2021 Buddha's Light Annual Scout Group Camp
It is the year end again and time for our annual end of year Group Camp. This year we chose Bickley Outdoor Recreation Camp with its scenic back drop, sloping hills and close proximity.
Day 1 was a blessing with cloudy and mild weather conditions allowing all our Scouts (Joey to Scout) to complete their tent set up and enjoy the process without too much sweat (and stress). Also what was surprising is our Joey unit whom managed to escape from the "Knotty Witches" house before they turned into multi-eyed monster pets for the Witches. (Look closely into Joey pictures doing knots and you can see googly eyes all over them). To get out, they need to complete Reef Knot, Bowline and Clove Hitch to get through various obstacles. Gladly, they all escaped with no extra eyes.
Day 2 was abound with Bickley facilitated activities, Canoeing, Raft building, flying foxes, mountain bikings and hutt buildings. Tension was at times but it was all part of the plan to give youths a go at solving problems before the facilitators guided the youths to success!! Day 2 was also our Camp fire dinner night and as is tradition, we invited some very important people to Join us, Ven. MiaoBo from Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple Western Australia - 佛光山西澳道場, BLIWA President and Committee, Steve Hunt, Barb Hunt, Russell Parsons, Casey Jones from Scouts WA. We presented a donation to our Temple for allowing us free use of the temple as our Scout Hall, we also said thanks to our adults and presented scarfs to helpers who had been with us for 6 months or more. They are Alex Donald, Flrenze Iverson (Ishtar), Francine Tu and Emily Tey. THANK YOU for your time and efforts!
Finally it was capped off with our Campfire songs.
Day 3 was hot but spontaneous. There were impromptu campfire song singing and games. The youths once again amazed us on how quick they are to pack away the campsite and quicker to pack things back into the store after! The adult helpers were really good too at packing the whole camp into a small trailer (must have had years of Tetris training). There were some tears as youths left the camp, some cussed out on the trip home, most of them stinky but all of them went home with friendship bonds abound and growing bigger in character.
