Is Camp Lyle a special Place?
Do you ever wonder if what you do has an impression on people? Some days, I feel that way about Scouting. I put in a lot of time into scouting and wonder some days if it is all worth it? I don’t get paid, don’t get a bonus check if scouts have fun, and I don’t get paid a commission for each scout that earns a badge. The pay comes from small nuggets of appreciation when I see a scout “got it”.
A prime example is going to camp Lyle. I have been attending for many many years and I really enjoy the program. I enjoy the camp and most of all I like watching the scouts grow. But I also wonder if they get the same excitement out of camp as I do. This summer, I had proof that maybe, just maybe, someone else felt the excitement I did, not this summer, but in a summer past.
In order to understand this, we have to go back a few years to a previous trip or two to Lyle. As always, we took a group of scouts to camp, what number is unimportant, but somewhere between 30 and 50 would be a good guess. Each year, you will have a collection of scouts. Some who are excited about attending and some who are apprehensive; some who go with the flow, some who can’t get enough, and then some, who would rather be at home watching some science fiction movie.
The year is not important, but one year I had a Scout who just kind of blended in and did what he needed to do. Kind of quiet at times, shy and reserved. It came about Wednesday or Thursday of the week and he became homesick and wanted to go home. We did what we usually do with home sick kids, we help them get involved in the program and see the FUN of camp, as opposed to what they might be missing at home. That was working most of the time, but at times, he would resort back to his tent and feel sorry for himself as every homesick scout does. When it was time for the annual pictures of the Troop, this scout was missing, only to find him in his tent; having one of those “feel sorry for me” days. His dad, myself and others tried to get him to participate, but he was not going to buy into it, so he was left out of the pictures. He survived the rest of the week with his up and down moments.
He really enjoyed the year round Scouting program, rarely missing an event or activity. Summer camp came around again and he decided to go again, similar situation, he was home sick. Each year, he seemed to miss out on the pictures. This went on for two or three years and then he finally made it through the week and in the pictures.
Now a few years pass and this scout became a leader in the Troop. He enjoyed it for the most part. He now found himself as a leader consoling other homesick scouts. More years passed and guess what, he signed up to be a staff member at camp working in the Eco Con program area, something he enjoyed for several years. A few years later, while attending college he met a girl he really liked, maybe because it was the first girl who liked frogs as much as he did, I am not sure. They did things together and including environmental things, matter fact, they met on one of these events. Time passed and this scout still needed a job in the summer and he once again worked at Lyle, this time as a program direction. A job that put him in a position of helping hire a staff of qualified people for the many scouting skills areas, one of his favorite staff people was his girlfriend who would now work in Eco Con as he did. He had told her how fun Lyle was and encouraged her to join him for the summer to work at camp. I am not sure how much he had to convince her, but they both spent the summer at Lyle. She soon learned the magic of camp and became attached to the place as well, but how attached?
Well after they left camp and a little while later, this scout proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted. During the engagement, they discussed many items of the wedding; they wanted it to be a special event in a special place. Many places came to mind. Local halls, special places they had been and then a suggestion came about Lyle. At first, they were not sure about it, seeing Lyle is a pretty rustic place, not typically a place for high heels, dresses and suit coats. After much consideration, they determined that Lyle in-deed was the special place they had been looking for, and they would do their best to make it suitable for a wedding. So in the summer of 2009, Jerry Stoecklein and Stacey Feldman were married in the Brother Patrick Memorial Chapel in the pines at camp with white linens on the benches and lace bows tied in the trees. They held their reception in the dinning pavilion with decked out tables and a catered dinner. Their honeymoon suite was a tent pitched out in the OA ceremony site. As part of the wedding, instead of doing a unity candle, the two took soil from their hometowns and planted a tree to show their union..
Is camp a special place, it truly is. We may not know it by what we do with the scouts, but how they will use the skills they learn at camp. Not many will think it is special enough to be wed there, but I am sure many will use the skills demonstrated at camp. It’s not about the environmental science merit badge, or the leatherwork badge but it will be about how they grow as a person. They learn their first lessons as a team player, a leader, and independence by using the patrol method at camp. They learn to be compassionate to others, to help each other grow to be better people. They learn the value of the Scout Oath and Law in action and modeled by their peers and leaders. Most of them learned this all, without it feeling like another class, lecture or memorization. At camp, they learn it by doing it, living it and leading others to do it. No so much for a check mark for a badge, not because they were told they had to, but because they know it makes them a better person. They were excited to be challenged to do so, and they will use these skills the rest of their life with their families.
So do you I wonder if camp had a special meaning to the scouts? I am not sure, but for Jerry, I am pretty sure it did, not only to Jerry but those who surrounded Jerry, including his family and his bride. Camp is a special place, a place special to a lot of people, maybe not to the extent of getting married there, but for the lessons they learned there. I run into alumni of the troop all the time, and almost without fail, when stories are being told, there is always one or more about Lyle. Camp is a special place in the eyes of our youth and our adults. We have all grown from those experiences at camp. Camp may only last one week a year on the property up north, but it lives year round and even a life time, in the hearts of its participants. Camp and Scouting are special to all who participate in the program.
Tim Falendysz
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