Note: This was written by my hubby, who was there. The event took place on September 19th.
It's been really hard, obviously, for C's Boy Scout troop to pull off camp-outs this summer that meet enough families' comfort level. So it was very satisfying that a couple of weekends ago C was able to not only attend but actually organize a highly successful one-night camping trip for his patrol.
This was a COVID version of the troop's annual and much-anticipated Kick-off, a sort of season-opening event that is *usually* troop-wide, two nights long, and takes place at a site near Duvall.
This year they decided to split the event into Patrols, and just do one night. C is Patrol Leader and so the organization and leading of the event fell on him, a responsibility he accepted with gusto. The general expectation was that the boys would camp in the backyard of one of the families, but C was more ambitious in what he wanted for the location. Fortunately, a very generous family in our church has a property out near Machias (near Snohomish) that seemed perfectly suited. So C approached them with the idea and they very kindly agreed.
C did the planning with Mr. Ball, and even went out ahead of time to "scout out" the details of the property, and everything was set. There was a place to pitch tents, access to a bathroom, room to run around, a barn to provide refuge in case of rain, and even a potential service project lined up.
Indeed, shortly after the 6 boys arrived on Saturday afternoon, they pitched camp and set about building a firepit for (and with) Mr. Ball -- and his tractor. First they moved the tree "rounds" that were lying on the site of the proposed firepit. Then Dave mowed with his tractor, transferred some gravel, and the boys smoothed it out and stomped it down. A ring of bricks was arranged, the bricks shored up with gravel, the sheet metal ring sections connected, and finally put into place.
Lastly the rounds were rolled back as a ring of seats. Mission accomplished! Mrs. Ball had wanted this for a few years and so it was great to see it completed.
In the photo below you can see Mrs. Ball's rose garden (fenced to keep out the deer) in the background and their house to the right.
(It was really great to see how Mr. Ball, a former Boy Scout himself, was willing to stand back and let the boys problem-solve together at various stages. This is a huge thing and today so many parents, and other adults, don't just let children struggle and experiment.)
After that we all ate dinner. Another COVID compromise was that there was no shared cooking, which was sad because that's a fairly important and memorable part of the "Kickoff" experience. Our family brought some fresh brats/sausages from Whole Foods and cooked them to perfection over the open fire, a fine way to break in the new firepit's christening fire.
After dinner the boys played some outdoor games, including in the dark, and closed the night out with a game of poker. Everyone tented separately and the next morning, after breakfast, C led a boys-only "scout's own", a sort of short boy-led replacement church service. He used some points from our pastor's previous sermon.
One of the main things we wanted for C out of Boy Scouts was to learn leadership, both the skills but mostly the mentality, at a young age. Kick-off weekend made all the investment in scouting feel very worthwhile.
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