Scout Camp 2009

As M used to say, according to my hypothesis and calculations, or in my case after looking back at my day planners, this was my eighth year attending scount camp for the full week over the years. This year we were at beautiful Camp Baldwin on the east side of Mt. Hood. I hadn't been to Baldwin for many years and all I could remember was the dust. It's still there, big poofs of it every step you take...except all of it that came back with me.

This year I had just 5 boys, younger ones as the older guys in our troop are going to a high adventure camp in Washington. I went because our scoutmaster's wife just had a baby and the other scout leasders that could go are going on the high adventure. Included in our group was a non-member and two kids with disabilites. We went with Troop 400 from Canby 2nd Ward who had 5 young guys go, including only two from their ward, two from Utah who were the nephews of their scoutmaster and one non-member from another troop who missed his summer camp. All the kids meshed instantly in the parking lot before leaving. They were a great group. Steve Langford, the scoutmaster for 400 is great. No problems at all...except about a million yellow jackets. I avoided getting stung but four of our group were not so lucky.

I spent most of the week sheparding our two autistic kids - making sure they were where they needed to be when they needed to be there and doing what they needed to be doing. My plan was to make sure they were buddied up and attended the same merit badge classes and activities at the same time, but that was short-lived when they scheduled all different things except one merit badge. So each day I'd start out with both, drop one at the nature center, take the other to snorkeling, then back to the nature center to check on that one, then back to the lake to pick up the snorkeler and get him to woodcarving, the back to the nature center to make sure he didn't wander off between classes, then back to woodcarving to make sure he got to the rifle range, at which time I'd take a bit of a break, then gather them all up and go back to camp for lunch, then start over again for the afternoon sessions. By the end of the day I was pooped.

But it was all worth it as they both earned three merit badges and some partials that can easily be completed back here at home. One also earned his BSA Snorkeling card and made the dime club in riflery (five shots inside of the area of a dime.) They were thrilled and so were there parents when they got home.

Once again, I couldn't be prouder of our kids. They were fun, obedient, helpful, etc. Just no problems. I spent five days helping one of our guys at horsemanship, a very difficult merit badge that he could complete but he did the hard thngs and had a great experience that he has not stopped talking about. I learned a lot about horses, myself (ask me to name 15 parts of a horse, 7 parts of a saddle and 3 parts of a bridle and five breeds, etc.)

The weather was great on day one but got progressively colder and windier as the week went on as it was downright cold the last night. Still, we didn't get rained on so it was alright.

One kid from Troop 400 went fishing for the first time and caught a 12 inch rainbow trout, which we cleaned, cooked and ate. the nice thing about Camp Baldwin is you cook your food in camp and have to clean up afterward so it keeps the kids busy from 7 in the morning until 10 at night. Very little free time to get into trouble and they are ready to sleep when night comes.

Despite having a good sleeping pad, it's not as easy as it once was to sleep on a hard surface (platform tents) for a week, but it was worth. Nevertheless, it was a great week and well worth it be with great kids having funs and being able to teach them about scouting things.

Youth Conference

This year we were asked to put on a ward youth conference rather than the stake doing one. We could do it alone or with another ward. At first our kids wanted to go with another ward at the coast, but when that fell through, they wanted to do it with another ward in the stake. When that fell through, we had to come up with something on our own. In a Bishop's Youth Committee, someone suggested we do a COPE course (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience). We looked into it and found one in Salem near the Enchanted Forest that is sponsored by a world-wide youth ministry. We contacted them and found the price to be more than we could afford. But we asked if we could send a group of volunteers down to do service work in exchange for time on the course. Surprisingly, they agreed and earlier in the year we sent 40 people down who worked 4 to 8 hours on projects they had. They were so impressed with the work they gave us a half-day free per person on the course for use for our youth conference.

This past weekend we had just about the perfect ward conference. It is probably the most successful event I've been involved in in over 30 years working with youth groups. Our BYC planned it and the kids organized all aspects of it. It was super fun, super hard, super exhausting, a super experience and super spiritual.

