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In September, Troop 333 ventured to Kelley’s Island for our monthly campout. Kelley’s Island is a small island, positioned on Lake Erie, Ohio. Kelley’s Island is a great place to go biking, and there are many cool and interesting places to visit, as well as an equally interesting, extensive history. One cool place to check out is a massive stone quarry inhabiting the island. Kelley’s Island is also host to the glacial grooves, a fascinating rock formation caused by glaciers moving through the island. Various old, run down buildings reveal an interesting history of the island, and are super fun to explore. The island also has some amazing camping grounds, with direct access to the beach. All around, our troop had a great time camping at Kelley’s Island

During the summer, our troop went to the Manatoc Scout Reservation for Boy Scout summer camp. Boy Scout summer camp is a week-long campout at the reservation, where scouts work towards earning merit badges. Younger scouts go through the ST21 program, where they get some of the key requirements in early advancement, and earn their fireman chip and totin chip. Older scouts work on some of the many available merit badges out at Manatoc, earning Eagle required merit badges like Lifesaving or Emergency Preparedness, or just earning badges for fun.

For one week in June, Troop 333 headed to Camp Manatoc for Boy Scout Summer Camp. As usual for the last 40 years or so, we stayed at Buckeye campsite, which is an awesome campsite, not only because we stay there, but also because it is near the Archery, Rifle, and Shotgun ranges, along with the Trading Post (the camp store), and the Dining Hall, the largest Wormy Chestnut building in the world! Another tradition we are establishing, since they started selling hammocks at the Trading Post, is the “Hammock City” where everybody who brought a hammock from previous years or recently bought one, hangs them up in a close general vicinity. Everybody’s favorite night of camp is Wednesday night, or Family Night, where parents and siblings come out to the camp and bring dinner for their scout. One of the main purposes of camp is to start, and if possible, finish several merit badges. This year we had a ~75% completion rate overall with 56 badges finished. The most merit badges earned by a scout was 4, which several scouts did. In the end, everybody had fun, earned badges and made friends.

On the week of June 8, 2014, 4 Troop 333 scouts headed to Camp Butler, for a week at National Youth Leadership Training. Every year, many Boy Scout and Venture Scout Troops from the area send scouts out to Camp Butler, where they learn how to be better leaders in their home units. Some things that were taught there were better communication, helping newer people feel accepted, and better teamwork. Monday through Thursday each represented a ‘week’ in a ‘month’ of a troop. Each scout was put into a random group of 7 other scouts, in order to better model team building as it would be in a new troop. Unlike a new troop however, each day, a new set of two scouts got to be Assistant Patrol Leader and Patrol Leader. All in all, there was a total of 14 teams, each with a corresponding color and design: solid or plaid colors, which were divided into 2 troops: Troop Fire for the solid patrols, and Troop Ice for the Plaid patrols. For meals, teams would have to prepare them themselves. Throughout the week, there were friendships made, along with good food. Each team also made a skit demonstrating what leadership meant to them. These were presented on Friday, after the groups spent most of the week working together on them. When all was said and done, everybody learned something new to take to their home units.