Camp!

Love to camp...however I am over 50 so not a fan of tent camping. I feel all troops should do some sort of camping be it tent, cabin or even troop Beverly hills.

I am very lucky that we have a council owned camp only 35 minutes away from my home. It was donated by the Kugelman Foundation and was previously a nun retreat. Of our 3 camps, this one is the smallest, only about 8 acres of property. It sits between a park and a private property with a lot of woods.

It is a dormitory style 2 story building with 24 'bedrooms' upstairs and sleeps 54 people in camp type beds. It sits on a bay, has a pool, air conditioning and heat. It has an industrial kitchen and dining hall. Also a craft/game room and living room with each having a big screen TV for viewing movies. And get this...it has WiFi! We call it "hotel camp".

It is great for me, being not so young anymore and have serious issues with heat (I live in Florida btw). Due to our council planning very few events and especially not camps, I take on myself to plan/run big themed camps. I invite any troop in our council who is willing to drive to it and pay the registration fee.

I do a leader only (with no training just share time to pass on ideas), a leader-daughter, and a Cad-Sr-Amb camp every year because there is so little planned for them. This is in addition to at least one camp and 2 lock-ins just for my troop . When I do a themed camp I need a space that is consistent and works no matter the weather conditions.

These are often themed after movies. I have done Tangled, Frozen, every Hunger Games movie (4 years in a row), Hogwarts and this year will be Star Wars. There are CSA's that come to me at my camps and say they stay in scouts so they can go to my camps. Younger girls leaders say their girls don't drop at middle school (which often happens) because they are now old enough to "go to Grumpy's camps". Makes me feel good and more willing to continue doing them.

We charge less than every council camp ever put on. We are thrifty with our purchases and usually have money left. Any leftover funds not spent to put the camp on, go into our troop acct.

I have spent a LOT of time planning these camps and due to many requests for my programming I am considering having downloads available for a very small fee to supplement troop funds.