CUB SCOUT PACK 776 CAMPING INFORMATION
·We highly recommend setting up your tent atleast once before coming to the campout. If nothing else, it gives you a chanceto throw away the packaging trash at home, thus reducing our overall trashwhile camping. You might also consider putting some seam sealer on your tent atthis time; this helps your tent’s waterproofness on the off chance it rains.
·When choosing a spot for your tent whilecamping, be sure to keep some space between you and your neighbor. Sometime wewill be able to spread out more than others. But remember that sound travelsmore clearly at night and tent walls have no insulation if you or someone youknow snores ; ) We’d also suggest taking the campfire location into account.Many adults enjoy sitting and talking around the fire after the kids have goneto bed.
·Please remind your children that there is norunning in camp. No one should be playing in or around the tents; guide linesare good at tripping adults and youth alike.
·The buddy system. No Scout (or sibling) goesanywhere alone. Lions and Tigers have their adult partner as their buddy butare still encouraged to have a scout buddy.Buddy pairings should be close in age to each other. Adults may only be partnered with their ownchild.
·We strongly discourage electronic usage on acampout, especially amongst the youth. If you do bring it please try and keepit in your tent so it isn’t a distraction to other kids. If you or your childwill be using it at night to wind down before sleeping please considerheadphones. Again tent walls don’t insulate and the movie that is putting yourkid to sleep could be keeping another kid awake. Also, we camp in what are consideredprimitive sites so there is no electricity at the tent sites.
·Bathrooms. Youth Protection requires that inaddition to separate Male and Female restrooms, we not have youth and adults inthe restroom at the same time. We will have signs on the bathrooms to designatethose. Please start talking to your children about making sure there are noadults in the bathroom before they enter and making sure the sign shows thereis a youth in there. Adults please check that there are no youth in therestroom and remind any that come in that they need to wait outside until youare finished. This is for your protection and theirs. We strongly encourage alladults to take Youth Protection online training, which goes over this in moredetail.
·Knives- The only youth allowed to carry and usea pocket knife (with adult supervision) are those that have earned and arecarrying their Whittling Chip. These are Bears, Webelos, and AOL’s.
·Campfires- We will have one active fire pit. Noother fires should be started. The only youth that can start fires are Webelosand AOLs with their leader supervision.
·Camping in primitive sites means that you cannotdrive directly to where your tent will be. If you have a wagon, that wouldn’tbe a bad idea to bring to help transport your gear.
Trash- pack it in, pack it out. There are no dumpsters or other trash cans inmost primitive camp sites. Any trash the pack makes, someone (usually theCubmaster) has to load in their vehicle until they can dispose of it. Everyperson having their own mess kit greatly reduces the amount of trash. If youchoose not to use something reusable you are responsible for that trash soplease be sure to bring your own trash bags. The pack does not have anydisposable plates, cups, silverware.
·Food and snacks. The pack provides some mealsduring campouts. We will let you know the menu ahead of time so you may planaccordingly for any food allergies or dislikes. For any food or snacks youbring from home, please keep in mind that we have a few children with peanutand other nut allergies. The bathroomsare close by for good handwashing. Also, we highly recommend NO FOOD IN YOURTENTS. Critters aren’t bothered by your nylon tent walls when they smell food.Even toiletries can smell appetizing so you may consider keeping those in aZiploc bag or two.
·Since each Scout should have his 6 essentialswith him he will already have a water bottle. The pack typically has a 5 gallonjug filled with water (and another with Kool-Aid) available for refills at alltimes.
·Scouts need their Class A uniforms for Saturdaynight’s campfire program and Sunday’s Scout’s Own service. It is also highly encouraged that they arewearing closed toed shoes. Bare feet and flip-flops are dangerous in the woods.
·If you need to leave camp for any reason, pleaselet a leader know so we aren’t looking for you if an emergency arises.
·After you have packed up all you gear and areready to head home, please police the area around your campsite. Scouting follows the Leave No Trace principlesand everyone pitching in to help keep the campsite clean, means leaders aren’tdoing it all after everyone has left. Don’t be afraid to offer help!
·Smoking (and vaping) is not permitted in frontof the Scouts. This is a BSA policy. Alcohol is not permitted at any Scoutfunction.
·Health forms are needed for everyone participatingon the camping trip, even if they are only coming for the day. The pack willhave minimal blanks so try to print it at home and bring it with you.
·Leaders put a lot of time and effort intoplanning the campout and activities. Some of the schedule for Saturdaysincludes down/family time. You, the parents, are responsible for your childrenduring this time. Leaders love camping and leading your Scouts but they needdowntime too and have their own children. We also welcome any help, ideas orconstructive criticism.
More information can be learned by taking Youth ProtectionTraining online and in The Guide to Safe Scouting, which can be found as a freepdf on scouting.org. These are greatresources for any adult to familiarize themselves with BSA policies.