Sunday, June 24, 2012

Cub Scout Day Camp 2012

 I'm so behind on blogging because we have been so busy so I am going to try and play catch up.

The week of 7-9 June, we had our District Cub Scout Day Camp.  This was my 8th Day Camp and the first where one of my own kids wasn't actually one of the campers.  Last year I stepped up to be program director and went to National Camping School this past April to learn how to run a day camp and meet accreditation standards.  Upon leaving school and getting geared up for Day Camp, I tried hard to keep in mind what I felt the most important message I received the weekend of training and that was to keep it simple and fun. 

I am happy to say that day camp went wonderful, we had no real issues.  I had a couple complaints, but overall it was nothing I could really control.  One was the porta-potties, they were nasty.  We held camp in a public park and unfortunately our camp fell in-between the dates they cleaned the porta-potties.  They were pretty gross and on the first day of Camp, I got 13 complaints.  We had called the company but they did nothing for us, we just had to deal with it.  The other complaint had to do with us making the camp peanut free.  I noticed as I was going through the health forms that we had quite a large number of peanut allergies listed and at least two that would require epi pens if they came in contact.  We worked through that issue though and people understand that it was about the safety of our kids and not about what made it convenient for others.

I got some comments that bothered me initially about how "simple" my camp was.  I finally decided that I didn't care about those opinions because overall the kids had fun.  I got such great feedback from all the kids that they loved day camp.  I got great compliments from many of the leaders from camp and around the district on how much they enjoyed the camp.  That is what really mattered.  I totally admit as well that I was so happy with how our admin area went.  Michael is so wonderful when it comes to organizing and he really helped me a lot.  I also had a wonderful volunteer who helped keep things organized, she was truly a blessing.

I am so grateful to my family for their support.  We had to pull security on the stuff and spent three days camping in the park where our event was held.  Kevin and the boys plus our friend Dave and his son and another friend who all happen to be a part of our Boy Scout Troop stayed out with us.

We got such great compliments on the boys who helped in many areas throughout camp.  Many couldn't believe how willing the boys were to serve.  I am so proud of their hard work and dedication and that of Kevin and Dave's as well.

Overall I am pleased with the outcome of camp and look forward to next year!





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