Susquehanna Council Link

Kyle Bryan wrote me and asked if I would post the Susquehanna Council web site. I wrote about the site a while back. It could use an update in some sections. I have placed a link at the right of the blog. Check it out!

Order of the Oar and Wooden Snipes

I remember when the word came down from Williamsport that we were no longer allowed to have Order of the Oar initiations. There was a fear that we might emotionally or mentally harm the Scouts who were selected.

If you look to the right of the pictures, you might catch a glimpse of Ed McCollin (sp). He was the Camp Director from 1982 to 1984 (maybe 1985). I still use many of the management skills that I learned from him. Ed was the first person to teach me 'plan your work then work your plan'. He had a large influence on my thinking and the way I have learned to relate to people.

These pictures are from 1982. Todd Smith was the Program Director. Dan Danaker was the first waterfront director for Faylor Lake. I was still working in the kitchen.

also in the pictures, you can see Alan Franz, Shawn Spock, Glen Courtney, and Jeff Feidler. Use the magnifier to get a closer look.

Get Your Own!

Eric Heberlig

Thanks to an e-mail from Jeff Jones, formerly of Lewisburg, I have an update on the Pirates pictured in an old post (http://camp-k.blogspot.com/2007/02/even-more-pirates.html).

Eric Heberlig is a Professor at UNC Charlotte. He is in Political Science and swapped his red pirate shirt for a red tie (I don't know what that means?).




















I e-mailed Eric and did get a response back. He has been teaching at UNC Charlotte for 7 years. He has married and he and his wife Tracy are planning on adopting a child in the near future. You can find information on Eric at the UNC-C site. Or check out his Curriculum Vitae!

It is always exciting to hear from scouting friends. Especially when they (like Eric) refer to their experiences in Scouting as "The Glory Days".

Jeff - Thanks for the lead on Eric. Eric - Thanks for replying and giving us an update. It was great to hear from both of you.

Red Candle Link

Added a link on the right to the Red Candle Story (since it is the most requested item). Hopefully this will make it easier for people looking for the story.

Scout Potraits - Part Four

JOSH BOWER

Josh Bower. Where to begin? He was part of the last group of staff members I worked with. His enthusiasm and energy was unmatched. He was ADHD personified. Like Tigger - bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. . .

He and Argus (previous post) were buds from Montoursville. Josh also spent lots of time with Jack Willliams, Kieth Yiako, and Chris Barsis.

Any updates on any of the m would be appreciated.

Scrapbook 1996

The Scrapbook is slowly coming together. I am not happy with the size or detail. I would like to be able to click on an image and have it blow up for closer scrutiny. For the meantime, I have placed each page in a Snapfish Album. If you would like access, e-mail me (kurteeck@gmail.com) and I will send you an invite in return.

Flip Book of 1996 Scrapbook

I am trying to get a flip book to work on the bottom of the blog. Zip down to it to see how it is working. I seem to have some difficulty with some of the pages.

Portriats - part three

The internet does not do the blue sky justice in this picture. The subject is Dave Barsis and he is sitting in the Lifeguard chair at the pool.BABY BARSIS

Scout Portraits - II

Argus was is from the Montoursville unit. He was a good friend of Josh Bowers. This picture was taken for part of a slide show. If I remember, the song for the slide show was "Where Eagles Fly" by Sammy Hagar. I don't believe that Argus ever served as a staff member.

"ARGUS"

Scout Portraits

Over the years I have spent at Camp Karoondinha, I took many pictures. They were often for slide shows. Some were for promotions. Others contribute to my scrapbooks and provide me with triggers for my many memories of Camp Karoondinha.

A few 'portrait' type pictures have been blown up used as 'art' in my home. I will share some of these pictures over the next weeks. First up - one cool Staff member -

"Zeph"

Big Towers for Thunderboomer

One of the best programs I was involved in after I returned from the Navy was Thunderboomer Girl Scout Camp. Thunderboomer was held at Camp Karoondinha after the end of regular scout camp.

A few select Boy Scout Staff Members had the chance to serve as staff members at the Girl Scout Camp. In this picture, Jack Williams and Eric Erdman have climbed into our tower. The male staff always kept a site on the far side of camp. The cooler the site, the better. It was a one week no-holds barred scoutfest. The Boy Scout Staff was responsible for a lot of the camp functions and we were always on the go.

