Camping and the Outdoors is an Essential Part of the Scouting Program.
At Troop 701, camping is so important to us that we camp year-round. We celebrate camping and we even have an award for it. If a Scout camps consecutively for a full year without missing a single campout, he will earn the Troop 701 Year Round Camper Award. More than half of all Troop 701 active Scouts earn the Year Round Camper Award and most Scouts attend around 9-10 campouts per year.
A patrol’s first camp together at Gold Rush 2014.
Camping is Important and Camping is a Process
Troop 701 is boy-led and the framework of our program is boys forming into small teams called patrols. At camp, in patrols, is where the majority of teamwork and leadership is practiced.
Patrols, not adults, plan their camp. The boys decide where to camp, what to do and what to eat. Along the way, boys in patrols make many personal and group decisions.
Boys then head to camp and deal with the consequences of their decisions and planning.
It’s not always easy. Mistakes are made. But, this is how accountability is learned.
Nighttime at Mohican Wilderness, 2014.
We repeat this process by camping year round. Each camp is important because camping in progression, month after month, is how boys grow in their ability to work as a team, carry-out their planning, be flexible, and ultimately fit their planning into the dynamic of an always changing world that year-round camping brings.
As for Troop 701 adult leaders, we stay in the background at camp and let the boys run the show. There’s no hovering. There’s no micro-managing. We’re there to make sure the wheels don’t fly off the bus; thankfully Scouts mostly get it right.
If a boy camps with us for one full year, he will achieve remarkable personal growth and strengthened leadership skills. This is why camping is so important at Troop 701.
Troop 701 Scouts keeping warm. November camp, 2014.
