Troop 2019 Sumer Camp at Rodney
On Sunday, July 21, twenty one scouts arrived and met up at the parking lot at 1PM. What a hot day! it was around 99℉. There we were greeted by a camp guide. Following the guide, we took all our belongings that we could and left the rest for pickup by Tr. Peter and Tr. Thinh. When we reached our campsite called Lone Pine, we lined up for a medical check to ensure we didn’t have any fever by two other guides that were already there. Next, we were told to get in our swimming clothes and bring towels. On our way to the swimming pool, the camp guides took us on a tour of Camp Rodney. We first visited the campfire circle and then the Pathfinder Dining Hall, where we were told our eating times and our tables. They showed us the places that our classes where going to be. The last stop on the camp tour was the Rifle, Shotgun, and Archery Ranges. After that we walked up to the swimming pool where we lined up for the Swimming test.
Unfortunately, we were too late and the scouts who had aquatic classes or just wanted to have fun would have to go to the swimming pool at 5 AM next morning. After the whole tour we went back to Lone Pine to have some free time and to get ready for dinner, when we are required to wear our Class A. When we were finished eating we went back to camp and started picking our tents and choosing buddies to sleep with. We divided our troop in four patrols, five girl scouts in one patrol, and five boys scouts for other three patrols, so we went to the bathroom together and had shower around 8PM every day.
For our first night, Mother Nature treated us with a severe thunderstorm. We must evacuate to the nearest shelter and stay there until the storm was over two hours later. What an unexpected night and experience! However, we survived.
After the first day, we used to the place where we spent the next five days learning and getting requirements done in our merit badge classes. After all of that we would have free time where scout could play cards and go to the Trading Post, where we could purchase our favorite beverage and food.
Each day we would wake up from 6:30AM to 7:00 AM. We would choose one Patrol to send four people as waiters to go prepare our breakfast around 8:00AM. After our first set of morning merit badge classes, we would return back to our campsite to have some fun and again send four waiters to set up lunch around 12:00PM. Our dinner occurred around 6:00PM every day.
After our afternoon classes and dinner, scouts would return to the campsite. On our 2nd to last day, we all gathered in campfire circle where Camp Guides and Troops would perform funny skits and sing songs.
On our last day, our Troop started packing up, organized police lines to pick up trash, and made the camp cleaner than it was when we got there. Our troop got on Tr. Peter’s pick-up truck to go out to the parking lot, where we met our parents to go home.
Generally speaking, the camp was a great experience, full of sweats, fun, and friends. It was a perfect opportunity to start earning merit badges and learning a new survival skills.
