Throughout the summertime, the local Boy Scouts’s headquarters hosts Camp Adventure for many boys and girls, ages 6 to 11 years old, to teach them the basics of a variety of outdoor sports and leisure activities.
With so many children spending the summer glued to their electronics, Daniel Rogers, Scout Executive of the Georgia-Carolina Council in Augusta, said he believes campers learn so many useful skills while attending Camp Adventure, lessons that are even more emphasized through Boy Scouts.
“[In Scouts,] they learn self-reliance and self-confidence; they learn teamwork. They learn to unplug,” he said. “Here they’re learning to swim, which is a lifesaving skill. We teach them some basic first aid here and even how you should handle a gun. We’re teaching them how to shoot a BB gun, but before that we teach them safety.”
Camp Adventures offers various activities, such as: swimming, archery, BB gun and slingshot shooting, hiking, model building, arts and crafts, tennis, basketball, soccer, volleyball and other games.
Rogers said one of the most important lessons they teach campers is to have a “stick to it” attitude in order to improve and be confident in one’s well earned successes.
“It’s shooting, missing the target, and doing it for another 3 days to see the personal growth,” he said. “It teaches them patience too, because they’re all wanting to shoot, but we can only take so many at a time so they learn to take turns and wait.”
The camp also highlights career exploration with several guest speakers teaching children the basics of their job. Career education involves the Columbia County Fire Department and the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, while the US Army Corp of Engineers teaches water safety with an introduction to patrol boats, fishing, mountain biking and fire ecology.
“One of the things they learned from the Fire Department, I’ve never thought about this, was them telling the kids, if they’re ever in a house fire and hiding in the closet, scared to death, not to run away from the tall man in the big mask,” said Rogers. “Something we don’t consider, how alien they look with the masks on. These kids are scared and they just see this strange alien coming towards them, and oftentimes they run away.”
Rogers said learning about law enforcement, as well as the fire department, allows children to learn not to be scared of such figures in case they are ever in an emergency situation.
Surprisingly, Murph and Rogers said children will also learn things they’re expected to be taught in school, such as how to read an analog clock and even the country’s Pledge of Allegiance – something that an astounding amount do not know how to recite when they attend camp.
“[Camp] is good for staff members too because they learn leadership,” said Program Director Tim Murph. “A lot of our staff were Eagle Scouts and then a fair number of them are education majors over at Augusta University.”
Rogers said camp allows counselors to quickly develop leadership skills because they receive real world experience over the entire summer season.
“When I talk about long distance hiking, I talk about how you carry this weight in your pack and the more weight you carry the less happiness you have,” said Rogers. “The only way to get rid of the weight is through experience, and we provide experience in a multitude of ways.”
Back from college for the summer after finishing his freshmen year, Eagle Scout and camp range master, Maddox McCarthy, said wanted to become a counselor, because he has always enjoyed outdoor shooting sports and wanted to pass along his hobby to others.
“There’s a lot of things that shooting sports do that people might not see initially,” McCarthy said. “For instance, with kids shooting throughout the entire week, they gain more confidence in their abilities.”
However, in addition to uplifting children’s self assurance, McCarthy said he hopes campers takeaway the same outlook Boy Scouts gave him – to enjoy the outdoors.
Fellow camp counselor Gracie Culpepper said she joined the team because she has always enjoyed working with kids; she believes the camp’s unique atmosphere allows for meaningful connections to be made.
“I think the workers here have a really good system and we all collaborate a lot, and that provides a good environment for the kids to be in,” she said. “I think, as leaders, that kind of helps us achieve what we’ve set out to do … it’s scary to think about how technology will affect future generations, but being able to be a part of something like this, knowing that we’re helping kids to get outside, is rewarding. It’s a good feeling to know that we’re kind of helping them to grow up in the same way we did.”
