Area Weekend Camping Experience
Ann
Our service unit campout ended
up with 192 girls and 64 adults - not a bad count I thought! my
co-chair and I were very pleased, exhausted but please.
The weekend started out with
check in and then pizza followed by a sing along at the campfire.
We had a few songs that ended up being 2 part rounds that weren't
supposed to be. =) Love those enthusiastic 7 year olds!
My troop (7-8 year old
brownies) tented for the first time. We had everyone in their
tent by 10pm and finally asleep by midnight. Thank God for those
two moms that volunteered to go and settle the girls so the three
leaders could stay by the campfire and relax! We ended up
chatting and laughing until 1am when the cold drove us in to our
warm sleeping bags. I haven't laughed like that in ages!
The morning started up nice and
early at 5am. Not planned but some of the girls wake with the
birds and soon all were up. They played, worked on swaps, looked
for their jungle breakfast, ate and all in all were ready for the
day. The leaders ran for the coffee and eventually greeted the
day with the same excitement (well maybe muted somewhat! ;) )
A group of 3 grade brownies did
the opening flag ceremony. They followed the Blind Man's Ceremony
from our Outdoor Training booklet. We basically followed a normal
flag ceremony but before retiring a girl is lead blindfolded,
gagged, hands tied behind her back and a small speech is said as
each bandanna is removed. All referring to our rights granted by
our laws, constitution and bill of rights. Very neat.
Then we swapped. This is only
the second time our service unit has ever swapped and I think the
girls did wonderful! We had one troop of daisies there and I
think they brought home the most swaps! Everyone wanted to make
sure the youngest ones had fun! Thank you for the story a while
back about the girl swapping for the smile - I shared it and I
think it really helped to get the idea across.
After the swapping the troops
had some free time until 1 PM. My troop broke down the tents and
packed up. while they were doing that with my two co-leaders, my
oldest daughter, a leader from the junior troop helping to run
the orienteering and one of the Service Unit managers came along
to help me lay the orienteering trail. We made it back in time
for lunch.
By the way, the hit of the
lunch time crowd was the tacos in a bag! Thanks for that recipe.
We had everyone watching us as the girls crushed the bag of
Doritos and added the ingredients. We even shared with a few
girls and adults who didn't bring a lunch.
After lunch, we started the
afternoon programming. every troop was assigned a starting time
for the orienteering. The only complaints I received was by two
Junior troops. The Daisies did just fine and so did all of the
Brownies. Oh well - can't please everyone! We offered lummi
sticks for those waiting to get to the orienteering and that
seemed to go very well. The leaders seem tentative until I made
them join the girls down on the ground and learn how to use the
sticks too. We started laughing then and having a ton of fun.
On the other side of the camp
we offered:
Whittling
We
had a handout I created using a handprint and on each finger I
typed five points that the girls would need to do to earn a knife
carrying card (thanks mike for the idea) Leaders were ever happy
to see a step by step list, since it is scattered here and there
in our handbooks. We then offered a bar of soap and a plastic
knife to practice using a knife and whittling.
Games
We had
the 6 ft in diameter earth ball and the parachute and a few
cooperative games. The girls loved the earthball and the
parachute! We even seem a few older juniors giggling over the
games!
Copper Lantern Covers
From S&S we had everyone make a copper lantern cover. You
take a copper sheet and after tracing a design with a pencil you
used a nail and a hammer and pounded a hole in the copper
following the design. Brad it together and set over a candle and
you have a pretty lantern cover.
For the Brownies
We had medicine wheels from S&S again. Along with a person
who explained a little history behind it and what it means.
For the Juniors
They had a choice; Indian jewelry offered by pow-wow workshops
(they handled the whole thing - they are former girl scout
leaders who create workshops to help girls work on badges) or
they could make a dreamcatcher. Again the supplies from S&S
and the history offered by a person who organizes pow-wows in
this area.
By 4:30 everybody had hit all the different stations and were happy to clean up and let the girls run around for a bit. At 4:50pm the chicken guy arrived so I missed the closing flag ceremony. But the girls for the first seating soon arrived and the Brownie troop serving was shoveling food out as quick as they could. By 5:30 my troop was done eating and set to serving food. All the food ended up on the plates! ;)
Unfortunately, wires got
crossed and our storyteller didn't arrive but the ice cream man
did so everyone was ready to sing again at the campfire. But by
that time my girls were ready to go home, so as I watched for
parents arriving my girls played flashlight tag. One by one they
left and I sent my co-leaders home. The last girl called her
parents to "remind" them they were supposed to pick her
up and off she went.
Since it was 11pm, I spent a
quick moment policing the area, getting all of the lost and found
stuff, packed up my van and then strolled back to the campfire to
help put out the fire and collect my fire tools. Then I went home
to sleep! finally!
|