We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

The Scouter Digest Staff

New at Camp Bowman in 2022!

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What’s new in 2022?

Not too much on the program schedule is changing. We’ve still got all the old favorites, but we’ve also added some other program elements for this summer. We’re looking forward to, all things willing, being able to bring back Motorboating Merit Badge and Water Sports Merit Badge this summer. We’ve also expanded opportunities for Adult Leader Training at Aquatics and increased the times for Open Boating.

One thing we’re really looking forward to this summer is more fun things to do around camp during evening program. We’ll still have the typical open shoot, open boating, and Merit Badge Make-Ups, but we’ve added some new programs to the evening at the ‘Crafts. Stop by Culture Craft to work on Scouting Heritage MB, challenge someone to a chess game, learn some Goshen History, or hear some of the infamous Camp Bowman Ghost Stories. Visit Handicraft to take Art MB or let your creativity flourish during Open Crafting. New to Scouts? Get your Totin’ Chip at Scoutcraft on a Monday or Thursday evening.

Check out the fun evening program options below!

Aquatics Evening Program

  • Mile Swim (starts Sunday)
  • Open Boating
  • Safe Swim Defense & Safety Afloat (Monday & Wednesday)

Culture Craft Evening Program

  • Scouting Heritage Merit Badge
  • Goshen History
  • Ghost Stories
  • Open Chess

Handicraft Open Program

  • Art Merit Badge
  • Open Crafting

Scoutcraft Open Program

  • Totin’ Chip (Monday & Thursday)
  • Wilderness Survival Overnighter (Wednesday)

Shooting Sports Evening Program

  • Open Shoot for Rifle, Shotgun, & Archery

All Areas Evening Program

  • Merit Badge Make-up, Extension, & Enrichment time

Learn more about Camp Bowman and get the Program Schedule, Leader Guide, Bowman Brigade Schedule, and other helpful downloads at www.gotogoshen.org/bowman

Meet 2022 NOESA Honoree Charles Allen Jr.

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Charles Allen is focused on building a Ward 6 with great schools at every level and a neighborhood you can always call home.

Charles Allen, his wife, Jordi Hutchinson, and their children, Cora Neal and Everett, live at 15th and D Streets, NE.

For over a decade, Charles has worked in Ward 6 neighborhoods, helping bring about school reforms, working with small businesses, and improving our community. His years of public service to Ward 6 mean he knows and understands our neighborhood issues like no one else.

What makes our neighborhoods so special is that people choose to make Ward 6 home, whether for five generations or just in the last five years – because our neighborhoods are an extension of our front steps. Ward 6 shares a vision of great schools we can walk to, thriving local businesses that know us by name, parks and playgrounds for our families, and safe streets for all. But we must ensure all our neighborhoods have these amenities, while protecting everyone’s ability to live, work, and raise a family in our community.

Charles began his career in the District as a graduate fellow with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, working on expanding community-based health options across the nation. Charles quickly understood that to make true change he needed to return to his roots working at the local and community level, so he began his service to the District as policy director for the DC Primary Care Association, where he helped bring about legislative, budget, and policy changes that expanded health care options for almost every DC resident. Two of his signature efforts – bringing physicians, dentists, nurses and other healthcare providers to medically underserved communities and creating a District-owned captive insurance company to provide free and low-cost medical malpractice insurance to non-profit providers – remain a vital part of the city’s health care safety net a decade after he helped create them.

At the same time, Charles helped found DC for Democracy and served as Chair of the organization to bring a needed voice for progressive priorities and social justice issues facing the city. These experiences led Charles to become an elected delegate for the District at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, elected President of the Ward 6 Democrats, and serve as Chief of Staff to then-Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.

Charles graduated from Washington and Lee University and he holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

Congratulations to Charles and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.

 

Scouts BSA Merit Badges, Advancement, FUN — Do it All at Camp Snyder this Summer!

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Scouts BSA can once again earn Merit Badges at Camp Snyder this summer, from July 17 to 23, 2022. And, NEW this year is the Green Bar Bill program, for younger scouts to learn the skills to advance from Tenderfoot to First Class rank. Best of all are the FUN activities like the swimming pool, boating, climbing, rifle and archery shooting, campfires, Wood Shop, good grub and more!

Choose from 50 Merit Badges in the categories of aquatics, climbing, culture craft, nature, scoutcraft, shooting sports and STEM. Most classes will be taught by adult instructors who are specialists in the Merit Badge they teach. In addition to unique Merit Badges like Aviation, Moviemaking, Archaeology, and Oceanography, Scouts will be able to earn a number of the Merit Badges required for Eagle rank. Youth just getting started in Scouting can learn from Green Bar Bill and his team the hands-on outdoor skills they need to become a Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class Scout.

So, whether you’re a brand-new Scout or an older Scout working on your Eagle rank, the Camp Snyder Specialty Week offers something for everyone! The camp is open to Scouts BSA girls and boys as independent campers or as entire units. Plus, Scouts can participate as an overnight camper or a day camper. Registration and more information is available at https://scoutingevent.com/082-2022SnyderMBWeek

Be Camp Staff: It’s Not Too Late!

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Just realized you want to have the coolest summer job? It’s not too late. Missed the January hiring event? No worries, we’re still scheduling phone and video interviews.

Camp Snyder and the camps of Goshen Scout Reservation are always looking for funloving, energetic, and hardworking individuals to be part of our Summer 2022 Camp Staff. The sooner you apply, the more likely you are to be able to apply for your first choice of camp or your first choice of program area!

