A Cool Camp

I received an e-mail this morning from a gentleman living in Georgia.  His last name was Parsons and he mentioned that he was surprised that there was a Camp Parsons which he read about in the new edition of Scouting Magazine and were there any patches from the camp that he could purchase.  I went to the Scouting Magazine website and sure enough, there was Camp Parsons listed in the "Guide to Cool Camps."  The picture you see here is the picture associated with that listing.  I thought that was great.

I remember now that we had a photographer from Scouting Magazine visit us for a day last year.  I think I also remember that he was there as part of a story that was to be written on scout camps and Camp Parsons was one of the camps to be mentioned.  However much like the photographers for Boys Life or the Merit Badge books you quickly forget about it after the photographer leaves only to be reminded once again when a picture pops up in some publication.  That was the case for the new Boy Scout handbook.  When I saw the new edition and quickly went through it, I had to stop when I came to a certain page.  There in the photos were a handful of my staff portrayed as scouts learning ecology/conservation or scoutcraft skills.  As a matter of fact, there were several photos of the guys throughout the book.  Then I remembered the day a few years ago when the national office sent photographers out to take pictures and we assembled a handful of our younger staff to go off with them to various places in camp to do photo shoots.  It seems CP is becoming a bit of a scouting media darling.

I spent a fair amount of time with the Scouting Magazine photographer the day he was at camp.  Although I was not with him for the photo you see above, I had him out on the boat for the pier jump and then we spent about an hour out towards Puali Point taking photos of eagles perched on trees or flying off the trees.  The guy must have taken a gazillion photos (if that is a number) that day, it is interesting he or the magazine picked this one, though I must admit that it does capture just about everything that is Camp Parsons.  You have the pier filled with scouts, you have the pier sign that proudly shows the Camp Parsons logo, name and council (thank you Alex), you have the American flag waving proudly, you have scouts in canoes as they participate in the Hullabaloo race, you have the boathouse with its Indian killer whale design (thanks Sam), you have blue skies and the mountains in the background.  That is CP in a picture!  However like any other photo, it can be too revealing.  You have a scout sitting up on the top handrail of the pier, a big no-no (tish, tish beach crew) and of course, God love Finn Thorsell, but why is he wearing that blue, suede "pimp" hat?  I know, it was Hullabaloo and the scouts love the eclectic (if they know what that means) and it is all in good fun.

I must admit, they selected a good photo and I am happy with the little snippet that the magazine wrote which captures our program in a snapshot.  I just wish that all the photographers that come out from the BSA would send up all the other photos they took; they may not use them, but we could.