Camporee 2016

2016 CAMPOREE
Kellen Tressler for Ben Brown
The BSA 2016 South Coast District, Los Padres Council Camporee was held at Rancho Alegre in the Santa Ynez Valley from April 22-24. The theme for this year was “Wild West”. At this year’s camporee, scouts competed in nine scored events by patrols. The camporee is open to all boy scouts in the district, and well as Webelos I and Webelos II scouts. Adult leaders SM Johnson and ASM Brown, 23 scouts, and parent drivers met at the church at 3:45 pm on Friday, April 22, 2016. We left for Ranch Alegre about 4:15 pm. The troop set up camp at the Arapaho campsite, trying to work around the “widow makers”. It began to rain soon after setting up our tents, and during the building of the campsite gate, but did not last long. Our gate was made out of lashings, poles, and a fire can that was filled with rocks for the turnstile. Soon after getting our campsite organized, we ate our sack dinners and planned for the next day. During the evening and later that night, the wind started to pick up, and became really strong while we tried to sleep. It finally calmed down by early the next morning. We woke up at at 7 am on Saturday to sunny weather, thankfully it never got too warm. We ate a quick breakfast of bagels with cream cheese, bananas, and orange juice before the competition events. We competed as individual patrols in events that had a western theme, but tested our skills as scouts. There was a campsite inspection, plant and nature identification, first aid area, map and compass use, measuring event, fire starting, fence repair and lashing use, rope crossing, and tomahawk throwing. The scored events were from 9am-12pm, and from 1pm to 3 pm. We ate lunch from 12-1pm of ham sandwiches, salami, apples, chips, cookies, and lemonade. After the competition events, there were two hours of free time from 3-5 pm to try the non-scored challenge events like rifle shooting, knife throwing, and archery. Overall, Troop 26 performed really well. Out of a total of 23 patrols, we won first place in the Camporee Gate Award for our campsite entrance gate. The Fox and Bat patrols won Presidential ribbons, and the Panther and Croc patrols earned first place ribbons. All four patrols in Troop 26 finished in the top 5 of all the patrols competing. The scoring is listed below. ASMs Shaw, Brown, and Soga were in charge of the Lost Goldmine station. Two scouts from our troop, Jeremiah and Nick served as staff volunteers and helped ASM Pinner run the entire Camporee. Saturday night we ate a great dinner of tri tip, hot dogs, beans, salad, fruit, and Capri Sun and water, all prepared and cooked by Mr. Beckstrand, Mr. Swider, and Mr. Uradnicek. Later Saturday night at the campfire, patrols performed skits and songs. There was some wind, but not like the night prior. Then there was the “OA Call Out” of scouts Ben B., Timmy, Robby, Nathan, Simon, and Ben Z., and adult ASM Brown. At the end of the evening, Troop 26 served as the Color Guard for the closing ceremony. After a long day, it was lights out at 10 pm. Sunday morning we woke up at 7:30 am. After a breakfast of french toast, little smokies, and orange juice, there was scout’s own. At 9:30 am, we broke camp and headed home to Santa Barbara around 10 am. A big thank you to all the leaders and parents who made 2016 Camporee fun and successful for Troop
26!
Scouts attending: Cooper, David, Drew, Simon, Sean, Robby, Ben B., Diego,
Paul, Vaughn, Timmy, Emanuel, Tyler, Logan, Henri, Adrian, Alex, Kaden, Mateo,
Luke, Owen, Kellen, Nathan, and Jasper.
Adult Leaders attending: SM Johnson, ASMs Brown, Shaw, and Soga.
Other adults attending/driving/cooking: Mr. Beckstrand, Mr. Swider, Mr.
Uradnicek, Mr. and Mrs. Hirsch, Mrs. Bohley, Mrs. Randall, Mr. Williams
RESULTS
Fox Patrol: 821 points, 1st place, (Presidential ribbon)
Bat Patrol: 810 points, 3rd place, (Presidential ribbon)
Panther Patrol: 808 points, 4th place (1st place ribbon)
Croc Patrol: 804 points, 5th place (1st place ribbon)