In This Issue...

National Order of the Arrow Conference July 30 - Aug 4
National Youth Leadership Training Begins In July
Cub, Webelos Scouts Trend To Overnight Camps
Philmont Trek Departs on June 9, 2012
Summer Camp Staff Report
Find Us Online
Tukabatchee Area Council
Boy Scouts of America
Camp Tukabatchee
About Us...
The Scouts Honor Society recognizes those who contribute $1,000 or more annually to aid our youth to be Prepared. For Life.
To remove your name from our mailing list click here. Questions or comments? Email us at denmille@bsamail.org or call 334-262-2697.

Memories of summer camp as a youth evoke in many adults a mixed bag of good and bad memories. Thankfully for organizations like our Tukabatchee Area Council Boy Scouts, most memories are of the good kind. Scouting, like few youth serving organizations, uses the summer camp experience as an integral method of program delivery, specifically designed to educate youths (the merit badge instruction), to teach self-reliance (personal responsibility for managing time, money, and resources), to build self-confidence (mastery of the mile swim as an example), to teach shared leadership (the patrol method), and to involve youths with adult role models. For most Scouts, the hours spent at summer camp equal nearly the hours spent in a full year of weekly Scout meetings…obviously, summer camps are the outdoor classroom of Scouting. A survey for the Boy Scouts by Harris Interactive spotlights some of the specific outcomes of Boy Scout summer camp experience. The Percentage of Scouts at summer camp who experienced Helping with making a decision – 80% Thinking about their relationship to God – 69% Taking time to reflect on things learned – 68% Being listened to by other Scouts – 80% A compliment from an adult – 76% Being asked for their opinion – 63% Making a new friend – 80% Working on a new skill with an adult – 60% Talking with an adult for advice – 60% Trying something they’d never tried – 86% Seeing something they’d never seen – 75% Learning about the environment – 65% Having their thinking/mental ability tested – 71% Working with others to earn a badge – 88% Meeting new people – 94% Among Scout volunteers, there are so many stories that are told about campers that it is hard to find one that adequately sums up the summer camp experience for most boys, but one favorite goes something like this; Johnny, a first year Scout, met his mom at the parking lot of Scout camp on “parents night”, the fifth day of summer camp. In an excited voice, Johnny issued a plea to his mom for money to spend at the camp trading post. Mom responded, “Johnny, have you already spent the $20 I packed for you?” “What $20?,” Johnny asked. “The $20 atop your clean underwear,” Mom replied. “Oh,” said Johnny, “I haven’t had time to check there yet…” This issue of our “Scouts Honor” information email is devoted to some of the less well-known summer camps that our Tukabatchee Area Council, with your help, make possible for youths of our communities.