[philmont] Food Allergies

Ladies and Gentlemen

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I must come from a different planet. I have been an adult scout leader for well over 25 years. During that time I have renewed old friendships with my fellow scouts as their boys went through our program. I have made a few really good new friends from parents who were truly involved with their sons ( and usually their daughters in different activities). Indeed I golf with these folks, I vacation with these folks and I dine regularly with these folks. Scouting has indeed been the best source of quality friends.

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BUT

Am I the only Scouter who has never met a boy's divorced father? Am I the only Scouter that has heard the car horn blowing after a camping trip because the parent is in a rush to pick up JR. and run, forgetting to ask how the trip went or to say thanks? Am I the only Scouter to get told when I had to cancel a trip for lack of sufficient adult assistants "you can't do that I have plans for the weekend". You want or?expect THAT type of parent to check the food list? I can remember back before the applications had a medical form on the back that I had a kid cut his knee on a rock and it oozed for hours. When I told the mom she said "Oh he is a hemophiliac!"? Dud. You think I might have needed to know that before I took him into the woods!

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BSA does stand for Baby Sitters of America for some. And Philmont is just another 2 week vacation for those "parents".

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HAVING now ranted on for too long about the reasons not to be a scouter,

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I will say it is those very parents that have made this the most rewarding job in town. Their sons are the ones that?need Scouting more than anyone else.

Sorry I will step down from my pulpit now.

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The worst day in Philmont is better than any day at work!

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Ted Cotter

Troop 27

John LeBlanc <philmontjohn@yahoo.com> wrote:

There wa a day when parents accepted their role responsibly.? Today...........well, let me be nice and just say parents are different than they used to be.

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Inconceivable as it sounds, parents have ignored serious health issues in the past and will in the future.? The food ingredients, all of them on an exhaustive list, are available from Philmont.

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But some parents seemingly would put their children at high rish to "not make it".? They don't even think of the risk to the staff and the measures it takes to get their children down off the trail.

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Clare Grasson makes an excellent point below.? AS he posts, the parents not only used bad judgement, they wilfully violated Philmont medical policy.? The old saying goes "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink".

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If it's was an unknown medical problem that's one thing, but when it's like the one below, I somethings think it might just be in the best interest of the youth to have a zero tolerance policy on issues like this.? If parents fail to report know medical problems, then they are outta here.

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Having severe alergic reactions after one bite of an energy bar from a KNOWn alergy.? Well, parent, there is just no excuse in that neglegence.

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But then you cry out "but what about the kids?? What's best for them?"? Maybe that would be the "best for them".

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No, I'm not proposing that, I'm just trying to stimulate thinking a little.

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And that's why we as leaders need to leave no stone unturned in our prepreation for a trek at Philmont.

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John LeBlanc

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I wanted to re-iterate the need to make sure that parents / scouts REALLY make sure that if they have ANY food allergies, they handle it appropriately.

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Last year at Philmont we had a scout who was allergic to cashews.? He knew it, his parents knew it, his doctor knew it - but it did not get written down on his physical form.? They did not check the menu ingredient list even though it was publicized.? He did not bring an Epipen.

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One day he bit into one of those energy bars.? Within seconds he knew that it had cashews in it because he started have a severe allergic reaction.?The good news was that he was at a staff camp and they were able to get him back down to base camp to treat him.

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This is one of those things that can prove disastrous in the back country. Fortunately, it is fully preventable if it is handled correctly BEFORE you get on the trail.

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Clare Grasso

ASM T602

Laurel, MD

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Received on Wed Apr 23 09:38:31 2008