived at camp, there were a handful of new arrivals who had come in from baseball/piano recitals/youth orchesta/etc. and they were playing some variation of kickball/stickball and ALL of them had set their gear up.  The new arrival parents also quickly kicked in to help get dinner ready.  By the time the hikers had returned, we were ready to line everyone up to make their dinners.

Another mom and I had prepped all of the veggies in large ziploc bags at home so the make-your-own-tin-foil-dinner buffet was a piece of cake to set up and the Bratislava dads were pros at the grill.    We cooked over two grills with wood.  The kids and the families LOVED making the tin foil meals.  We offered: ground beef, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, red/green/orange peppers, onions and zucchini.  We also had garlic bread.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many veggies the kids put in their packets!  They topped the pakcets off with butter, salt, pepper and some SeasonAll. To drink we had water and someone (I don't even know who) brought a huge drink cooler of icy Gatorade, which was a nice treat since it was a teeny bit warm and humid.  When the first packets were ready to come off the fire, we gathered around the "camp kitchen" area and sang a grace together.  My Webelos Scouts totally came through for me and helped me with the singing. 

**Side note.  We Americans take our high quality Reynold's aluminum wrap for granted.  The stuff they have over here in Europe is TERRIBLE.  Luckily, I had picked up a mega roll of Reynold's at a US Army post commisary when we were in Italy in April, so I was prepared for the campout. **

I was a stickler about the boys washing their own dishes and went so far as to give a class and specific directions on how the boys were supposed to wash their dishes at our dish washing station.  If I hadn't done that, the boys were more than willing to just toss them in a big pile on the table and run off.  The parents caught on and helped guide the boys through with everyone washing their own dishes and putting them away.  While this was going on, I whipped up two dutch oven cobblers to which I drew a crowd of adult onlookers who were very curious with this strange, new dutch over cooking.  HA HA!!!  This dessert was for the adults as we planned s'mores for the boys after the campfire and I've learned that s'mores are MORE than enough for dessert for the  boys.  Our grill meisters (hey, we're in a German speaking country) heated up some charcoals for me and tended to the cobblers while I ran off to work a little bit more with my Webelos on some skits.

Serving dinner.  I'm usually bashful about putting my picture online, but here ya go.  Now you all know what I look like (blue shirt, blue ball cap with a pink heart on it): http://photosfromclarksylvania…..oGU-XL.jpg

Still running a bit behind schedule, it was starting to get dark so we called everyone up to the flagpole area.  We had one Webelos Scout who started late who needed to do the flag ceremony  portion of the Citizenship badge, so we let him do the ceremony with some helpers.  After the ceremony I decided that the Webelos would need to do some of their skits at this site because it was going to be way too dark down by the campfire for the skits to be effective so they started off with  the good old classic, "If I were not a Cub Scout."  They totally pulled it off, which I was more than impressed with.  I've only ever seen adults and Boy Scouts do it, and wasn't sure if Webelos Scouts could do it.  They not only did it, they rocked it!  I have some VERY talented and very theatrical and bold boys in my den.  At that point the leader from Bratislava's pack informed me that they were prepared with a skit – yipppeeee!  I was starting to worry that they were feeling left out, but they really hadn't coordinated anything ahead of time.  Their skit was adorable and well done – they even had props!  My Web's did another skit (water conservation teeth brushing skit) which drew many laughs.  Finally, with just enough daylight, I boldly went were I never thought I'd go – I attempted to lead the "Whadat-n-chew" action song (see this version from last year's summer camp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..;  I have to admit, I spent a decent ammount of time practicing this at home – motions and all.  Well, somehow, I pulled it off and everyone was hysterical. 

Now this is my favorite part.  My "keeper of the flame" had already disappeared and had put the finishing touches on our campfire.  Earlier in the day I had set up a "magic start" fire using this set up: 

Tin can, open at one end lying on its side under the fire. Stub of candle stuck to a small board that fits inside the can. Tie a string to the board. Light the candle and stick it onto the board in the can. THe can keeps the tinder from lighting. To light pull the string which (hopefully!) pulls the board out of the can and starts the fire. Need to build the fire carefully so that the light from the candle can not be seen.

