Perceptive leaders have already spotted lots of ideas that could become local traditions. A recent one, actually published several years ago in Scouting Magazine —
— describes another style of camping — and your Scouts will have a great time with the “new” style. As the old commercial would say, “Try it, you’ll like it!” This will keep up the fun factor for your Scouts and they’ll keep coming back for more. Need some ideas that work??
What sort of traditions? We used a multi-year camp-style cycle. One year was nearly all backpack-style, year round, twelve months; we varied the location to stay out of our Oregon rain, but spent December through March At the various passes so we could snow camp — and the Scouts came back for more.
One year we focused on heavier, car-camp style — the Scouts and adults thought it was okay, but didn’t relish the preparation and cleanup needed to do it effectively — and we went back to primarily doing backpack-style camping.
During late March, we’d regularly schedule our campout to coincide with the Great Oregon Beach Cleanup, so we camped on the coast, occasionally at Camp Baker. But…one of the keys to having an effective overall program is that such items as “conservation” and “Good Turns” were built-in as part of the program — and not as some standalone (“All right, everyone who needs service hours come over here” — wrong answer, leaders!!).
So…we built our program around several traditions, incorporating the Methods of Scouting, and kept the kids and adults coming back for more.
Call me if you’d like to know more.
Randy Hill
Council President
541-520-0832
