Local Scouts enjoy varied activities during three-day camp
Aiming a BB gun at a sheet of paper tacked to a bale of hay, 6-year-old Trey Cavaliere kneels in grass, rests his right arm on a plank of wood in front of him, presses his cheek against his arm and screws up his face. Pop!
“Make sure you aim, Trey, before you shoot,” his mother, Kim, advises, watching from a few feet away.
Standing up, he smiles and his apple cheeks push at a pair of safety goggles.
“I’m hitting the dang paper, but it keeps bouncing back out,” he declares, walking toward the target.
He looks up from the paper, which has numbered squares on the back.
“I shot a 20 that’s all,” he says to his mother, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face.
He did not notice a second tiny hole in the paper, however. He had shot a 15, too.
“35 points!”
He smiles.
Cavaliere of McClellandtown and 159 other boys attended Westmoreland Fayette Council’s Cub Scout day camp. The three-day camp, themed “Celebrate America,” was held at Shady Grove Park this summer.
Kim Cavaliere, who has two sons in the Scouts, remembered her days as a Brownie and a Girl Scout. Her husband was a Scout, also.
“We always encourage our kids to do this,” she said of Scouting. “We were raised to participate ourselves.”
Kristen Eagle, senior district executive of Westmoreland Fayette Council, Boy Scouts of America, said the popularity of Scouting has not waned over the years.
Fayette County has 1,200 Cub and Boy Scouts, according to Eagle.
“What works best is successful day camps and word of mouth,” she said of keeping boys interested. “The program is what draws and keeps them.”
She said the program will visit schools in Fayette County on Sept. 16 to encourage boys to sign up for Scouting, adding that enrollment numbers fluctuate throughout the year, with highs running September through December.
Mary McKee, program director for the camp, said what attracts boys to Scouting is the activities.
“Things like this,” she said, gesturing to campers sitting in front of Master Falconer Earl Schriver of Beaver City, who brought an eagle, a falcon and a red-tail hawk for the boys to observe. “Yesterday, we had snakes. The boys loved the snakes.”
Shooting BB guns and archery are popular activities, too, she said.
“This is one of the kids’ favorite activities because this is something they can’t do at home in most cases,” McKee said, pointing at the archery tent.
Waiting his turn with a bow and arrow, Nick Paroda, 8, of Uniontown, who has been in the Scouts for three years, said he enjoys the different activities the Scouts offer.
“I think it’s fun,” he said. “I liked the snakes, birds and archery.”
His mother, Dolores, said she likes the teachings her son receives through the Scouts.
“They learn about nature and the outdoors,” she said. “That’s really important.”
Besides the activities, McKee said Scouting presents an opportunity for friendship and acceptance.
“Everyone fits in. It’s a safe haven. Everyone treats one another with respect,” she said. “It’s the kind of friendships that stick.”
Boys often return to the camp even when they are too old to qualify as campers.
McKee’s 12-year-old son, Patrick, Greg Lerch, 11, of Vanderbilt and Kenny Seliga, 11, of Smock were volunteers at the camp this year. All three have been Scouts since first grade.
But McKee is aware that some might not think of Scouting as hip.
McKee said the Webelos (fourth- and fifth-grade Scouts) need more attention compared to other Scouts because at their age interest in the Scouts either plummets or soars.
“That’s the age when we need to keep it fun,” she said. “They can go one way or another.”
Camp volunteer Bill Chesslo of Smithfield agreed.
“You have to keep these boys more interested in the Scouting,” he said. “As they get older, they get interested in other things.”
But if the day camp was any indication of the popularity of Scouts, the program is still running strong.
Standing next to a tent erected to shade the Scouts from the afternoon heat, Chesslo and Dave Meredith, a camp volunteer and an associate professor of engineering at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, line up a group of campers for a demonstration on how to ignite a fire safely without matches.
Placing a cotton ball atop the dusty ground, Meredith squats and flicks a knife against a magnesium fire starter.
Several boys huddled nearby wait, their eyes transfixed on the white dot at their feet. The wind plays against the wanted result.
Finally, a spark of orange waves to the boys.
“Who wants to try?” Meredith asks, rising.
“Me! Me! Me!”