Braving the Cold at Pathfinders Camporee
This weekend was the Arizona Conference‘s Pathfinder Camporee at lovely Estrella State Park just west of Phoenix. The Tempe SDA Church‘s newly re-instated Pathfinder club had the opportunity to attend, even though we currently have only four Pathfinders. Perhaps it is because I am a Marine Corps brat and participated in Junior ROTC all four years of high school (going on to be my unit’s corps commander and leading our competition colorguards and drill teams to numerous wins), but I was sorely disappointed in the organization, communication, and presentation of the Pathfinder Camporee. It seems so lacksidasical, thrown together, disorganized. Not all, but many of the other clubs-despite their matching field uniforms and tents-were overly rambunctious, disobedient, discourtesy, and little adult supervision. The presentations left much to be desired: the Friday night message and Sabbath morning sermon felt like self-serving ramblings with a few Scriptures thrown in. Considering two of our Pathfinders come from families who are not regular church attendees, I was expecting heart-pricking spiritual messages that could help guide these youth into a deeper understanding of Christ and the Gospel. Without substance to the messages, it was very hard to encourage our group to suffer through bitter cold and bone-chilling wind to stay. After a postponement, we decided to skip Saturday night vespers and do our own worship at our campsite.
Fortunately, we have a good group of leaders. We had our club gather around to pray, sing praise songs, do devotionals, and play a Bible game. Sabbath afternoon, my fiance and I took the Pathfinders to the park’s Nature Center, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The center had snakes, scorpions, spiders, and a desert tortoise to view and the pelts and skull replicas of various desert animals on display to touch. They learned that the Roadrunner can run up with 17 mph, the Mountain Lion can leapt 23 feet, and Desert Tortoises are known to live between 60 and 80 years. We also took them outside to enjoy uncovering fake bones and artifacts from a sandy area. After making a pit spot at our camp for snacks and to refill our water bottles, we took the Pathfinders are a nice hike up into the Estrella Mountains. My fiance would point of certain desert plants to the girls as we went along. It was a lovely time that they thoroughly enjoyed. That evening the fire ban was lifted so we were able to roast vegan marshmellows and get warm.
Speaking of warmth, after the sun set, the temperatures dropped into the 30s and there was a strong wind. It was freezing and hard to stay warm. We put tarps under the tents and over some tents to keep the cold out. I shared a large tent with all four Pathfinders, and we had to pile on the blankets and even gave them pocket warms to put in their sleeping bags. Friday night was not as cold as Saturday night. I created my own little cocoon of warmth in my sleeping bag that did me well unless I moved, and even with an air mattress it was hard to get comfortable. But in spite of the cold, we had a fun time. Sunday morning before sunrise, we were serenaded by a decent number of coyotes yipping and howling back and forth on the mountains around us. It was quite beautiful.
It was not all bad. Somehow the strap on my purse/bag snapped while walking to or from one of the meetings, and since I was wearing so many layers to stay warm, I did not even notice when my purse/bag fell. Inside was my driver’s license, cellphone, and a little bit of cash. Someone from another club found it and brought it over. There were plenty of nice, godly people at the camporee, and I could see how it once was and still could be a fantastic event. Sunday after the relay races they had the drill, which basically was what we called Individual Drill Regulation (or IDR) in JROTC. Everyone who wants to participates lines up, a commander gives various valid and invalid commands, if you make a mistake you are out, and the last Pathfinder standing wins. I took the girls to watch since I am teaching them to drill and, again, was a sorely disappointed. The drilling Pathfinders were so sloppy in their movements, looking around, smiling, laughing, performing moves wrong, etc. and the judges seemed to be blind to a lot of it. There was one boy who kept his hands in his sweater pockets the entire time and he was not tapped out. And the lines… They did not have the Pathfinders to dress-right-dress to get proper spacing so after just a few commands, I was afraid some of the kids were going to hit each other. This was definitely NOT Junior ROTC. And there was no boundary markers so observers kept crowding in closer and closer. Outwardly, I was smiling and trying to tell my Pathfinders that next time they will know all of the commands and be able to participate. Inwardly, I was cringing at the disorganization and unprofessionalism. That was not drill. I am teaching our club the proper way to drill.
I feel like I am complaining too much, but I am merely sharing my observations. Overall, it was a nice experience for our club, but it was made so through our efforts. If we had not as an individual club done our own activities to make it fun and spiritually educational for our Pathfinders, I am afraid half of our group would have dropped out of Pathfinders completely after this trip. Our girls did a great job camping: they had practiced setting up the tents before and were able to set them up like pros. They also did a great job helping out with the various camp duties. When we parted ways Sunday, they were all smilies. So the conference-wide camporee was a disappointment from an organizational and presentational viewpoint, but a worthwhile camping trip for our club and Pathfinders.