From: Donald S. Roberts (don@hummellawfirm.com)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 11:11:50 CDT
In addition to my 8 year old daughter, I brought my 11 year old Star scout
son. The program at PTC for boys age 11-13 is "boy scouts". When a kid
hits 14, its Los Jovenes, Mountain Men or Mountain Women. The boy scouts
are divided into age groups, 11, 12, or 13. no consideration is made
regarding ability or attitude. Thus, though my son is a Star scout, has
climbed Mt. San Gorgonio and hiked across the Grand Canyon, his ability and
attitude counted for nothing and he was placed with 11 year olds who had far
less experience. I suppose this is as close to a rant as I'll come in this
series, as I have this same complaint about ability and attitude for treks
as well. I'm 10 pounds over my weight limit on the Philmont chart, so I
can't go on a trek without losing weight, yet I can go a week in the
Sierras, climb Mt. Whitney and hike across the Grand Canyon with no problem.
Ah well.
Anyway, the boy scout program, as it says in the guidebook, includes
archery, rifle (bb air gun), horse riding (unless the boy is too small), day
hikes, tours of Villa Philmonte, Rayado, etc. The boy scouts go on an
overnight hike to the stockade. The stockade is located in the valley to
the south side of the tooth of time, so the boys get a spectacular view
during their hike. The 13 year olds get to hike over the tooth of time.
When I picked up my son each day, I had difficulty getting him away from the
group, so it is clear he really enjoyed it.
The guidebook is not clear what is needed for the boys for their
overnighter. There were about thirty boy scouts (all ages), and about 25 of
them brought their backpacking packs. I thought the instructions were
ambiguous so I called ahead and my son brought a duffle. Their overnight
gear is trucked to the stockade and they need only carry a day pack with
water and rain gear. The boy scouts had no opportunity to use their
backpacking packs. The guidebook is also ambiguous regarding sleeping gear.
The list in the box for the overnighter only mentions a sleeping bag. The
text above it mentions a ground cloth. Unless you read it carefully, you
don't realize the scout will need a ground cloth. No mention is made of
needing a pillow or pad. The boys sleep on the ground, and they don't have
to carry their bedding, so you figure out what they should bring.
Food on the overnighter was a major sore point for the boys. The staff made
it very clear that the boys were to bring *no* food, not even trail snacks.
Thus, the boys were limited to what the PTC supplied. The boys were given
three bean chili and soda crackers for dinner, with nothing else, no
vegetables, no salad, nothing. I was informed by the boys I talked to that
only one of the thirty boys found the chili palatable. I was also told that
one boy was throwing up while eating it, and the staff still made him keep
eating the chili. The chili was mentioned in the boy scout skit :-).
For lunch, the boys were given a PhilMeal, the same luch given to crews.
Thus, a boy had to share with one other boy the two person meal, and the
boys had to carry it for their hike to the stockade. This was true for the
other all day outings for other groups, such as my daughter in Chicas and my
wife in Senores. My son took a camelback for his daypack, so the PhilMeal
was a tight squeeze. The boys were also to carry THREE quarts of water on
this outing. That also made his camelback a tight squeeze (I tried to talk
him into a regular day pack).
Having gone through national gatherings myself as a scout, I knew that patch
trading would be occurring. So before I came to PTC, I made a point of
visiting our scout shop and stocking up on CSP's. I also got a few OA
flaps. Since the boys were 11-13, very few of them are OA, so there was
very little interest in the flaps. I gave my son, who had *no* patch
trading experience, some guidance and the CSP's and OA Flaps, and he got
rather enthusiastically into it. He was quite thrilled to acquire patches
such as the one from New York that had the WTC on it, or other impressive
patches. He started just trading for anything (and he was taken in his
first couple trades, fortunately he came to me before he did more and I
helped him understand that he was not getting value for his trades so that
didn't happen again). There were some great adults there who made sure the
boys got a little extra when they saw them interested in patches. Since boy
scout age is the age when this interest starts to hit, don't forget to make
sure your son is stocked up for trades. Even boys whose parents said they'd
never been interested before were very interested in trading. There were a
few who took the CSP's off their uniforms to make a trade.
There was another adult who was making woggles and giving them to any scout
who could answer a scouting question. My son (and my daughter) really
enjoyed that little challenge. One of the neat things about national
gatherings of scouts and scouters are the people you meet and the
interesting things some of them come up with. It really enhances the
experience.
Just like with Chicas, a lot of the fun was having kids of similar
age/gender to bond with, and much of the free time was spent playing with
the other kids in the group.
I believe this is the group that Philmont really fails to take advantage of.
These are the boys that will be going on treks shortly, and Philmont should
be making a point of taking these boys to meet the crews, see the opening
and closing ceremonies for crews, seeing a few more of the interpretive
camps on treks and other things to let them know what they can look forward
to. They did go over to CHQ and look around, but it really could have been
done with a bit more of what they can look forward to in mind.
My son had a lot of fun, but he is probably the least enthusiastic of my
family about going back. I believe this was because of a combination of the
failure mentioned above, the inability of Philmont to take into account
ability and attitude as well as age, and a general lack of foresight of what
these boys can represent to Philmont's future. If there is an area in need
of improvement in the PTC program, I believe this is it.
Unlike my daughter, my son has just reached the age where he is starting to
appreciate having things like Philmont souveniers. A Philmont belt, other
things with a Philmont label on them, Philmont patches, etc. I think PTC
could benefit from giving this group a special souvenir to remind them what
they have to look forward to.
Despite my criticisms above, I will say that this was still a great program,
even if it is the one with the most room for improvement (IMNSHO).
Regards
Don
Donald S. Roberts
Law Offices of Philip L. Hummel, IV
500 N. State College Blvd., Suite 1200
Orange, CA 92868
714-978-6771 Fax: 714-634-3869
don@hummellawfirm.com
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