Catholic Camporee is, as the name suggests, a Catholic Campout. In the Archdiocese of Cincinnatti, the Catholic Camporee also provides an opportunity to practice scouting skills. This year, the Catholic Camporee took place at Maria Stein Shrine, home to one of the largest relic collections in the US. On Friday night, we said Night Prayer as a large group at the Cross island.
Saturday Morning
Before breakfast on Saturday morning, we said Morning Prayer in our Campsite. Then, after breakfast, we went and earned the St. Maximilian Kolbe patch before going to the relics chapel and church and getting a tour. Here are some of the cool things we saw at the relics chapel and adjoining church:
High Winds, First Aid, Knots, and Fire
After lunch, we ran into some extremely high winds. After making sure our tents were secure (the one in the picture that is being destroyed is the only one we lost), we did the first aid challenge, which consisted of creating a hypothermia burrito wrap. After that, we continued securing tents and cleaning up from lunch before going to the firebuilding and knots challenges, as well as the second first aid challenge.
The firebuilding challenges consisted of attempting to light a fire in two different ways without matches or a lighter in under 10 minutes and lighting a match stuck upright in a piece of wood with a sharp hatchet.
The knots challenge consisted of showing that we could tie a large variety of knots (chosen beforehand).
The second first aid challenge was to tie an ankle bandage around their own ankle (everyone in the patrol had to try).
Saturday evening and Sunday morning
After the challenges finished, we prepared our meal for a potluck dinner. After dinner, we went back to the chapel and said evening prayer before celebrating Mass. After Mass, most of the troops left due to the high winds, but we stayed, along with one other troop. Then, we went to cracker barrel, said night prayer, and finally retired for the night. The next morning, we ate breakfast, and said morning prayer as a group before breaking camp.
Troop 85 