Hey ScouterStan, let’s talk a little bit about helping scouts face fears of going outdoors or camping. Now this issue came up on the YouTube channel where we actually had a viewer put in a really disturbing story about a scout who was frightened at camp by a storm and could not complete the camping experience. Turned out to be rather bad for the scout and that’s disturbing and disruptive to everyone involved. Understanding fear is a huge thing for new scouts coming into a troop. They were in Cub Scouts and it was all adult leader-led and now they’re in a youth-led troop and they’re brand new. They’ve never had any real troop camping experience. And there are a lot of common fears with young people going camping for the first time. This could be anything from being afraid of the dark or the wildlife that they may encounter or see or hear, but one of the big ones is being away from home for the first time. Now these fears can vary depending on the age of the scout.
This may not always be true, but usually, the older scouts have different anxiety and different experiences that they avoid. Adult leaders must create a safe and supportive environment. Now often at long-term camping, this is done as a team because we need to maintain 2 deep leadership at all times. This welcoming environment that needs to be created could be a well-lit area, say a pavilion or canopy of some sort where the adult leaders can focus on creating a friendly setting where a scout wouldn’t be intimidated to express their fears or concerns. Adults need to model a calm and positive environment. In the past, a video and podcast were published dealing with homesickness and I would highly recommend looking through the catalog and finding that episode about homesickness.
Now there are things we could do such as pre-camping preparation of the scouts that are brand new to the troop. It has been suggested that brand-new scouts need to go through some campouts, small overnight, and two-day campouts before they make a commitment for an entire week at summer camp. These new scouts can have these experiences. The preparation can be very simple. They could be something like a sleepover at the church that the charters with. They could be fun adventures, say a sleepover or a campout one-day campout at the zoo. One thing they might be encouraged to do is to check out a tent from the troop and set the tent up in their backyard. Learning how to put up the tent correctly and flashlight use and being so close to home. This gives them a little bit of preparation for the actual outdoor adventure.
The adult leadership should always be available to listen to any type of concerns. Listening and receiving that information is very critical to understanding what the concerns are, and this will help minimize their fear. Listening to the Scout and their concerns that are being expressed and then repeating it back to the scout so they can hear what they just said and either confirm or clarify what they’re saying. This type of communication is critical.
The more experienced Scoutmasters should mentor and help new adult leaders balance their empathy with building reliance. Another critical thing is empowering the youth with knowledge. It is suggested that adult leaders go with the youth on sort of a campsite inspection and look over their tent, look over the surroundings around where they are planning on staying for a week, and of course maybe even go on a nature walk of the nearby area. On that nature walk, they can do a lot of instructional information about the local wildlife and the basic environment, where first aid is in camp, where the dining hall is. Navigating around their area and understanding where things are, can give the youth a sense of control or knowledge about their environment and decrease their anxieties. The adult leaders might have a small meeting with the youth leadership and suggest that they develop some roles and assign scouts certain things like fire safety and camp setup. This builds a tremendous amount of confidence in the youth leadership. Now there are a lot of activities that can be done to help gradually get the new scouts up to speed on camping. Our goal here is to make sure that they have a positive and productive experience in a very low pressured way so that they can enjoy the great outdoors.
There’s a way that Scout leaders can leverage some of the peer support, staying within the youth protection guidelines. They could pair up slightly older Scouts who have more experience in camping with those who have less, and they can be the eyes and ears of problems that may come up. We also need to have some kind of buddy system that’s always in place from the car to camp to the car. There needs to be a buddy system and regular head counts of everyone. I once had a leader at summer camp ask to “raise your hand if you’re lost”. Only the adults raised their hands.
Now once this is been their experience and they had a great time, it’s critical to get some feedback after camp. Reflections are absolutely important. Most troops will have a patrol leader’s council (PLC) instead of a regular meeting once they come back from camp. That patrol leaders meeting should go over a lot of the pros and cons. The Start, Stop, Continue… Thorns and Roses… whatever! There is all of the feedback that comes back from camping. A lot of feedback happens as a discussion on the journey back home. That information needs to be conveyed to the youth leadership so that they can take action. Constant improvements and constant upgrades can make a difference in a lot of the experiences that are happening at camp. We must have this in scouting. Most youth are not used to going outdoors in this time and age. They go directly from home to the school and back home and they never leave until the next morning. They never go outside. They never experience all of the wonders of what’s out there on the trail, the gorgeous vistas and views that are seen, the night camping, looking up at the stars, and the nice campfire. Some of the best memories that adults have are of camping. I find it incredibly sad that if a youth today had no experience in the great outdoors, I highly encourage doing everything you can so that new scouts coming in, get a good experience with camping. Because camping leads to canoeing, and that leads to hiking, and so on. There’s so much adventure out there. There are high adventure areas that are absolutely… breathtakingly beautiful and it would be a shame if they missed it. I’m thankful that we have adult Scout leaders who dedicate so much time to their scouts. I’m so proud of you and pleased to be among you, and I hope to see you on the trail.
