Camping with a Purpose

Is your summer camp experience preparing your Scouts for their futures? Taking Scouts on campouts, for many of us, may be, by now, old hat. Every month going on an overnighter can get repetitive and parentheses dare I say it? Parenthesis tedious? Getting into a rut about camping can kill the fun for the youth and kill your vital enthusiasm for the program. Yes, we still go on these campouts; usually for a myriad of reasons until we hit winter.  Before you know it though, it is time to start thinking about summer camp. (What? Already?)

I would submit that your waning enthusiasm for the monthly campout is probably affected by summer camp in a couple of ways. First, it is the thing you worried about for months and months and then throw together at the last minute. Other Scout leaders, parents, and church leaders expected it to happen after all. Or, it becomes so dreaded that you're trying to find any activity other than summer camp to do with the boys (it's expensive after all, and time off work is hard…) Things do not have to be this way. Campouts, particularly the annual summer camp experience, can be a way to re-energize your camping batteries for the years to come.  Here is a strategy to help ensure your camping experience is beneficial, engaging, and fun! 

Go camping with a purpose planned by your youth. All too often we go camping just to go camping or to drill the basics.  And how often do we let the youth plan the campout? I mean, really plan it, not just in the motions, but actually affect the outcomes of the experience.  Do the boys go camping to have fun? Great! Add a purpose to their fun that they develop and the experience will be one they remember and grow from. Now, they may need some help with this part, but that does not give us license to do it for them.

You as their leader know what they need to learn, your church leaders have things they want the youth to learn by the time they go to college, on a mission, etc. (Don't believe me? Ask them, they really do!) They should be communicating those things with you. Guide your boys to make decisions and set goals for their outdoor experiences that align with their church leader’s goals for them and then get out of their way!

Allow the Deacons Quorum presidents to make real decisions and exercise his priesthood keys on behalf of the troop. Boys need an extended trip away from Mom and Dad? Work that into the goals. Need help making and keeping promises or following through? Nothing teaches better than first-hand experience that affects the entire group. (This might mean you eat oatmeal for every meal, or burn pancakes a lot…)

Summer camp is no exception to this suggestion. Go to summer camp with goals that aren’t merit badges are rank advancements. Go with a goal for team building, learning how to cook, or even getting away from Electronics (provided that this is what the boys decided their goal should be), and expect everyone to come on board with the benchmarks that you can measure after camp is over. If you can't measure it, how do you know how you did after all? Expect the youth leadership to guide, and encourage, and direct as they see a need. Allow them to do just that - lead. Explain that this is not a passive process, but an active one that will require help - from other youth leaders, parents, and the Lord. Expect revelation and act on it when it comes.

Then watch. Help them learn. Guide their decisions and the spiritual experiences will come – so will the badges and the advancements. Watch what they do in the process - most of it will line up with the other requirements. A true byproduct of this spiritual learning experience.

All of a sudden, the pressure is off of you to force a good camping experience and your boys can become invested. And when Mom asks about badges you can have a conversation about goals of church leaders, mission prep, and self-reliance – all things we know moms and dads care deeply about. 

I remember an activity that I participated in as a Varsity Scout (may it rest in peace…) that I will never forget. We had decided we wanted to go on a mountain biking activity that the team planned. So, we pulled out the map for an area we decided would be a good route and started looking where we would go, where we would rest, and where we would stop. Well, as the crow flies, it was about a 10-mile ride. We figured that if we started in the morning we could make it to the campsites at the top of the canyon by dinner time.  We planned the entire trip - from how to get there to making sure that we had enough leadership and that food and all our resources would be in place when we needed them.

One of our leaders had decided to go with us on the trip and the other one was going to the top of the canyon in the truck to set up camp (not ideal for today...). As we were dropped off at the bottom of the canyon and began our trip it seemed like everything was going to work out fine. We made our stops and kept biking up the canyon. However, once we hit our projected time of arrival at the campsite was when we started to think there might be a challenge. We started telling each other “it [the campsite] must be just over the next rise.” After saying this multiple times it was clear that we had made a pretty major miscalculation in the time that it would take for us to travel the almost sixteen-mile route that we estimated looking like ten on the map.

Our leader, Brother Beck, kept us moving, though. Encouraging us along the way and even taking time with a few of us to stop and offer water or food. As I got to the point that I felt that I would not be able to continue, Brother Beck stopped with me and not only encouraged me to continue, but also asked a simple question “Have you prayed for help from Heavenly Father?” Nothing more. As I knelt and prayed I knew that this would be an experience that I would never forget.

Similar experiences can be had by every youth that attends camp! My challenge to you is to create opportunities that will allow for growth and then take advantage of those opportunities to their fullest potential. Scout camp is the perfect venue for such opportunities, if planning and preparation are done well and the focus is where it should be!