The Westchester-Putnam Council of the BSA held a camporee April 30-May 2 to celebrate the centennial of the BSA. It took place at Blue Mountain Reservation, a county park in Peekskill, N.Y., and attracted some 1,280 Boy Scouts, Venturers, and adult Scouters. We had a lot of assistance from the New York National Guard for both security and activities.
The whole bunch of us were divided into 8 “encampments” made up of 7-8 troops each based on where they were camped. Each group wore a distinctively colored camporee T-shirt.
Troop Forty assembled after setting up camp.
The camporee was quite an experience. Troop Forty got up to Peekskill in stages on Friday afternoon (25 boys and 5 adults), and we started easily enuf with camp set-up and supper. Soon after dark, things got rolling with encampment campfires (flag raising, announcements, skits, and songs around the fire, flag lowering). After these opening campfires, we all gathered in the dark (under somewhat dim field lights) in a large field (the “parade ground”) for tug-o-war, encampment vs. encampment (picture 40 or so Scouts on each side doing tug-o-war). At least 2 ropes broke during this endeavor, until eventually 1 encampment was declared the winner after all the eliminations. Finally, Scouts were sent to their camp sites, while most of the Scoutmasters and senior patrol leaders gathered for a "cracker barrel" (assessments and the latest announcements). We went to bed around 11:30, I guess, and naturally some of Troop 40 had to talk for an hour or 2 after that--which did not make happy campers of the adults, and probably not of our nearest neighbors.
It was surprisingly cool overnite, and Saturday started cool but warmed up soon enuf. Eventually it got to be about 90˚, and the only shade was in the camping areas (not in the large fields—doh!). I got up at 5:45 and said Mass on one of the picnic tables at our site, but before I was finished quite a few of our boys and many others were stirring.
We had another encampment flag raising and a few announcements around 8:00, and then everyone returned to the parade ground for assembly. A N.Y. Army National Guard unit provided a band, which played music while we got together. One Scout from each encampment carried his encampment’s flag as part of the color guard, and 2 soldiers joined them to present the colors and raise the flag while the band played the national anthem. We all recited the pledge of allegiance, the Scout Oath, and the Scout Law (as we do at every Scout gathering). Various intros and announcements followed; and then we were sent to the day’s activities, rotating on schedule among 4 venues (2 encampments at a time at each venue).
Top: Army band performing during the morning assembly (by Anthony Jenkins). Bottom: The color guard raises our flag.
View of part of the huge crowd (over 1,000) assembled on the parade ground for flag raising and other morning rites. Troop Forty started at the waterfront, where there were canoeing and kayaking, fly fishing, scuba, and nautical knot stations. The scuba was strictly theoretical, and I don’t think any of our boys took that in. They listened to a little about fly fishing, and a few stuck around there a bit longer. Almost all of them tried canoeing or kayaking, and 1 had the “honor” of the 1st baptism, i.e., tipping over in a kayak and having to swim/wade ashore. (There were a few others later in the day, I heard.) He said the water was quite cold; fortunately, he had a change of clothes in camp; and during a break I rigged my clothes line and hung up his wet stuff, which till then had just been draped over a picnic table.
The 2d activity was field sports, which included a 30’ climbing tower, an obstacle course, 2 forms of tug-o-war, and dodge ball. That kept them busy for a couple of hours, until lunch. By then it was good and hot, and we were all seeking whatever shade we could find around the edges of this big, dusty field (the only one that was dusty). One younger Scout challenged me to tug-o-war—no contest. Then 3 or 4 of them jumped on the other end of the rope, and a couple on my end—that was a contest. Fortunately, before this could go to far (i.e., do too much physical damage to me!), lunch arrived. The Scouts were very good about separating garbage from recyclables at the end of lunch, and also thruout the camp. Not so the county workers, at least on Sunday morn; I saw them throwing everything together in a garbage truck.
