Encampment Rain, Rain, Go Away

This post took a little bit longer to write than I had anticipated, but I’ve been working on some time consuming projects not to mention running two troop levels!  But much earlier in the year I stated I wanted to write more about our troop and our adventures, so here we go.

For the past few years, our service unit held our encampment at Camp Pisgah, which is part of the Peaks to Piedmont council.  Our encampments are well attended, so we normally take up the entire camp and that makes it hard to get one scheduled.  We hadn’t held one at our home camp called WaBak since 2013, so we tried once again and was able to land a date this past May.  We were all very excited to be able to come back “home.”

We didn’t have a theme for this year’s Encampment, so each troop was in charge of planning their own activities.  I am usually a procrastinator, but I was so excited that I planned our weekend two months ahead of time!  And even included a schedule!  Additionally, I put together a list of activities for our service unit that can be done at WaBak.  I was PUMPED! 

About a week prior, I made the mistake of looking at the weather.  It called for rain.  Think positive thoughts, everyone said!  It’s early, so don’t worry about it!  But a good portion of the planned activities were outdoor based.  Would I have to create a whole new schedule in case it rained?  I checked five days prior.  Rain.  Three days prior.  Rain.  The day before?  Rain, on and off.  No worries, I told myself.  We can be flexible and it’ll all work out!

Just kidding.  I was more like this:

The day to leave for WaBak arrived, and I had absolutely no idea what we would do if it rained.  There were some activities we were doing in the porch of our unit, but the vast majority of the badges we were earning involved the outdoors, including a service project that our service unit was doing for WaBak.  The Cadettes had planned an event for our Brownies for the Field Day badge.  My brain melted down.  You’d think after nine years of being a leader that I’d roll with the punches a lot easier by this point in time.  Nope.

It started raining.  That night, my Cadette and Brownie co-leader all sat down with my schedule and started reworking it with some if/then scenarios.   We had a plan!  Kinda!  If you know me well, even as goofy and ADHD as I seem on the outside, I have a touch of OCD and I stress about the unknown.  Not to mention, we only had a few steps left to complete for a few badges but no follow up meeting dates to finish them if we didn’t get them done during Encampment weekend.

I won’t bore you with the details and how stressed I was at times, but instead I’ll show you how it turned out – which was great.  We got everything done, of course.  For the most part.  And everyone had fun in spite of the rain, which was the most important thing of all.

First was the project that our service unit got together to do for WaBak.  There were three total, and our troop, along with some others, was assigned to clean up the flowerbeds around the Yates Lodge and spread mulch.  I have to say I was amazed at how the girls of all ages went to work in the mostly steady rain to pull up weeds and plant irises that I brought from my house.  I had a ton that needed dividing so I brought plenty.  And they topped it all off with a fresh bed of mulch.

Two other groups planted rose bushes and spread mulch in front of the admin building and also in front of the basketball court.  We were all very proud of the work our service unit put into these projects, and the girls were excited about doing more of them in the future.

It rained on and off all day – sometimes in heavy bursts and other times in light drizzle.  It would stop long enough for us to run out and do a few activities and then reconvene back to our camp unit’s porch for others when the rains returned.  All in all, we finished earning the Cabin Camper and Hiking badge for the Brownies and worked on our Night Owl, Trailblazing, and Field Day badges for the Cadettes.

Another troop sponsored a swap event for everyone to stop by and make a few – and there was a special guest!

All of the troops gathered that evening for a campfire, and we got about a few songs into it …

…when the bottom dropped out and everyone ran for cover.  Our Brownie co-leader had driven her minivan to the amphitheater due to her arthritis, so we all just piled in until the rain slacked off:

The next morning, we woke up to a beautiful day and the sun shining.  Everyone else for the most part packed up and left, but we had our Field Day activities to do!  The Cadettes planned out games including playing a match of Quidditch, launching catapults, hitting targets, and running an obstacle course.

And of course, we ended the weekend with a closing ceremony.  Cue the Olympic theme!

Like the Peruvian Brownie Quest LiA weekend, this was one of my favorite troop events I’ve been involved with in my nine years as a leader.  I’m not going to say it went off without a hitch, like some of the Brownies getting stuck in a bog by the lake (don’t ask), but all in all, it was a great experience.

And then I came home and collapsed in bed.