Scouts come together for weekend camp in Jackson

The soccer and football practice field at Jackson City Park was alive with Boy Scout activities Saturday for a Webelos invitational open-house camp out. The event will continue through today.

About 50 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts were there by midmorning Saturday, and more were expected to arrive throughout the day and stay for the evening camp-out. Nine four-man tents, a compass course, an ax yard, a fire-building station and a monkey bridge were set up on the field. The skill-building agenda was selected as a means of recruiting prospective Troop 311 Boy Scouts.

Mark McCoy, committee chairman of the event, said organizers began recruiting prospective Boy Scouts by distributing fliers and spending a few months visiting Cub Scout packs and conducting slide shows about Boy Scouting. He said the reason for recruiting was that not all Webelos, Scouts in their last two years as Cub Scouts, continue on to be Boy Scouts.

Cub Scout Pack 112 den leader Mary Slinkard said 13 of the 16 boys in her pack attended. "About five will be bridging over to Boy Scouts in February. I hope they go into Troop 311. Part of what they're doing today will fulfill requirements so they can earn the Arrow of Light," she said. The Arrow of Light makes them eligible to join a Boy Scout troop.

"Right now they're earning their Totin' Chip," Slinkard said. The ax yard, a popular station where Webelos earn the right to carry a knife, taught safety rules and the proper handling, care and use of a pocket knife, ax and saw. Boys waited in line while an adult leader held a stick on a tree stump and Scouts swung at it with an ax.

Nick Fosse, 14, a Life Scout with Troop 311 of Jackson, said the monkey bridge -- a rope bridge about 10 feet off the ground supported by crossed poles at either end -- was set up about two weeks ago for a trial run. Hay bales were placed underneath to cushion any falls. Fosse said he remembered the bridge from a Boy Scout summer camp and suggested it for the invitational because "it shows the fun of Scouting." Life Scouts are the rank before to Eagle Scouts, the highest rank in Scouting.

The monkey bridge was 9-year-old Aaron Carr's favorite station at the event. "It's a challenge to climb across. It shakes," he said. Carr, a Webelo Scout in Jackson Pack 112, went across one time and considered going across again later in the day.

An outdoor fire safety station taught Scouts how to pile wood for a fire correctly, with size requirements met when it burned a surrounding string. McCoy said he created a contest for groups of firebuilders to compete at building fires quickly.

Sam Lowes, a Troop 311 Boy Scout, manned the compass course. Nathan Hill of Pack 112 said he never used a compass before and enjoyed learning how. In a step-by-step demonstration, Lowes helped Hill follow the plotted course by understanding how to read the compass and change his path accordingly.

The invitational was a new event for Troop 311, which has also made changes at its regular meetings.

"Three times a month, we do programs at Scout meetings. The Scouts and their families are now presenting them," McCoy said. Previously, adult leaders presented the programs.

Traditional events such as the upcoming live Christmas tree sales will begin Nov. 28 in the Wal-Mart parking lot and at the American Ice Cream Store on Hope Street, both in Jackson. The sales will continue until the weekend before Christmas or all trees are sold. The lots are staffed from 5 to 8 p.m., or payment can be left in a designated box.

cpagano@semissourian.com

388-3648

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