
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704180239

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:  107 lines

BOY SCOUTS PULL OFF CAMPOREE ON THEIR OWN LED BY A TEEN-AGE TRIUMVIRATE, WEEKEND AT FENTRESS FOCUSED ON TEAMWORK, FELLOWSHIP, FRIENDLY COMPETITION.

DESPITE A RAINY weekend, Boy Scouts from the Elizabeth River District of Tidewater Council gathered in the woods near the Naval Auxiliary Landing Field at Fentress in Chesapeake last weekend for a camporee filled with campfire-cooked baked beans and dogs, fellowship and friendly competition.

The event was masterminded by a triumvirate of local Boy Scouts.

Glen Adams, a 16-year-old Eagle Scout from Troop 6, was the event's campmaster - meaning he called the shots at a gathering that brought together 13 troops and nearly 170 young men and adult volunteers.

He was assisted by ``right-hand man'' Kyle Olcott, 13, of Troop 57, and ``left-hand man'' Ryan Thomas Kennedy, 17, of Troop 55.

``The adults used to do 'em,'' explained Adams, sporting a young moustache and a black Notre Dame ball cap. ``But now we do. This is a youth organization. From here on out, the Scouts are going to plan these things.''

Camporees are held twice a year. This one was the second organized by Scouts for Scouts, and it had a theme: teamwork.

The airfield's fire team showed the young men how they work together to handle emergencies. Troops competed in a confidence course, featuring a rope spider-web, which a team from each troop had to conquer.

An evening ceremony welcomed new members into the Order of the Arrow, an honor camper society. A bonfire blazed in memory of Charles A. Lloyd, a recently deceased Order member and friend to local Scouting. Members of the Order are selected by other Boy Scouts, then inducted in a secret ceremony.

Automobile-minded Scouts competed in a pit-crew competition, where they wrestled against a stop watch and an ancient Oldsmobile station wagon. As Boy Scout District Commissioner Larry Ashby noted, ``They were swapping out tires like a NASCAR pit crew.''

Ashby, 57, wore a white beard and a handle-bar moustache as he minded the trading-post tent. Inside the blue tarp-covered structure were coolers filled with canned sodas, plastic jars filled with nickel-candy and brown-paper grab bags stuffed with patches and Scouting-related accessories, $1 per bag.

Ashby, an ex-Marine, got involved in scouting for his son Benjamin, who lives in Great Bridge with his own family.

``He's 28 now,'' said Ashby, ``but I'm still here.''

Other moms and dads mingled with the Boy Scouts in camp areas while campfires blazed Saturday afternoon.

Young Boy Scouts tossed pine cones at each other across a small stream winding around the campground.

Ben Harris, the 15-year-old senior patrol leader for Troop 6, minded a grill with assorted troop parents.

Tyler Dean, 12, and William W. Rode, 14, added wood to another Troop 6 campfire. A few feet from the fire, 12-year-old Buddy D. Beyer played with a small frog he had found, then transplanted to a temporary home in an empty coffee can.

According to Harris, who started his career in Boy Scouts of America as a Tiger Cub when he was 6, the camporee experience was ``cooking and competing'' in events designed to foster friendly competition.

One such competition was called ``gateway building.''

Each troop's campground had a gateway - the point of entry from the dirt path into troop territory. Structural complexity varied from gate to gate and one-upsmanship was the name of the game for some troops.

Members of Troop 460 from Portlock built a turnstile from branches and rope. A branch the height of a man stretched from a coffee can buried in the earth to a branch suspended by other branches, which bore a wood plank with ``DO A GOOD TURN DAILY'' scrawled on it in pencil. At waist-height, four branches were lashed to the center-branch in an X, and this structure formed the turnstile.

``The Boy Scout slogan is `Do a good turn daily,' '' explained Joseph Daugherty, 12, of South Norfolk. ``So we made a turnstile.''

Troop 48's gateway was a giant see-saw, guarded by a torch on either side and ``Joe Schmoe,'' a Frankenstein's monster-like troop mascot built from panty hose packed with Styrofoam and with a rolled towel for a head.

To gain entry to the troop's campground, the gateway needed to be in the ``saw'' position, explained Scott Kuhn, 14. What if the gateway was at the ``see'' position, and nobody was on the other side to push it down?

Out of luck.

``If you want to get in you have to have somebody push it down,'' said Will Nelson, 13.

Nearby, Stan Ellefson, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 888, watched members of his troop build a bridge across a shallow section of the drainage ditch.

``They're having the most fun when they're dirty and wet,'' he said as the Scouts jumped up and down on the bridge, checking its sturdiness.

Jason E. Ellefson, the 14-year-old son of Stan Ellefson, jumped up and down on the concoction of discarded boards and a half-hour of sweat by members of Troops 824 and 888. He was joined by Michael J. McNamara, 13, Will Constantine, 13, Josh Pickens, 12, and Kyle Chavers.

Their sneaker-driven hammering was merciless.

``Real sturdy,'' assessed the young Ellefson when the jumping ceased.

``Holds lots of us, too,'' said McNamara. ``It's pretty cool.''

Churning, see-sawing gateways, spur-of-the-moment bridges and coolness - on this self-made Boy Scout weekend, they were the products of teamwork. ILLUSTRATION: Photos including cover by JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE

Troop 48's gateway was a giant see-saw. To gain entry to the troop's

campground, the gateway needed to be in the ``saw'' position. ``If

you want to get in you have to have somebody push it down,''

explained Will Nelson, 13.

Brian G. Sleeper, 13, of Troop 48 checks out ``Joe Schmoe,'' a

mascot built from panty hose, Styrofoam and a rolled towel for a

head.

Joseph Daugherty, 12, and Jacob Rose, 12, maneuver Troop 460's

gateway, a turnstile built of branches and rope with a wood-plank

sign that read: ``DO A GOOD TURN DAILY.''