Over the weekend The Prem Cub Scouts went on an amazing campout at Mork Fah National Park. This adventure was only possible due to the endless patience, energy and enthusiasm of our Den Leader ,Todd Gelinas. Below he gives an overview of the fun and activities enjoyed by the scouts and accompanying parents. We would like to add our heartfelt thanks to him for the enormous amount of work needed to organise such a successful community activity.

“Thank you to everyone who made this our most successful Scout campout ever:

Rachel and Justin for support including early release.  Khun Aey for coordinating with the Thai National Park service.  Jun and Jimmy for coordinating the Chinese and Thai parents, respectively.  Eric and Mike for introducing Hanniah and Cash; they were spectacular. My Hmong friends, Non and his brother, Chuapaa, for teaching primitive skills.  All the parents for participating, and Scouts for their hard work.

Summary:

• Early morning leader Mae Sa hike with Non and Chuapaa to locate and collect a specific species, age, size, and quality of bamboo for cooking rice. They would be join us later in the day.

• Families assembled at the site and set up with assistance from the park rangers. The kids played games and participated in team buildingexercises with Hanniah and Cash.

• We reviewed the Scout Oath and Law with Scouts, and discussed goals of the program with parents.

• We barbecued together, prepared bamboo sticky rice; the Scouts cleaned up; our Hmong friends built a campfire.  We sang a few songs andcooked our bamboo rice in the fire.

• First ever for our group: one of our Cub Scouts camped solo.

• After breakfast, Richard, Todd, Hanniah, and Cash taught the Scout Outdoor Code and Leave No Trace policy.

• We went for a hike, collected trash, observed nature, and played (and took a lot of photos) at the falls.

• We had a brief Bobcat awards ceremony for new Scouts.

Todd Gelinas

Den Leader