Sid Richardson Camp Summary
2006 Summer Camp
July 14th - 22nd
Attendance:
32 Scouts and 11 Adults
Program:
- Canoeing
- Swimming
- Climbing
- Rappelling
- Rifle Shooting
- Motor Boating and Tubing
- Shotgun Shooting
Summary:
Friday night we arrived at the National Guard Armory in Decatur and
stayed there overnight. We shared it with some Sea Scouts from Ft.
Worth. Sea Scouts are kids in Scouts but do military activities kind of
like an Explorer Post. We awoke Saturday morning at 5:45 AM to them
yelling chants and drills during their physical fitness training. Our
boys took it well. We arrived in camp Saturday morning around 9:30AM and
began to set up camp. At 1:30PM we were already hot and went to the lake
for our swim checks and to set up the swim areas. The whole week with the
post ranger was entertaining and everyone from Troop 80 found him to be not all
there. He had a limited word vocabulary, nothing bad just didn't know
many words. His favorite word to use was "outstanding". To his
benefit he knew the Scout Law and always used the Scout handshake., Mr.
Standish was always the first to shake his hand. He knew the scout law so
well he quizzed our boys and the local wildlife.
For an example, we were invaded several times by raccoons.
One time in particular, Mrs. Braden baked and sent some homemade cookies to the
entire Troop but I still don't know who did more damage to the box of cookies
the ranger or the raccoons. The ranger told us he asked the raccoons to
cease and assist from eating our mail or "provisions" and they disobeyed Scout
Law #7, which is a Scout is Obedient. Therefore, he took out his trusted
BB gun and shot at the raccoons. By the looks of all the holes in the
box, I don't think he hit a one of them. But thanks to Mrs. Braden for
the thought and hard work anyway. I'm sure they were good cookies.
Speaking of hard work, the following men helped out and without
them I couldn't have done it myself. John Standish, Henry Sena and Steve
Tillery helped on the waterfront with the swimming, canoeing, and motor
boating. Without the water program this would have been a miserable camp.
Stan Fithen (head chef), Darrell Schmidt, and Doug Walker ran the
kitchen. This was a hot and never ending job. These three men
didn't get to spend much time in the water or at other activities because they
were cooking us some wonderful meals. This year Stan Fithen was awarded
the "Bean Pot Award". Congratulations to Stan.
John Dryden assisted myself in the rifle range and Steve Tillery
assisted myself on the Shotgun shooting. Thanks to these guys for their
efforts. Also Steve Tillery and Danny Finley stayed up in the early
morning hours cleaning the firearms with me and I definitely appreciated that.
Lawerence Rowland and Greg Wynne ran the climbing and rappelling
tower. Lawerence was awarded by the greenbar the "Bone Award", which is
given to the first year adult who works hard at the program and most important
who the kids really like. That could be good and bad. Watch your
back Lawerence!
The program ran on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday from 7:00AM till
Midnight and we didn't get back to camp until about 12:30AM and then everyone
had to still shower. On Tuesday through Friday, the program ran from
7:00AM until 11:30PM. As you can see, there was no free time and the boys
were dragging. Which was good because as soon as we got back to camp they
were asleep. It was great.
The climbing tower was really cool. The tower was at the
highest point on the camp and it overlooked all the lakes around it. The
tower was a 50 ft tower and was well lit so we could climb and rappel at
night. We found that's the tower we want to build for Troop 80. We
just need $20K and we'll do it. So everyone get your checkbooks out.
We took the kids out inter tubing on the lake on Friday and Steve
Tillery and John Standish forgot to refuel after dinner and well, Myself and
Danny Finley's crew had to tow them back to the marina. In which by the
way it made the patch. The gas canon the patch will represent that.
Another item that will be on the patch will be a thermometer.
The area highs reached 115 degrees and the area highs never went below 102
degrees. The average low every night was around 80-90 degrees. It
was a scorcher. It never bothered the kids and everyone continued with
the program. The Troop, with the help of John Dryden, hooked up some
misters under the circus tent to help keep the area cool. I thought the
heat would make the kids easily irritated at each other but it never did.
The boys behaved really well. They were too tired to misbehave so
therefore we didn't have any disciplinary problems.
Henry Sena was our medical officer and we treated only 2 kids with
mild dehydration. Henry took them up to the rangers house in the
air-condition for about 4 hrs and made them drink water every 20 minutes.
I'm sure it was a tuff detail for Henry. I'm sure he hated that.
The Longhorn council was really nice to us and gave us as much ice as we wanted
on a daily basis free of charge.
The other awards that were presented were the Outstanding Scout for
the day and for the week. This is a high honor and is picked by the
greenbar and men for a scout's hard work and enthusiasm. The Outstanding
Scouts of the day were: Drew Schmidt, Garrett Hall, Josiah Rowland,
Dustin Gray, Tanner Love and Preston McClendon. The Scout of the week was
Matt Dryden. Congratulations to these young men for that achievement.
Also another great event happened, Steve Tillery and John Dryden
tried to beat John Standish and I in the card game "Spades". I have to
give them some credit because they are improving. This time they only
lost by a couple of hundred points. In fact maybe next time, Randy Nuttal
and Jeff West can learn play so John and I can have some real
competition. I first recommend to these men to graduate from the game
"Go-Fish" before they try and take on the undefeated champions for 6 months in
a row.
The campfire ring was awesome at sunset. It was also on a
tall ill overlooking the lake and an island. Another highlight of my trip
and some of the scouts was being on the water in a canoe or motorboat a
sunset. It was truly breathtaking. I can't wait till Mr. Walker
post the pictures on the web site. It gives me Canada fever. The
campfires at night was great with high enthusiasm and there were all new skits
and songs. My complements to our Senior Greenbar for putting on great
campfires.
Overall the week was great to despite the heat. One of our
kids came up with the phrase that will be on the patch ("Beat the Heat
2006") The Longhorn Council and the Sid Richardson staff were extremely
nice to us in more ways than one. I never thought that we would say
a council went out of their way to help us but they did. We all
appreciate their wonderful hospitality and we are looking forward to
returning back there to canoe to get ready for the 2007 Canada trip.
We have more great stories and things that happened this last week
there is no way I can put them all in the summary. Please talk to someone
who went and they will share with you the wonderful time we had.
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