I had never done this before and wasn't sure if it would work.  My Co-leader led the boys the long way around the campsite to our fire circle (which was really cool, kind of had stadium like seating with 2 levels around it).  She insisted that they be silent on their walk to the fire, which added a little mystery.  They say down and I told them to dig deep and find their cub scout spirit and that maybe the fire would start up on it's own . . . AND IT WORKED!  Not a SOUL saw the string nor my "keeper of the flame" pulling it with his foot.  Every single parent just sat their scratching their heads and the boys were wowed.  I had a lot of explaining to do after the campfire.  Haha!  I quickly went over the fire safety rules  and had my "keeper of the flame" load up the fire to get it very bright.  I wasted no time and went right into a bunch of knee-slapping fun songs (Ravioli, Robert Baden Powell had Many Scouts, There's a Hole in the Bucket, Ten in the Bed, Tell Me Why).  I had a bunch of parents and some boys involved in some run-ons which all worked out well.  My Webelos also did one more skit and did a great job with it.  The only part I didn't pull off was a story.  I am NOT a storyteller and couldn't find one I liked, so I was hoping someone would come through and have one, but no one stepped up to the plate.    It really would have been great, but to be honest, the songs and skits and run ons were so much fun, no one seemed to mind much. The best part was singing "There's a Hole in the Bucket."  I split the circle in half and had one half sing the part of Eliza and the other half sung the Henry part and everyone really got into their parts and it was so amazingly funny.  We ended with Taps and then I stepped away from the fire and let the parents work with their own kids making s'mores.  I snuck away back to our "camp kitchen" where our peach cobblers were cooked to perfection.  All I had to do was lift the lid on one of the ovens and a parent came running over asking about the great smell.  LOL  Two ovens full of cobbler disappeared in minutes.  I had to explain to the foreign families why we call it cobbler (which I really don't know why) because they couldn't understand why we would name a dessert after someone who makes shoes.  

So that was all she wrote for Saturday.  Parents took over respobsibility for their children and I was shocked at how quickly everyone ended up in their sleeping bags and fell asleep.  I had a very helpful crew of people who took it upon themselves to help straighten up the "camp kitchen", help put out the fire and organize for the morning. 

So the camp report pretty much ends here because I was overscheduled for the weekend and had signed myself up for a 10K race in Vienna for Sunday morning.  I had to be up and ready for the race at 6 AM.  There were a few others getting out of their tents by the time I was leaving and our grill meister from the night before was already over at the grills with coffee going on the camp stoves and two fires going to make breakfast.  I hated leaving for our Sunday portion of the campout, but I had to do what I had to do.  It started drizzling as I left, but it apparently stopped right after I left and they were able to cook and eat breakfast and run some round robin stations without getting soaked.  They had fresh rolls with nutella, jam or butter, fresh fruit, hot cocoa/coffee,  and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese  for breakfast.  The round robin stations apparently went just okay  as no one really ever stepped up to the plate to really organize something, but from what my husband tells me, they pulled off a few classes.  I think our Den Chief came in very handy throughout the Sunday morning activities.  Great kid!  Oh and I almost forgot.  One of our dads did conduct a morning interfaith worship service.  I'm glad that happened.

I kept calling my husband on my cell phone while I waited for my race to start asking him how things were going and probing him to find out if everyone was helping out with camp break down.  I was VERY conerned that a small handful of people (my husband and my co-leader and a few others) were going to get stuck with all of the clean up.  I later heard that most everyone was very helpful and that all of the clean up work happened as a team.  I believe they even had all of the boys broken up into teams to work on different parts of the campsite to ensure no trash or food was left behind. 

We had a den meeting today and the boys (my Webelos Scouts) were completely pumped up about camping.  We have 10 Webelos and 7 of them had gone camping.  Two never come camping and one had a very important family event, so his absence was understandable.  The little guys had a great time too.  This was ALL that I really cared about – the boys having a fabulous time and raving about their camping experience.  I don't remember seeing one sour face out there and I can't say it enough, but my Webelos were amazing.   With the exception of a little bit of drizzle, our weather was near perfect, not too hot, not too cool and just a teeny bit humid.  The campers were all out of there by noon and I was finished with my race and driving home around 1:00 PM and then the skies opened up with hail, rain and lots of wind.  The storm just missed us!

So to give credit – as always, thank you to CM Chris for his infectious enthusiasm as it definitely pushed me to make this fun for the boys.  Thank you to the MISSES who did a wonderful show about camping and campfire planning a few weeks ago.  Thanks to those of you here who share your great ideas on the forums.  And most of all, I am extremely thankful to the trainers from the CT Rivers council who conducted my Outdoor Webelos leader training a year ago this May.  They totally exceded the standard on great training and taught me how to plan a great campfire program – which was the best part of our campout!  

If you actually read all of this, you get a long-winded post merit badge for making it through.