How does dead fish, rutted hiking trails, flying hay bales, Medieval warriors and bagpipes make for a super youth activity? Some 260 youth from across the North County region of San Diego found out one recent October weekend when some fourteen scout troops of the Boy Scouts of America held an exciting three day Camporee at a local church campground. The event theme was “Battle of the Clans, Scottish Highland Games” and is widely regarded as one of the premier scouting events in the region.
It all took place at Camp Wildwood Ranch, a property owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was originally developed as a youth nature retreat by the Salvation Army. Today it is used primarily for hosting church girl’s camp, family reunions and scout campouts. Facilities include camping areas, zip line, hiking trails, swimming pool and an archery range.
Many of the scouts had been anxiously waiting for the return of this event since last year for their chance to participate in traditional highland games, scouting skills, arts & crafts, cooking competitions, tug-o-wars, night hikes and the camp show. Several troops wore traditional Scottish attire featuring kilts and sashes of their clan tartans. Their ultimate goal was to win the official ceremonial sword of Buena Creek District for display in their unit court-of-honors for the coming year.
One very remarkable part of the Camporee was when this large army of scouts assembled to work a major service project for the church camp. Early Saturday morning, after being awakened to a full bagpipe reveille and warm breakfast, these scouts set in to restoring a full quarter-mile plus of the main hilltop hiking trail which had been severely worn and rutted by previous winter storms.
The LDS Church had been a major partner of scouting, its first charter partner in fact, sponsoring thousands of scout packs, troops and crews across the country for nearly 106 years.
But in 2018, the church announced the launch of new worldwide youth initiative that would necessitate their departure from the scouting program but in so doing they declared their full endorsement of the shared ideals in both programs and their intent to remain a friend of scouting. This new church program encourages youth to personally grow stronger in Christ while still leaving them freedom to develop their abilities in any worthwhile field of their choosing, including wholesome recreational pursuits such as scouting, sports, theater, arts, crafts, the sciences, etc. It asks for families to be examples of upright living in the world.
The service work performed by the scouts was just one of many ways in which Boy Scout of America and their many members have shown gratitude for their long partnership and appreciation for the many resources (including access to this camp and many other church properties nationwide) that the church had donated to the scouting program.
Besides directly chartering a great number of scout units, this partnership took form in many other ways. One of the units working on the trail was Troop 651, sponsored by the Lions Club of San Marcos. They had been holding their weekly scout meetings at the local LDS Church on Borden Street every Thursday night for many years. Over 75% of the scouting participants at Camporee were not members of the church.
Greatly enjoy hosting the scouts at the camp were several LDS church service missionary caretakers who work here. One of these is Elder Clinger, age 84, from Lakeside CA. He and his wife recently started a one year service mission. “I love doing service, at my age what else would I do?” Together they had great appreciation for the work completed by the scouts.
One of the first time participants was Adam Hawthorne, age 11, a new scout with Troop 731, chartered by St Peter the Apostle Catholic Church in Fallbrook CA. “I love camping. I love to help other people. I like to have fun and to meet new people.” His unit meets just across the street from the local LDS Church in town and they have joined together for many merit badge clinics and other fun activities over the years.
Scoutmaster Juan Hernandez of Troop 669 (chartered by the Escondido Elks Lodge) was also happy about his boy’s participation. “This is our first time attending a Buena Creek Camporee and my boys didn’t know quite what to expect and we were a bit intimidated at first. But we quickly got excited seeing all the fun the other scouts were having here.” (Might that have been something about the dead fish?)
But not all of the BSA scouts participating this year were boys. One of the fourteen groups present was Troop 700, (chartered by the Elks Lodge of Oceanside) one of the very first all girl Scouts BSA troops organized in San Diego County earlier this year. Murielle Meacham (“Mimi”), age 17, serves as Troop ASPL. “I’ve always wanted to do lots of camping and outdoor adventures, but I did not have a group that I could go out with before.” She remembers cheerfully that one of her very first scout campouts featured a competition that involved stacking buckets full of water on top of wires.