Applicants must be 15 years of age or older to work at Camp Snyder, Goshen’s Webelos camp (Ross), and Goshen’s Scouts BSA Resident Camps (Bowman, Marriott, and Olmsted). Applicants for Lenhok’sin High Adventure must be 16 years of age or older. We are also seeking those 18 years and older for leadership and other positions.

Not yet 15 years old? Apply to be a Counselor-in-Training at one of the resident camps starting at 14 years old.

Employment dates are from June 18 to August 2, 2022 for Goshen Camps and June 18 to July 29, 2022 for Camp Snyder.

Learn more and find your summer job at Goshen Scout Reservation – www.gotogoshen.org/staff – or Camp Snyder – www.gotosnyder.org/work

Accomplished Eagle Christina A. Wins SAR Scholarship

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One of NCAC’s Inaugural Female Eagles, Christina A., is an accomplished Eagle Scout and citizen. Her application and essay earned First Place at the State level in the 2021 annual scholarship contest sponsored by the Virginia Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), after winning the Colonel William Grayson Chapter’s contest. She will advance to the national competition, where her submission will be judged against those First-place applicants from other states; results will be announced by the end of March.

Christina is an exceptionally solid Scout where the principles of the Scout Oath and Law have taken hold and whose service heart is strong. She’s accomplished more in under three years than many Scouts are able to in seven!

Some of her other notable achievements include:
-Brotherhood within the Order of the Arrow
-Attended Okpik, High Adventure trek in Northern -Tier Winter camping
-Holding Leadership positions for 48 months (by serving concurrent roles as well as participating in Venturing)
-Maintaining a 3.939 GPA

In addition to her list of accomplishments, she completed her Venturing Summit Board of Review on December 21, 2021 and is working hard on the Venturing Ranger Award!

“She is a conscientious and exceptional Scout; and a trailblazer where we hope many more will follow.” -Tim Cline, Eagle Program Coordinator, Colonel William Grayson Chapter VASSAR, Sully District Vice-Chair – Membership, and Cubmaster, Pack 146 – Sully District

We’d also like to mention that Scouts from the NCAC took both First and Second in the State competition:
1st Place: Christina A. (Col William Grayson Chapter)
2nd Place: Barrett Rowe W. (George Mason Chapter)

Okpik at Northern Tier: A Low Temperature High Adventure to Remember

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Have you ever walked in snow that squeaks or camped under the brilliance of the Milky Way?  How about snowshoeing among the fresh tracks of moose and rabbit, or seeing an otter dodge across a frozen lake?

Venture Crew 1345 from Burke, Virginia, experienced all of these and more on their recent Okpik Cold Weather Camping Weekend at the Northern Tier Charles L. Summers Canoe Base in Ely, Minnesota.  The young men and women (and brave adult advisors) completed the Okpik Winter Camping Weekend trek over a recent long weekend in January 2022, where the daytime high temperatures were still below zero and the windchills hit below -30 degrees F.

The moment the crew arrived, the fantastic outfitters at Northern Tier made sure the Scouts were ready for the weather.  With boots rated to -100 degrees, heavy fleece mittens, and ample layers to cut the wind and cold, the toasty crew was ready to take on the northern Minnesota winter.  The crew collected cross-country skis and snowshoe gear, an auger and fishing poles, heavy-duty winter sleeping bags and tarps, and food/cooking equipment for the multi-day camping event.

The focus of the Okpik Cold Weather Camping Weekend is to experience all different types of winter/snow related weather activities that Okpik has to offer – from hiking out to a wilderness lake in 12 inches of snow, towing gear in sleds (pulks), set up a campsite and spend the nights camping in quinzhees, snow shelters or a Russian Tents.  Venture Crew 1345 was no exception.  They hiked with gear-filled sleds, snowshoed through the forest and skied across frozen lakes topped with several inches of snow more than seven miles each day.  They did jumping jacks around the outdoor snow kitchen and held impromptu running races across the frozen lake.  They even got to participate in dog sledding around a frozen island.

And through all of this, they worked together as a team to make the most of the experience.

Cold weather camping – especially when the temperatures at night drops 50 degrees below freezing – is not for the unprepared.  Venture Crew 1345 knew that they needed to work together to plan, prepare, and practice even long before heading to Minnesota (ah! the first principle in leave no trace).  They held shakedown cold weather camping weekends, carefully reviewed health and safety protocols, and double and triple checked their gear prior to the trip.

But they also worked together as a team during the trek – doing wellness checks with their fellow Scouts and working together to make sure everyone on the crew was healthy, safe, and getting the most out of the trek.

Venture Crew 1345 is now back in warmer Northern Virginia, but the memories of this high adventure trek will stay with the Scouts and Scouters for many years to come.

And, yes, the snow does squeak when you walk on it.  The moose, rabbits and otters do share the forest trails and snowy lakes with the Okpik visitors.  And the Milky Way nearly pops out of the sky when it’s 30 degrees below zero.

Venture Crew 1345 is a part of the Boy Scouts of America units chartered by the Burke Centre Conservancy in Northern Virginia.  The BCC supports a family-focused Cub Scout Pack 1345, boys Troop 1345, girls Troop 1345G, and co-ed Venture Crew 1345.  To learn more about Burke Centre’s BSA units, go to https://bsa1345burke.org/