More on the antics of Thunderboomer in the future.

Hi Steve! (G type)

Steve Geist and manual typewriters! I remember that Smith Corona. It used to be what we typed meal cost sheets on in the dining hall. Steve was the Steward in 1980 and Don Geise was the cook. Steve's enthusiasm that year is largely responsible for bringing me back to camp the following year and starting a 10 year run as a staff member.

Don Gensel

I received an e-mail from Kay Trick this morning.

Don Gensel, who has been in a nursing home since last September due to a stroke, passed away Saturday night.

Kay, and I as well, ask that you --

"Please keep Cathy and daughter Kendra, Cathy's son Richard and his family, and daughter Jolene and her family, in your prayers as this family goes through this most difficult time."

Catherine Gensel and Family
PO Box 272
New Berlin, PA 17855

Camp Kline and Red Cross Canoe Course

I wish I could get a date on these pictures. I know they are from Camp Kline and were taken at a Red Cross canoe course. I can tell it is Camp Kline because of the Dining Hall in the background. The Dining Hall is no longer in existence. It was falling apart and a few years ago it was leveled and the wood burned.

The large flat on Pine Creek in front of Camp Kline made it an ideal place to learn to canoe. The current is minimal. But you can paddle up-stream just a short distance and you are on the down side of the Ramsey Rapids. This gives new paddlers the opportunity to experience some basic white water skills in a low skill area. Camp Kline is still a good place for this. You jut have to bring your own canoes now.

I was surprised to see who I think is Stan Sieple in this picture. Just to the right of the man in the green jacket is who I think is Stan. I am almost positive that the man in the green jacket is Dave Haas. He was the Ranger at Camp Kline until he was basically driven off by Jerry O.

The Camp Kline High Adventure Base fell apart in the mid-eighties. Bill Hawkes, Dave McGinniss, Walt Nicholson, and other volunteers were basically undercut by the Council Board members from the southern end of the Council and by the professional staff. Now, with the Rails to Trails program coming through the valley, it is easy to see that the vision that these volunteers had, could have been realized. What a shame.

Check out the following web sites for information on the Pine Creek Valley and the Rails to Trail program --

Tioga County Visitors Bureau
TrailLink.com
DCNR - Pine Creek Trail

Stats in for February

I have the blog stats for February. Their were 120 visitors to the site in February with 52 being returning viewers. Thanks for checking in on the site. I appreciate the support and seeing the numbers has motivated me to keep this up for at least another month. For a while I was thinking only my Mom checked out the Blog on a regular basis. As always, leave comments (no one seems to do that) or e-mail me at kurteeck@gmail.com (many of you do that) with your thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations.

Thank You!

The Red Citation and "My Pants are on FIRE!"

We were, in many ways, fearless. I think Dan, Steve, Mark Beck, and many others of us, would have done anything to make the program better - more exciting - over-the-top.

I had mentioned earlier that people would crawl up on to the roof of the dining hall for various reasons. Here is a picture that shows the roost by the chimney.

I don't feel that it was a lack of 'safety consciousness'. It was just that we did not let things worry us when it was not warranted. Sure, sure ... The nay-sayers are thinkin' - "It's all fun and games, until someone pokes an eye out"!

No-one ever fell off of the roof. No one ever drowned on our make shift rafts. We never had anyone stabbed by a toy sword, and, as near as I can tell, we never had a turtle choke on any stray remnants of water balloons. (we did clean-up after the water balloon battles.)

But just in case, we practiced lots of first-aid. In fact, I used to set my pants on fire to simulate . . . well, having my my pants on fire!

When Dan and I weren't trying to burn each other to death, we would crash our cars and run car crash scenarios. What ever happened to that Citation?

Maurice Pap La Rin is in the above picture with serious wounds sustained in one of our mock car crashes. Anything to keep Camp Karoondinha fun.

General Craziness from Karoondinha Staff Alums

Just a little craziness with a few pictures of various Camp Karoondinha Staff Alumni. Enjoy.


| Create Your Own

Red Candle - Part Three

The final (or is it?) installment of Dan's Red Candle story.

