Happy 100th BSA!

Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, and this year they are celebrating 100 years. To celebrate, our BSA council here is SoCal had a huge celebration, a camp out and party for the whole family. It was held at the Glen Helen regional Park in San Bernardino, and there was an estimated 5000 scouts and their families there! What I liked is that we camped on the grass (no dirt!) and that the boys bathrooms were terribly crowded but there was no waiting in the girls' bathroom. When does that ever happen? The boys actually went with their troop, so it was fun for me to tag along and see what exactly they do on a scout camp out. OK, so I was the only female in our group, but that is the story of my life, isn't it?

The next morning we started our day at the opening ceremonies. There were a LOT of people there!
For part of the ceremony they had 100 cub and boys scouts march in with 100 flags in honor of the 100 years of scouting. It was pretty cool.

The first order of business for the day was the marbles tournament. Now, this was not just any old marbles tournament, this was a world record marbles tournament. They were attempting to break the Guinness world record for the most number of contestants in a marbles tournament. The previous record was 600+ people, but today their goal was 900 players! OF course the kids were all excited to be a part of setting world record!

In fact that morning, Derek announced that if he ended up winning the tournament, we would HAVE TO buy the Guinness World Record book. I told him that if he actually won and his mane was in the book, then of course I would get it for him, but I also told him not to get his hopes up with 900 contestants his chances of winning were slim. Good old Derek. Always dreaming.

So they all participated; 300 kids at a time, for to a "table."

By 10am it was already pretty warm, but that was easily fixed for Dennis, Luke and I with snow cones while the guys sweated over their marble matches. Hey, not all of us can break world records.
Caleb and Derek had to wait a few rounds before they had to play again, so we decided to check out some of the fun going on, like this traveling wild animal exhibit. The kids thought it was cool to get up close and personal to some real (albeit dead and stuffed) animals.

There was also a petting zoo with some live, however, not wild, animals.

There was also a traveling Boy Scout museum which had some really cool stuff from scouting around the world.

They let the kids touch the stuff, which surprised me, but that also made it much more fun.

There were also several race cars and vintage cars on display.

Finally it was time for the next round of marbles. Caleb got out, but Derek hung in there and won!

Then they were down to only 20 players. Again, Derek won the round, putting him in the top 5! This is where things got serious. They needed eight people to play in the quarter finals, so they picked up 3 more from those who lost the last round, then we all headed over to a special gaming area set up for the championships on real tables.

At this level of competition, the games are played one on one on special game tables. Derek easily beat his competition in the quarterfinal round, but then in the semi-finals, after a very close game (they were both down to their last marble, Derek lost.) So close! So Derek ended up coming in 3rd place out of over 800 participants. Of course, the part he liked best was that they gave him some marble game stuff as a prize.

And, of course, I promised him that we would buy him the Guinness book anyway.

I was completely shocked that Derek did so well. I didn't even know that he even knew how to play marbles! When I told him how surprised I was he said, "Mom, I did get the marbles belt loop, you know." Yeah, but so did probably half the kids there.

Derek is just one great kid.

Because Derek took so long with the marbles tournament, he missed our time slot at the water park there, so while all the boys were swimming, Derek and I did a bunch of other activities and games that were there. He learned about nature, played games like team maze, and built structures with mini marshmallows an uncooked spaghetti.

There were so many activities to do there that I would not be surprised if they had 100 activities to celebrate 100 years. There was canoeing, swimming, shooting, archery, rock climbing, obstacle courses, and every kind of game you can think of! The National Guard was there with their vehicles and such. You name it, and you could do it here. The best part about it was that everything was open to everybody, scouts, parents, siblings. They had a special, limited edition leather patch that you could get if you participated in several different activities. Caleb was so excited because he earned 3 different patches that day, and he isn't even a scout yet.

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There was even a recruiting tent for the Continental Army. A few of my boys signed over two years of their life to Washington's Army, in return for a twenty dollar note signed by George Washington himself. We wish them well.

A favorite activity for the whole troop was the trebuchet range. A trebuchet is kinda like a catapult. The boys were taught how to use it, and were told that if they could knock over a water bottle set about 30 feet away, then they would be in a drawing to keep one of those trebuchets. They all worked together for a long time trying to get it. They never did. I think they needed Derek's luck.

Derek finally made it over, but he only got to try a few times before it was closing time. I'm sure with a bit more time he would have done it. Oh well.

We all had a great time. I'm glad I got to come and spend a bit of time with my boys and share a bit in some of the great stuff they get to do in scouts, stuff that they might never otherwise get to try.

Happy 100th BSA!