This was the last Webelos event August would be participating in. By spending the night here he earns his Arrow Of Light badge, which is a distinguished honor he can wear as a Boy Scout. Next month he participates in the crossing over ceremony and will officially be a Boy Scout. But first, to earn his Arrow Of Light he had to attend a Boy Scout event. It just so happens this is one which we went to last year, and he was looking forward to attending again.
We arrived early evening on Friday with a van load of Boy Scouts from the troop August will be joining. We have the 12 seater van so it makes sense to use it. That particular troop helps to run the Camporee, working the kitchen for the staff as well as helping set up and run the events, including the Webeloree, where the older Cub Scouts get a taste of what the Boy Scouts do.
After dropping off the Boy Scouts and checking in we went over to our camp site and set up our tent. Friday night was mostly uneventful because it was mostly just that initial arrival stuff. Saturday morning we got up bright and early to see if we could catch any wildlife, but since we were not the first ones up it was a fruitless endeavor. Breakfast was followed by the flag ceremony and announcements, then the activities commenced.
There was a “round robin” style of stations the Boy Scouts took the Webelos on. One was knife safety (along with fire building, emergency preparedness, and a nature hike). At Winter Camp a few months ago I bought August his first pocket knife. This would be the first opportunity that he had to really use it. While August has had this stuff before it was good to have a refresher. After the session each kid, both Webelo and Boy Scout that was there at the time, brought out their knife to display.
Then lunch.
In the afternoon there were more stations to go through, including the ever popular throwing of sharp implements.
August did better this year than last. He actually figured out he preferred the throwing knives to the axes. While the video doesn’t necessarily show it he improved a bit with his knife throwing in the short amount of time he participated in that activity.
I really like this picture because it shows the axe in flight.
On to BB guns and slingshots. There was supposed to be archery but the hay bales never arrived on which the targets were to be placed. That’s alright though. There was still plenty to do with the stuff that was there. Starting with slingshots.
After the safety briefing (where the boys really were paying attention despite photographic evidence to the contrary) they were let loose with slingshots and paintballs. When the rest of August’s group moved on to BB guns afterward, August decided to try his hand back at the knife throwing.
After a couple of retries with the knife throwing August decided to head over to the Boy Scout area to watch some of their challenges. There are stations for each Boy Scout Patrol to circuit through and the Webelos are welcome to watch and see what this is all about. Usually they are teamwork exercises. Eventually a den mate came into the area and they worked on an orienteering challenge. They didn’t make it. It would have been better if they had more consisted stride length, but that’s part of the lesson.
One of the challenges was traversing a river using a rope and barrel. Boy Scout Patrols were graded not just on accomplishing the task, but also on how well they executed teamwork. This was an activity August watched several times. Eventually at the end of the day he asked if he could try it. Yes, he could.
None of the other Webelos wanted to try crossing themselves, but they were willing to try and help August out.
August sought out this challenge. This was not part of the Webelos program. He asked to try out something he knew would be difficult. Many of the Boy Scouts who attempted this failed for various reasons, and while none of the other Webelos would try it, August, knowing that he could emerge from this soaked from head to toe, wanted to attempt this.
I couldn’t be prouder of him. Not because he successfully navigated the challenge, but because he went that extra mile to challenge himself. He didn’t worry about whether his friends wanted to do it or not (they didn’t) he was going to try it himself. He took the initiative to ask about being allowed to try it. And he did it all with a smile on his face.
And just to reiterate, he did successfully complete the challenge.
Dinner, then campfire, then off to bed. We woke early Sunday morning before just about anybody else did and went out on a trek to see if we could find any This morning was much more successful. First we saw a beaver, then as we walked around the (small) lake I thought I saw something, maybe a deer but I couldn’t be sure. August looked where I saw “something” and saw pointed ears and a bushy tail. He swears it might have been a wolf. Further on we came across another beaver. This lake has two beaver lodges, and this was the second of the two. We got sort of close to it not expecting to actually see a beaver. It came out. Then it was joined by another! We didn’t make a sound. Not only could we see these two beavers greet each other but we heard them!
Another van full of Boy Scouts on the return trip and we were home in time to help set up for Xavier’s birthday party. But that is another blog post…
I have mentioned before how I enjoy having August participate in Cub Scouts and eventually Boy Scouts because of the opportunities he gets that I am not able to offer. This weekend is an excellent example. Virtually everything he did we wouldn’t have been able to do without the help of scouting. Not only do we have skills and equipment issues but the time it takes to set this stuff up. I am so grateful that August wants to do this and gets a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from it.