PART THREE

Part Two of The Red Candle

Here is Part Two of the Red Candle Story; but first --

I remember the morning after the original 'incident'. I did not stay in the cabin. I must have been staying down in the office. I remember Dan and Glenn (Courtney) relating the story of the weirdness going on in the cabin. It was at the bottom of the stairs off the dining hall alcove on the cabin side. It was obvious that they were shaken, but I was (and still am) a bit skeptical. They did have the chart from the weather station. Other than that, everything else is explainable as the product of over-active imaginations. You read the tale. You draw your own conclusions.

PART TWO

The Red Candle - Part One

After a little searching, the Red Candle Story has been found. Many thanks to Dan and Steve. Dan wrote the story. Steve has been archiving it. I placed the story on a seperate page for ease of viewing. Just follow the link and you'll be reading the tale after the jump.

PART ONE

My first computer crash

Sorry . . .

My computer crashed hard this morning.

I have been on the phone with Firedog and am slowly putting things back together.

I'll get back to posting as soon as possible.

Arthur Bernstien

This picture is from 1980. 1980 was the year of the baby blue hat with the yellow K. It was my first year as a staff member. To the right is Arthur Bernstien.

I remember Arthur from my first years as a camper. Arthur worked in the Dining Hall and was LOUD. And in my memory, he was mean. As a camper, I was afraid to take dishes to the dish window. He was this big looming figure in the kitchen who ate campers for lunch.

I was fearful of working at camp when I heard Arthur would be Handicraft Director. Was I surprised when I met him and found out how short he really was. As staff week proceeded, Steve Geist explained to me that Arthur actually stood on a milk crate when he worked behind the dish window.

The staff member on the left is Neil Raup. I do not really remember him that well. I remember that we used to sing 'Raup's Turkey Farm'. I think he was the Trading Post Manager.

The staff member in the middle is Andy English. Andy held many positions over the summers he was at camp. Of the three staff members in the picture, Andy is the only one I have heard from since the early eighties. When I came back to direct camp in the late nineties, Andy sent me some stuff from the FBI. He was an agent for the FBI. I believe he still is.

Any updates on these staff members would be appreciated.

Next Challange

Everyone in the 1989 staff picture has been identified. Thanks to those who helped. Here is the next challenge --

This is from 1981. In 1981 some genius decided that Thunderbird needed to be dug up for renovations. These renovations amounted to nothing more than lumbering out the woods behind Thunderbird. The downside to this was that campfires had to be held on the OA field. The OA field is great for Tap-Out Ceremonies (for those who want to be more politically correct, pretend I typed Call-Out Ceremony) but not so hot for traditional campfires.

The Theme for Cub Scout Camp evolved around the history of the American Indians. This was in the day when we still had Cub DAY Camp. It was an action packed DAY. And DAY Camp was held at the Council Camp; Not off-site.

Jerry Olsen was the Camp Director. The Staff hats were Red and White. It was my second year as a summer camp staff member. It was a veteran kitchen crew. Gary Barrett, Paul Hoffman, and myself were the mung men. Mark Scott was the cook. John Seal was the Steward.

To the picture. I won't even try to get the names down. I'm going to wait for John C. and, hopefully, others to post comments or mail me. I will note that you won't find many of the kitchen crew in the picture. We managed to skip out on many of the Campfires. It was a good summer.

Boy Scout Membership

Those of you who know me will probably know I believe the decision to allow women to serve as Boy Scout Leaders was the beginning of the downward trend in membership for the Boy Scouts of America. Since that decision was made, there have been other policy decisions that , I believe, have weakened the organization even further.

With the internet providing access to the Annual Reports for the National Organization, you can, with some digging, find the numbers. You have to look carefully. Other than 1999, the numbers are buried inside lots of text. Sometimes the numbers are 'more than' type numbers (ie. more than one million). There are discrepancies within reports. The 2005 report states early on that there were in excess of 5 million youth involved in the program. When you add up the numbers given later, even with rounding estimates up, the 5 million is at least half a million to high.

I couldn't find annual reports earlier than 1998 on the boy Scouts site. I did find some citations in other areas. President Richard Nixon accepted a report in 1973 that said there were 6 million Boy Scouts.

