Reflection of Chawanakee Summer Camp

Flag Ceremony: The flag ceremony was performed every morning after breakfast and after dinner. Our troop had the opportunity to perform the retirement of the flag ceremony (video 1). I want to applaud the six color guards and the two musicians who did a fantastic job at the flag ceremony: David C., Joseph, Benny, Ryan T. C. (me), David D., Ash, Pinhao, and Aneesh. Our demonstration of the retirement of the flag set the precedent and the expectations for an exceptional flag ceremony. We even got compliments from the counselors and other adults and scouts from other troops for doing such a good job. Throughout the rest of the week, all the following troops who performed tried imitating our uniformity but they were no match for our troop’s performance (video 2).

Competition: On the last day of Camp Chawanakee, all troops competed in a series of "games" similar to those offered at Camporee but more closely related to the classes at Chawanakee. I was in the Beagles Patrol which probably had won the most amount of games in the camp. I also thought that the super patrol came up with an interesting patrol yell and flag in 5 minutes. In our patrol's experience, many things did not go the way we expected it to. However, in the end, we had fun and somehow managed to win many awards. One example included the time when Tony C tied too many layers in the lanyard tying competition and I had to tie the layer over and over again because of my inability to do it under pressure. Somehow, we placed first in the lanyard tying event. Another was when we had to run from handicrafts to eagle point for the water relay because we short on time. The water relay is a game to just run around the eagle lodge sign with a water bucket and to try to spill as little water as you can while trying to earn the fastest time. However, when it came to Ash's turn, he tried sprinting but ended up slipping and falling and spilling almost all the water on the ground. In the end, we barely managed a third place. Overall, it was endless fun participating in the events and even more fun to hear our troop’s name being called up countless times during the campfire to claim our trophies.

Skit: Our troop performed a skit on the last day at the campfire which was “A Day at Camp Chawanakee” In the beginning, we started coming up with ideas for the skit only a couple hours before the audition and only rehearsed the skit a few times before the actual audition. Luckily, we only messed up a minor portion of the skit and the judging counselor wasn’t even paying attention because he was taking a call. In the end, we got approved and our troop’s skit had stood out for its humor and duration of the skit.

All in all, I enjoyed Camp Chawankee and would like to congratulate all the scouts and adults for the success at Camp Chawanakee!

Somethings that I disliked about Summer Camp at Chawanakee are:

Time for Homework: There wasn't enough time to do homework especially for some of us newer scouts who don't have that many merit badges and are trying to earn them at camp. This was a problem even if free time was offered. Free time was usually used up looking for easy to do merit badges or hanging out at the trading post. Furthermore, some merit badges we hoped to earn were only available on select days which made it hard to schedule our whole week when we were suddenly turned down and told to go to another class. Even when we got back to camp and were roaming around, we did not start until after dinner, paused for a quick 1 hour around the campfire, and continued until we barely managed to finish by midnight. I didn't even have enough time to shower.

Walking to classes: I know that this is a problem for many and might not be so easy to arrange when considering which classes to take and how the adult leaders will determine your class periods. However, it was very inconvenient for many (as an example) to walk from nature to eagle to the waterfront. The amount of time that was spent walking from class to class and always arriving late.

Otherwise, I enjoyed summer camp for the most part regardless of the two minor complaints.