Troop 54 traveled to Quincy, Massachusetts for the first ever Presidents Trail Camporee. All of the participants camped on a field at Merrymount Park. We had six youth and three adult participants at the event.
Each unit had three 4-hour activity blocks. For the first block (on Saturday), we hiked to Wollaston Beach with a stop on the way at Sailors Home Cemetery . We also stopped for ice cream at a convenience store.
For the second block (Sunday morning), we hiked the 5-mile Presidents Trail, visiting various historic locations associated with Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. We had two tour guides and a leader from the sponsoring troop in our group.
For the third block (Sunday afternoon), we helped to plant lots of trees in a park. On the hike back from the planting, we stopped at the location of the original Dunkin Donuts store.
Overall, the camporee had about 800-900 youth and adult participants. Together, we performed service projects around Quincy, planting 23,000 tulip bulbs and 100 trees. The camporee was organized by 108 registered staff, supported by 50 first responders. Our site gateway was the tallest at the camporee.
One evening show featured excellent patriotic performers – two fife and drums corps and the Singing Trooper. The other evening show was run like a summer camp show. That show started with a huge bonfire. The MC was a staffer from Camp Wanocksett. In some of the skits, the performers ended up getting soaked, with all of this taking place in cool temperatures, some rain and high winds; that got the laughs.
It was so windy that almost everything had to be attached to the ground to keep it in-place. Several other troops had tents and other gear blowing around or damaged by the wind.
This was our 190th consecutive month with at least one overnight camping trip.
Page updated 11/1/24
J. Froimson