Two of Mimi’s new friends in Troop 700 are Hazel Sykes (16) and her sister Rosemary (14). They are both active members in the LDS Church attending the Fire Mountain Ward in Carlsbad Stake. Hazel has already earned all of the requirements to advance to scouting’s Star Rank. “I have two older brothers who are both Eagle scouts and I’ve always wanted to be able to accomplish the same myself.” When asked about her plans for 2020, she responded. “I want to stay active in both the church program and scouting but I expect it will be challenging and rewarding to do both.”
Midway through the campout I found one of the LDS scout troops (Troop 715 of the LDS Vista 3rd Ward) marching in formation across the grounds playing a popular church song on their collection of kazoos. I stopped them briefly to ask what they were doing and they explained that they heard the bagpiper playing the exact same thing early in the morning during Reveille. Curious, I went to find our bagpiper (a young man named Gregg Marcier) to see why he was playing LDS tunes.
It turns out the song he had played was actually “Scotland the Brave”, the rousing unofficial anthem of Scotland and a very popular bagpiper’s melody. We then had a lengthy discussion on how many the immigrant members of various American churches in the nineteenth century adopted popular folk tunes for their worship services. One such case was William W. Phelps who adopted this music for a popular LDS Hymn called “Praise to the Man” a tribute to church founder Joseph Smith.
The centerpiece of Camporee was the “Battle of the Clans”, featuring the local Siar Gaeta (Gaelic for “Westgate”) chapter of the Amtgard society. This is a group the does Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) and boffer combat society focused on Sword & Sorcery, Medieval and Ancient generies. Amtgard uses safe, foam-padded replicas of Medieval weaponry to bring to life popular tabletop or video game experiences. They have so enjoyed their participation with scouting that they are returning for their third year. (The themes for the prior two years were Medieval Quest and Viking Voyage.)
Amongst these local Amtgard veterans was our honorary tournament king and queen, Walt Brown, (age 75), his wife Kathy, and their service dog, Jamie, a six-plus year old Irish Setter that has a family pedigree rich in champion show dogs. Walt had previously served nearly twenty-five years as a scoutmaster for LDS Church scout troops and is still active in scouting today. His many skills include being a veteran submariner of the U.S. Navy, licensed pilot and civil engineer. He tells me that a major highlight for their Amtgard chapter is to their annual visit to the scouting Camporee.
Another very important duty of theirs was to judge our annual Dutch-oven cook-off. The scouts literally had to prepare a dinner or dessert to impress royalty. During their presentation, the cooks must weather an intense royal interrogation on their cooking methods that rivals what you might have seen on The Great British Baking Show.
Saturday evening was the camp show where each troop had the opportunity to perform an original skit. Knowing that expectations were high, many of these skits were extraordinarily good. But what got the show off to really great start was a game show version of the dead fish toss. For this year’s show, the fish of honor were Pacific Ocean mackerel. (But don’t tell mom that you had to wipe your hands on your shirt afterwards.)
This event certainly added to the many fine memories these boys and girls were picking up from their many scouting adventures, further buoying their enthusiasm for nature and the outdoors. One example of this was my chat with Life scout Everett Brooking, (age 16) who came with Troop 790 which meets at USMC Camp Pendleton. “I started years ago with Cub Scouts because I wanted to go camping. But I’ve stayed with my group because we keep doing fun things and making great friends for life.” He then excitedly told me about last year’s canoe trip down the Colorado River where they found some hot springs hidden in amongst some secret caves that were really great to swim in.
By the way, this year’s top unit award went to the boys with the kazoos in Troop 715. As this busy weekend came to a close and everyone packed up to go home, the comment I heard most frequently from both scouts and their leaders, was while this experience was really awesome, how can we top it for next year?
