By Cyril M., Troop 73
Troop 73 Westfield completed its third week of virtual camp Saturday, July 11, 2020.
In the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, many long standing activities have been cancelled, postponed, or significantly altered. One such event is Camp Winnebago.
Camp Winnebago, in Rockaway, NJ, had planned its own safety precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. Unfortunately due to these measures, merit badges would not have been offered at the camp. Because of this, Troop 73 came to run its own merit badge and rank advancement camp virtually via Zoom.
Through the combined effort of a group of adult leaders as well as outgoing Senior Patrol Leader Andrew C. and newly elected Senior Patrol Leader Christian E., the camp was put together and run.
A group of adults and a handful of scouts help teach the classes. Andrew and Christian worked together to admit participants into Zoom meetings and assign them to breakout rooms in which their classes were taught.
There were two major sections of classes: merit badges and Dan Beard. The following merit badges were offered: American Labor, Citizenship in the Nation, Communication, Cooking, Cycling, Emergency Preparedness, Energy, Environmental Science, Genealogy, Journalism, Scholarship, Signs Signals and Codes, and Space Exploration were taught by Merit Badge Counselors, mostly from Troop 73.
Counselors were: Jim Agar, Mitch Erickson, Christian Estevez Sr., Glenn Fannick, Steve McCabe, Christine O’Brien and Dr. Josesh Scalia.
In order to maintain “Two Deep” leadership a second adult leader sat in on all meetings. The second portion of the camp, Dan Beard, is a lesser known part of Boy Scout camps to those not very familiar with Boy Scouts.
It is a program that teaches newer and generally younger scouts a pantheon of skills that help the scouts gain the early ranks of Boy Scouts (Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class). Christian lead a group of other senior scouts in preparing and teaching the classes for younger scouts.
Lastly Troop activities and games have been held every other day at 4 p.m. These games have been used to keep a sense of Troop unity and fellowship during these troubling times.