On Sunday, September 28th and Monday, September 29th, 36 campers in fifth and sixth grade experienced a camping adventure at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. The program was allowed under special permit by the National Park Service and it was the first time that people have been allowed to camp there. Members of BSA Troop 55 and several venture scouts volunteered to teach the kids about camping.
The volunteers arrives at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning to prepare the equipment and the camping area, which was located in a large field and part of the woods next to a stream. When the campers arrived at 11:00 a.m., they left their parents and joined in on a game of sharks and minnows led by Thomas Windus. Scouts eventually led the campers to the field where they were split up into patrols of 9 campers, one Troop 55 scout for patrol leader, a venture scout assistant patrol leader, and an adult volunteer. Each patrol conducted team building activities and thought of a patrol name. The four patrols were the Pokemon, the Bandits, the Seahawkz, and the Brownies.
Almost immediately after, the patrols worked together to set up tents and cook lunch. The campers learned how to cook hotdogs and hamburgers on camp stoves. After eating lunch, they were taught the three pot method of cleaning. The campers were later led on a nature walk through the woods and observed various environments and witnessed the impacts of flooding in the area. They did trash pick up along the stream before returning to camp to tour the theater. Dinner was already cooking in the dutch ovens when they got back and soon everyone have a nice dinner of stew and cornbread. The food was okay but everyone was looking forward to a hot breakfast in the morning. A campfire was started later, a real guitarist played for the kids, they made ‘s’mores, and most of the campers participated in skits and songs. Bed time for the campers was around 10:00 p.m.
At 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, the entire camp was woken up by an audibly pleasing three minute song called Rise and Shine, which is a Troop 55 favorite. The campers cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and they packed up the tents. When all the cleaning was done, the park rangers led everyone on a nature walk to collect seeds from plants and relocate them to another field. The kids left around 11:00 a.m. and the rest of the volunteers stayed until noon to clean up everything else. Overall, a majority of the kids probably had fun and nobody got seriously hurt or sick. This was definitely a fun experience for the Troop 55 volunteers and many of them are looking forward to doing something like this again in the future.
-Drew Dudzik
