First Year at Summer Camp

A note to new Scouts and Parents

The first year of Summer Camp is always a pivotal experience. Summer Camp provides a level of freedom and challenges that few boys have been exposed to. If you have attended Webelos Camp, you've have a taste of what Boy Scout camp will be like - but it's much more.

Your own schedule...

This year, Troop 55 will be attending Camp Cornhusker. Camp Cornhusker offers a wide variety of merit badge opportunities as well as other activities. Full participation is expected for certain activities, but the choice of which merit badges to pursue is left to the individual boy. There are recommendations on the home page for first year campers and certain merit badges have prerequisites set by BSA National, Camp Cornhusker or Troop 55. I will be meeting with each Scout prior to camp to settle their schedules. In general, a boy can work on up to four merit badges while at camp.

Camp is a great time to work on things that are not easy to work on in town. Rifle shooting is a popular merit badge with the boys and is not something that we are likely to be able to offer outside of camp. Swimming, Canoeing and Archery are also popular.

The camp offers a program called "Trail to First Class" which they recommend to first-year campers. I have taken this course as part of my training. Since we have the skills and material available within the troop, we recommend that boys NOT sign up for this course. It is something we can easily cover in the troop.

...As Long as You're Not Doing Anything Else

One of the biggest surprises boys have about Camp is the amount of free time the DON'T have.

While the boy has control over what merit badge and other courses they take, the day is packed from morning to night with activities. In the evening, there are mandatory activities on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These activities will require all Scouts to attend in full uniform.

In reality, they only "free time" the boys will have will be on Monday and Tuesday evening. Other than those two times, there is almost always something else starting within the next 30 minutes.

Many of the boys are also surprised at the number of times they will be putting on and taking off their uniform. The boys are expected to be in uniform at morning and evening flag ceremonies as well as evening programs. Boys need to make sure they allow enough time to get their uniform if necessary.

Homesickness

Homesickness is the bane of Summer Camp. Surveys have shown that 85% of all youth experience some level of homesickness. Homesickness is a form of separation anxiety. But boys aren't the only ones to suffer from separation anxiety - parents can suffer also.

One of the reasons that the camp maintains such an active schedule is to keep the boys to busy and too tired to start thinking about missing home. Homesickness usually peaks right before bedtime when the day is winding down. It is not uncommon for boys to have trouble falling asleep the first day or two of camp.

Homesickness is a challenge that the boy can overcome and in working through it, the boy gets a better appreciation for his ability to work through a tough situation. Since the goal of Scouting is to build boy's self confidence, everything possible will be done to work through the situation.

The following points should be kept in mind for dealing with homesickness:

• Calls home will be discouraged. All evidence shows that calls home make homesickness worse. The boy will inevitably ask that you come get him. This places the parent in a no-win situation.
• Parents should not make promises to "try it out" or promise to come get a boy if he doesn't like camp. This only encourages the boy to give up and does not give the boy the sense that you have confidence in him.
• No hazing or harassment of any boy suffering from homesickness will be tolerated.
• In extreme situations, a leader will call the parents to discuss the situation.

Boys who frequently spend the night at friends or relatives houses are less likely to experience homesickness and if they do, it is usually less severe. We will have a few troop campouts before summer camp. If homesickness becomes evident on these shorter campouts or you are concerned that your son my experience homesickness, please see me about ways you can help.

Jim Schultz
Scoutmaster
Troop 55