This event is my favorite part of being a Stake Primary President. I love the Eleven Year Old Scout Camp. This is the 4th year we have joined with Frederick Stake and had a 3 day event with approximately 24 boys. An old friend and avid scouter, John Ortiz is the Scoutmaster for the occasion and this year Ben was able to act as assistant Scoutmaster. Rachel assisted me with many duties but mainly by being the camp photographer, something we have not had in other years. The boys meet on the 1st day at 9am at a park for swimming and First Aid classes as well as Patrol Development (learning to work with 5 or 6 other boys, choosing a Patrol Leader, cook, dish washer etc). This day ends at 4pm with a closing flag ceremony. The 2nd day is held at a remote area with bugs, a 300 gallon water "buffalo", porta potties, and no such other necessities like electricity or McDonald's!!! The boys and leaders hike to the camp sites, about 1/2 a mile and set up their tents and cooking gear. We ( Leslie from Frederick, Rachel and I ...the camp directors) get hot dogs ready for lunch which the boys cook over a communal fire. After lunch they receive green camp t-shirts and a water bottle and go off into the wilderness for a 5 mile hike and orientation course, they also do tree identification and identify different animal scat (poop). At this point in time Rachel and I took ourselves off to the nearby town and secured a hotel room for the night....our kinda camping plus we are not able to camp with the boys as we are girls !! We bought Steaks for John, Ben and us and by the time we got back to camp the hikers were back! John cooked us a dinner of steak and baked potatoes done in the coals. Man was it good!! The other boys and leaders bring tin foil dinners and cook them in their own camp fires. In the evening the boys learn the art of knot tying and handing an ax. We then had a campfire with a couple of speakers and toasted marshmallows over the huge campfires. Lights out was 10pm . The morning comes too soon with the boys picking up their coolers from HQ. In the coolers we had provided them with sausages, bread and the ingredients for french toast plus juice. The boys make their own breakfast to pass off a requirement for a badge. After all is cleaned up and tents are broken down the boys come together for a flag ceremony and then learn how to build and sustain a fire. Perhaps the favorite activity of the camp for the boys is learning how to use and sharpen a pocket knife. We leave this until the last event so that we don't have any accidents at the camp.
The closing flag ceremony is at 12 noon accompanied by songs being sung by any boy who has lost something which we have found. The boys are good sports and learn a great deal about leadership and serving each other as well as how to work together.
September found Ali and I on a surprise visit to see Grandma Sinclair in England. We called her from Cambridge train station to say that we would see her in 5 minutes!!! We spend 10 wonderful days with her at Ditchburn. We had a family get together, enjoying time with Val and Pete and their families. Pete also took us to London to visit James for the day which was great as it had been a number of years since I had last seen him. Ali and I stayed the night with him and then took the train to the city the next day. We saw the London Eye and visited Madam Tussauds wax museum. Even though it was rainy we had a great time. We also got to eat fish and chips with my old friend Iris and go to Chilis with my church friends, Louise, Debbie and Fiona. It was a great trip and of-course we came home laden with Cadbury's chocolate...the real kind !!