Let me first say that the kids that we have in the young men and young women groups are the finest collective kids we've ever had in the ward. For sure there have been some great kids go through our program (mine included) but there have been a number of stinkers from time to time in most groups. Not this one. All of our kids get along, support each other, are polite, helpful, courteous, obedient, reverent, etc (Boy Scout law traits) and have no cliques. They rally around each other and are great to be around, easy to teach, and teachable.

Thus, everyone was on time and 25 youth and 6 adult leaders left Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. for Salem. Arriving at 9:00 at the course, the broke us into three teams of teams (ours was the Funky Maroon Bats (G0 Bats!). Each team had a staff facilitator. Ours was Luba from the Ukraine, a great young lady! We did team building exercises for about an hour first.

Team-building marble roll relay

Then we hit the low course which are challenges just off the ground. These required teamwork, physical exertion, balance (my downfall), faith in your teammates, cooperation and mental challenges to figure out the best way to accomplish the task (often without talking or blindfolded, etc.). The leader for each challenge was a different young person each time (adults were to follow, not lead).

Low course

At 12:30 we had a short half-hour lunch and then hit the high course. High meant relatively hight. At least 20 feet up and often 35 to 40 feet up. Safety was first rate. We all had climbing harnesses, were locked in to safety lines above us and were belayed by teammates when climbing. I'm not fond of heights but after the first high course I had complete confidence in the equipment, training and my teammates and the facilitator. We did the high obstacle course first which really helped our team as we were fresh. The team that did it last at the end of the day struggled more because they were pooped. Our one special needs kid struggled on the papmer pole (40-foot high telephone-type pole with a 9-inch disk on top that you had to climb, then stand on, then leap off!). He stop at every step saying he couldn't go on but his team encourage him all the way to the top and then he managed to stand up and leap off. they all cheered mightliy for him! So many gospel principles in just this one action!

High obstacle course

Balancing - about 35 feet up!

After a debriefing, we left at 5:30 after a full 8 hours on the course. The kids were beat but thrilled. We went to a family's house who used to live in our ward but now live on a hill overlooking the Enchanted Forest at the same exit on the freeway. they have a tremendousn view of the valley and Cascade mountains. Up there we had a bar-b-que dinner. After dinner, Sis. Charlotte Laughlin (oldest daughter of former stake president Jim Bean) came a put a fabulous fireside. She is a returned missionary, sealed in the temple, has 8 kids, is a super multi-talented musician and just happens to be a triathlete in her spare time (she's done the Hawaiian Ironman). She spent half a day on the high course with the kids so she got to know them and understood what they had experience. She tailored her talk to that experience. She spoke on the three most important things she thinks kids in the church need: good friends who lift you up, not pull you down, daily scripture study, recognizing the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and having a personal relationship with the Savior. (Yes, that's four but she through in the good friends for good measure.) Her examples and stories were memorable, especially when she tied them all together when she had to deal with the knowledge before the birth of her last child that it wouldn't live much beyond birth (5 weeks in fact). It was a powerful fireside that had the kids riveted.

We then brought the kids back to Canby where the girls spent the night at the Iranagas and the boys at the bishops' place. We then convened at the church early for an outdoor breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausages, and juice. we had the classic moment when everyone was seated on the lawn next to the church when - the sprinklers all came on! It was a mad dash of screaming kids trying to avoid being drenched! Classic!. We salvaged breakfast (it didn't get wet) and then had a couple hours of workshops on the theme of the conference - being one of the believers. Sis. Mikkelsen taught about purity and the atonement; Br. Crum taught about charity; Sis Gordon the former stake YW pres. taught about faith; and stake Pres. Counselor Parker taught about bridling our tongue.

Last was an hour testimony meeting that was very spiritual. Not the typical girls camp or stake youth conference testimony meeting where the kids talk about the friends and apologize for how they behaved or for offending someone, but real testimonies of what they had experienced and knew to be true based on the weekend. It was spiritually touching.

Our kids are amazing and, as the bishop said, the Church will be in good hands with our kids as leaders. I do not doubt that. It couldn't have been a better youth conference. My face is sore from smiling for two straight days (as well as a few other muscles not used much - I was the oldest guy there and kept up pretty well if I say so myself!).