Roleplay Camping Trip
This past weekend (before Thanksgiving) I had the chance to go camping with my Boy Scout Troop. I earned my Eagle Scout award in 2004 and have not been involved much with the Troop since going to college. Now that I am back home and in the area, I have been helping out with different things when I could. One of the major things that I jumped on was the chance to help plan a camping trip weekend based on a theme and set up different stations for the younger scouts to go to and practice skills. We call it a roleplay because we try to come up with different themes and organizations for the kids to be apart of. For instance, we have done Mission Impossible themes weekends, Lord of the Rings, Pirates, Campolot, 007, and more.
One of the best parts, besides getting a chance to teach skills and hang out with some people who are still involved in the Troop who had a great impact on my life, is the fun behind it all. We always wrap up the weekend on Sunday with a big ‘final battle’ after recovering clues on Saturday from the stations. The final battle usually includes a major water gun fight, but since we scheduled the roleplay for the weekend right before Thanksgiving, water guns were out. Instead, we got fun noodles and pipe insulators as weapons and ‘flour bombs’. The best part of the final battle is rigging up different explosions, rockets, and small black powder charges.
Here are a couple videos from the weekend to see a little more of what the final battle is like.
The white streaks going through the air which may look like a weapon or some kind of explosion are actually flour “bombs”. Basically we put about 3-4 tablespoons of flour in a tissue, sealed up an end with a rubber band, tape, or glue. When you throw them with some force they will break or leak. Then on impact they will burst and leave the target covered in flour. A very effective way to ‘battle’ in the cold when you can’t use water guns like we usually do. The other ‘weapons’ are pipe insulators and “fun noodles” or pool noodles.
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December 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Great article. I have a 7 year old son who I am interested in joining the boy scouts in a year or so. Your video helped my decision-making process. I sure hope my local troops do such cool activities.
December 14th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Eric – thanks for the comment and stopping by! If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so that you can stay updated on our posts.
Also, good luck with finding a great program for your son. Be sure to check out different ones, talk with the leaders and other parents, but also make sure it is a good fit for your son. I don’t know many other troops that do big things like this (we do it only about once or twice a year) but we are able to pull it off because we have such a large troop (75+ scouts and another 50+ adults). We’ve been doing similar role play weekends for probably 20 years (although I’ve only experienced probably the last 10 years worth).
Good luck!