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Wasn't Camp Heritage great?!
Twelve Scouts and eleven adults enjoyed this year's new program at Camp Heritage at Stearns Scout Camp in Fairhaven. The weather was delightfully cool and dry and relatively bug-free. Stearns' great facilities, great food, great program, and great staff, added up to a great weekend. Signup for the 2008 Camp Heritage, which promises to be even better, starts in mid-November. So make your plans today to be at Camp Heritage next summer (or Camp Whitewater for this year's fourth grade Webelos Scouts)!
It was an activity-filled weekend with archery, BB guns, boating and canoeing, the bouldering wall and the climbing tower, fishing, nutrition, paintball guns, wood crafts, Scout craft like how to start a fire and knot tying, and swimming and water safety. There was a staff show and bonfire Friday night and a nice, quiet campfire with toasted marshmallows and s'mores on Saturday night.
New this year was the Webelos Outpost, an extra night at which Webelos Scouts hike to a remote campsite, make camp, set up their tents, build a fire, cook their dinner, start a fire in the morning, cook their breakfast, and, after breaking camp, hike out. This is a good way to make up for the changes in the Stearns program which now see Scouts camping in pre-pitched tents and eating meals in a dining hall.
ALso new this year was a much easier swimming test (but more appropriate for the beach) that allowed more Scouts to do more (and caused far less heart stress on the adults!), get this - a bus to take Scouts from the heart of the Camp Heritage area of Stearns to the beach, and, to top it all off, "cabinettes," mini screened cabins with four cots with foam mattresses. While a far cry from the old Stearns Webelos Camp, the staff have done a great job adapting the best of the old program to the new National Council policies on Cub Scout camping.
Look for more information and pictures about this year's Camp Heritage in the coming days and weeks!
The families of Scouts who attended this year's Camp Heritage should expect a general camp survey and a survey on the new "cabinettes" in which we stayed along with their Scouts' participation patch (except for those who got them at Camp) in the mail soon. Please complete the surveys and return them to Stearns in the stamped, self-addressed envelope as soon as possible to help the Council improve the facilities and program for our Scouts next summer.
Also, please contact Committee Chair Louis Hoffman with any comments about the pre-Camp information provided to you about preparation for Camp to help us better prepare you and your Scout. You can also let him know if your Scout needs a red vest for his participation patches.
Next summer, Webelos Scouts entering fifth grade will attend Camp Whitewater, a four-day, three night program with the final night at the remote Webelos Outpost where Scouts will hike in, pitch their own tents, and cook their own meals. All other Scouts will attend Camp Heritage, a three-day, two-night program with fourth grade Webelos Scouts having the option of attending Webelos Outpost for an additional night.
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