Winnebago Council Summer Camps 2013 to Offer Something for Everyone
The Winnebago Council Camping Committee is excited to announce their plans for the 2013 Summer Camping Season. Coming off of a successful 2012 Summer Camping Season they have expanded their plans and will offer a variety of new options to help all Scouts in the Winnebago Council participate in a camping experience in 2013.
Chris Kangas, Council Team Leader for Programs, discussed the new plans. “Our first and most notable change is that most of our Day Camps have been moved away from Camp and out to parks near where our Cub Scouts live. Surveys have shown us that one of the major roadblocks for Cub Scout parents is distance to an event. We hope to have eliminated this obstacle by adding Day Camps in Clarion, Hampton, Hazelton, Mason City, New Hampton, and Waterloo. We have also rebranded our Day Camps as ‘Fun Days’. Our theme for 2013 is Baden-Powell’s Island with stations going back to early Scout skills.”
In addition to the Fun Days moving closer to the Scouts, we will still have a few dates at Ingawanis Adventure Base with a slight twist. Instead of Day Camps, these will be “Twilight Camps” with an afternoon start time and ending with a campfire; a little change to give a new experience. In addition to the Day Camps, there will be four sessions of Cub Scout Resident Camp. These sessions will be held on a Thursday evening to Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon to Monday morning schedule with two different sessions each weekend. Scouts are encouraged to register for both sessions on a weekend as there will be some variations in the schedule. Kangas explains, “One of the major concerns that has been given is trying to get days off from work for parents. We’ve limited this issue to only a single day for each session and will have special pricing to allow for the Scouts wanting to stay for the whole weekend.”
There are new options for Cub Scout Camping as well. A Webelos Weekend is planned for all Scouts going into 4th and 5th grade in the fall of 2013 to get an exposure to the Boy Scout summer camp experience. Shooting Sports weekend will also return in 2013 to allow Scouts to qualify for their Archery and BB Gun Belt Loop and Activity Pin. One final Cub Scout program also makes a return appearance in 2013-the Family Overnight Camp. This program allows the whole Cub Scout family to come and have fun at camp and get an overnight camping experience. Cub Scouts are encouraged to sign up for multiple programs with their Pack, Den, or just with their family.
Boy Scout Resident Camp has moved up by one week in June to accommodate the single-camp program for 2013. A new list of merit badges and programs will be available to Scoutmasters in November. Some changes will include “bundling” of merit badges where Scouts will work with the same counselor on a group of similar merit badges and some program areas will offer open merit badge time for Scouts to work on badges as they have extra time. Details are still being developed. There is also a late addition to the camping schedule with a week of camp on Monday, July 1st through Saturday, July 6th. Kangas explains, “We had a great deal of concern with only offering Boy Scout Camp in June and we had some requests for both a week over the 4th of July to limit vacation days and for a week without any activities on Sunday. This will meet all of those requests while still allowing a full Cub Scout program and work around the National Jamboree schedule.”
The Older Scouts and Venturers are not being forgotten either. There will be two sessions of our Adventure based Eagle Claw/Youth Leadership Training Course for young leaders to attend. These programs include service work, hands-on leadership training, and combine with a high adventure trek in the Mountains of Wyoming. New for 2013 are two short-week sessions for Scouts 14 and older. Our Aquatics session tentatively includes a visit to a whitewater course, SCUBA training, and sailing instruction. Our Shooting Sports session will include Black Powder rifles, Tomahawk Throwing, Handguns, Action Archery, and more. Of course, 2013 is also a National Jamboree year and we will have 90 Scouts from the Winnebago Council attending the new Bechtel Summit Reserve in West Virginia for the last two weeks in July. There are still openings to attend.
For a complete list of camp dates for the 2013 camping season, please click here.
