At any rate, much like a flea market, individuals can purchases booths and are allowed to set up whatever they want to get people talking about their organization or business. Local banks and merchants are usually there, along with several of the churches in town, food venders, a small traveling circus, rides for the kids, a petting zoo, food court... you get the idea.
Whether you know it or not, Wayne is a large township, almost on the verge of being classified as a city, and within the town there are 8 BSA troops as well as 7 Cub packs, at least one Venture Crew (maybe two we're not sure) and one Explorer Post run out of the municipal building. To say that Scouting is a large part of the community is putting it mildly. Two of the troops (ours included) are celebrating our 75th year of service, and at least one is celebrating its 50th. So, not only are we a part of the community, we have been here for a long time.
This year in an effort to represent all of the Scouts in Wayne, Bob McDevitt, a former Scoutmaster and Scouter with Troop 134, tried to bring all the troops in Wayne together to try to properly represent Scouting.
Including Bob, or total response was 4.
Be that as it may, we split the tasks of the booth between the troops; 101 would handle the lashing project and the information table, Troop 192 would handle the cooking demonstrations, and Troop 102 would handle the model campsite. The model campsite was set up, and s'mores cooked over... we'll say open fire, but for legal reasons it was charcoal - while mountain pies were made and distributed with pineapple upside down cake by 192. Of course 101 being 101 had to do something totally ridiculous and absurd for our lashing project, so we constructed a... barn that was 12'x15'x18'. (Yes, you read that right.) Not only did it cover the information table, it also had a monkey bridge built off the back, which seemed to be a big hit with the everyone-that-would-never-be-eligable-for-Boy-Scouts crowd, but we let them run around on it none the less.
The highlight of the day was the 2 1/2 year old girl, who after her brother refused to cross, crossed not only once but twice without a hint of fear in her eyes.
Crew Advisor McLarty is patiently waiting for her to be eligible for Crew 100.
That being said, the weather co-operated with a minimal shower here and there, and all of our adults enjoyed climbing on our barn - Miss McLarty watched the trapeze artist from the top of the structure, which was pretty much the same height as he was - as well as the adults from the other troops that were with us.
All in all, we got a few potential Cub Scouts, a few potential Boy Scouts, and whole lot of girls for the Crew (after all, this was a recruiting event for us). Crew Advisor McLarty was doing her darnedest to build up that crew, and thanks to the less-than-enthusiastic-about-camping Girl Scout leaders in the area, I think the Crew may be back big time.
So if you are in the area next year (its the second Sunday in June) swing by and see what we've built! I don't know how we're going to top this year's structure... big monkey bridge? Tower? Ferris wheel? Trebuchet? Ballista?
Pictures are here.
No comments:
Post a Comment