This year troop members attended summer camp for a week at Camp Bowman in Goshen, VA, Camp Bowman is part of the Goshen Scout Camps, the largest Boy Scout reservation east of the Mississippi River.

Camp Bowman provided a unique opportunity for these scouts to experience advancement, fellowship, fun and competition in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley.

Advancement is the focal point of all scouting summer camps, and this week was no exception. A total of 56 merit badges were earned by troop members. These included such merit badges as camping, pioneering, swimming, lifesaving, canoeing, and rowing.

There were eight Scouts who completed the requirements to advance in rank while at the summer camp. Jeff Calvert, Wes Doty, Philip McCoy, Michael Mealey and Ben Roberts advanced from scout to tenderfoot; Marcus Denton, James Griggs and Keegan Pavlovic advanced from second class to first class.

Camp Bowman provides an exceptional method for promoting fellowship among the scouts -- Patrol Cooking. The scouts are required to cook all of their (and their adult leaders) meals over open wood fires and to clean all of their dishes with water heated from the same fires.

Breakfast menus provided the challenge of cooking pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs, sausage and hash browns. Dinner menus were no less challenging and included such dishes as baked macaroni and cheese, barbecue chicken, spaghetti with meat sauce and peach cobbler.

Summer camp was not limited to advancement and cooking. The scouts participated in such activities as daily swimming and boating, a troop rifle shoot, an evening plunge via the camp rope swing, a pre-breakfast swim in the lake and, of course, the always popular trip to the Trading Post for snacks and sodas.

Fishing and tubing exercises were also popular. One of the highlight activities was the rugged hike to Viewing Rock, which provided a panoramic view of the entire Goshen Scout Camps Reservation.

The fun didn't end there, however, not with 200 other scouts representing 10 different scout troops, to provide spirited scouting competition. A daily inter-troop competition was held based on the inspection of scout campsites for cleanliness and order. Maintaining a clean and orderly campsite is no small feat for any scouting-age boy, ask any parent!

The winning troop for each day was announced to the entire camp at the camp assembly that evening. At the end of the week Troop 129 was recognized as Honor Troop of the Week, as the overall champion for the campsite and scout spirit competition.

The week's highlight competition was a campwide scavenger hunt. This turned out to be a very challenging event for these boys from Oak Ridge and Clinton. Some of the harder items to find included anything Redskins, anything Orioles, a live fish, a left handed smoke shifter and the body of Jimmy Hoffa. Troop 129 rose to meet this "scavenging" challenge and placed first in the campwide event.

Troop 129 is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oak Ridge and meets every Monday evening from 7-8:45 at First Baptist Church, corner of Lafayette Drive and Oak Ridge Turnpike. Boys are 11 and up are invited to join the troop.

Jim McCauley is assistant scout master of Troop 129.