Top: Scouts tackling the climbing wall. Bottom: A race thru the obstacle course.
Top: Just before a mob dash to either end of the rope, one Scout and Fr. Mike tug against 3 or 4 Scouts (by Anthony Jenkins). Bottom: Two lads from T40 give a mighty go at tug-o-war.
Scoutmaster Tunji Renner and some other members of Troop Forty enjoy a little shade while eating lunch.
3d activity was labeled “Scouting Future” and took place in another large field, this one not dusty but grassy and on the muddy side. That included a National Guard display with vehicles, firearms, and another climbing wall; Segway demo (they all gave that a try, and so did I); a Smart Car; ham radio (I didn’t actually see that one); and geocaching, including a practice “hunt” for a cache in the woods.
Part of the congregation assembled for Saturday evening Mass.
Top: Scout learns how to handle a Segway. Bottom: Members of the N.Y. National Guard demonstrate skill at ascending a wall in quick time.
Thence we moved to “Scouting Past,” which included a spectacular display of old patches, programs, posters, etc., mostly from the Westchester-Putnam Council and its predecessors, fittingly; some antique autos; archery and tomahawk throwing (no T40 casualties from either of those!); and ice cream making. And by this point in the day, I was very glad I’d brought my little tripod stool with me, altho I still moved about quite a bit with my camera. All told, I took 225 photos from camp set-up on Friday to the start of Mass on Saturday; and 4 other participants have given me another couple dozen. 
Top: learning to use bow and arrow. Bottom: learning to throw a tomahawk.
Mass was back in the semi-muddy field. The 1st troop to arrive decided we 
should grab what shade we could and moved a picnic table and small marquee to the west side, where many of the congregation would have the advantage of the trees on that side. So we were set up at the fence of the National Guard depot, just outside the park, to the amusement of Scouting executive Roger Stewart when he came around with his camera shortly before Mass: “You know, Fr. Mike, that doesn’t look very good—you, with the tanks behind you!” We laughed about that for the rest of the weekend. (Actually, there weren’t any tanks, just personnel carriers.) Roger took some nice photos of me. I estimate that we got about 270 Scouts and Scouters for Mass, based on the number who took Communion (we had to count out the hosts beforehand). What was, in effect, a draft of my homily is posted below.
should grab what shade we could and moved a picnic table and small marquee to the west side, where many of the congregation would have the advantage of the trees on that side. So we were set up at the fence of the National Guard depot, just outside the park, to the amusement of Scouting executive Roger Stewart when he came around with his camera shortly before Mass: “You know, Fr. Mike, that doesn’t look very good—you, with the tanks behind you!” We laughed about that for the rest of the weekend. (Actually, there weren’t any tanks, just personnel carriers.) Roger took some nice photos of me. I estimate that we got about 270 Scouts and Scouters for Mass, based on the number who took Communion (we had to count out the hosts beforehand). What was, in effect, a draft of my homily is posted below.
Photo above: Instructing Scout Nick Kristensen, Troop 1 Katonah,
about the 1st reading for Mass (by Roger Stewart)
Part of the congregation assembled for Saturday evening Mass.
From there it was off to supper, which we didn’t have time to finish before assembly in the parade ground for flag lowering and the camporee campfire, with the best skits from each of the Friday nite encampment campfires, various corny jokes, tributes, and a long presentation by the Order of the Arrow (Scouting’s honor society)—at which point my body had enuf, and I checked out with the 3 other adults still with the troop and went to bed. When the Scouts came to camp before much longer—evidently no one from T40 wanted to stay up for the movie that concluded the campfire—there was no extended talking. I wonder why?
We were up before 6:00 again on Sunday, broke camp, had breakfast—and waited a long time for our rides back to Mt. Vernon. We were the last troop out of the park, around 11:00.
We were up before 6:00 again on Sunday, broke camp, had breakfast—and waited a long time for our rides back to Mt. Vernon. We were the last troop out of the park, around 11:00.
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