From the annual reports, you can see the decline in numbers. In 1998 (using the 1999 annual report) there were 3,383,439 youth involved in scouting. In 2005 it was reported that there were only 2,938,698. That is a drop of 444,741 youth members or a loss of 13 percent.

Specifically, Cub Scouts went from 2,171,987 to 1,745324 in the same period. This is a drop of 426,663 Cubs; a 20 percent drop. Boy Scouts went from 1,023,442 to 943,426; a loss of 80,016 or 8 percent.

People will argue that the total available youth have dropped as well. I will look for specific data, but I doubt that the population of youth in America has dropped as quickly as the number involved in the Boy Scouts.

Demographically, the National Office reports that the program is holding on to Scouts longer than before. This would actually inflate the numbers of Boy Scouts. That is, it means fewer new Boy Scouts are registering than indicated by the 8 percent decrease.

The area of largest growth is in Adult membership. Why? I have a theory, but will save it for later.

I am sure there are many reasons for the decrease in membership. It does not have to do with any one factor. The positive side, there will be room for growth in the future.

Resources --

1998 - Cub Scouts = 2.17 million+; Boy Scouting = more than one million; venturing = 188075; Total = 4757184; from 1998 Annual Report.

1998 - Cub Scouts = 2171987; Boy Scouts = 1023442; Venture = 188010; Total = 3383439; from 1999 Annual Report.

1999 - Cub Scouts = 2181013; Boy Scouts = 1028353; Venture = 202486; Total = 3411853; from 1999 Annual Report.

2001 - Cub Scouts = 2043478; Boy Scouts = 1005592; Venture = 276434; Total (calculated from prior numbers) = 3325504; from 2001 Annual Report.

2002 - Cub Scouts = more than two million; Boy Scouts = more than one million; Venture = 315296; Therefore, total should be more than 3315296 but less than 43315296 (from Membership section of 2002 Annual Report); which does not jive with the "excess of 5 million youth" reported in the opening paragraph of the Letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives from the same report.

2005 - Cub Scouts = 1745324; Boy Scouts = 943426; Venture = 249948; Total (calculated from prior numbers) = 2938698; from 2005 Annual Report.

Even more Pirates

Not everyone who worked at camp went on to great things - but most did!

Brian 'Sly' Slavinski (I know I probably hosed the spelling) is an engineer for the government, Lance Lyons served in the coast guard and on the Border Patrol, Aaron Golumbfskie (spelling again) is a chemical engineer (?), Chris Herman is a police officer. I do not know what happened to Eric Heberlig (Red Shirt in middle) but I am sure he did not grow up to be a pirate.

Again, any info on where these scouters are or what they are up to can be added to post comments or e-mailed to kurteeck@gmail.com.

Staff member ID'ed

Thanks to James Bartlett. He identified Troy Shade on the Staff Picture!

The Real High Seas Adventurers

Brian Shaffer, John Connolly, and myself are pictured by 'The Rock by the Lake'. All three of us spent time in the navy. Ths picture would have been taken while I was home on leave for my brothers wedding. Brian was involved in fire fighting for the navy (I think). John had served on board the Samual Gompers. I was, at the time, stationed onboard the USS Truxtun.

In July of 2003 the Gompers, also known as Fat Sam, was sunk while being used as a target for naval exercises. The Truxtun was decommissioned in 1995.

I know John is living in the Lancaster area. I am not sure where Shaffer is nowdays.

Many members of the Camp Staff went on to serve their country. I will post more on this later.

Oh Captain my Captain

The Leader of the Royal Fleet (and Camp Program Director) was Dan Daneker. He is with his royal wife (actually Dee Given, the business manager) in this pic. In the background is a young Eric Startzel (If I remember, he was too young to be a staff member).

Dan, like myself, has still not really 'grown up'. I think that may be a characteristic of a great Boy Scout Camp Leader. The leadership and staff have as much fun as the campers; sometimes more. Dan was always 'on' as a Camp Staff member and was a key reason for our success as a Camp Staff.

Dan is married and has two children. He is a science teacher at the Conastoga Middle School in Lancaster County.

On Pirates

In 1990 the theme was "Pirates". We may have had some fancy title, but there was no doubt that we were involved in high seas hi-jinx. How much trouble would we get into if we ran things the way we did - the right way - in the 80's?

Start with the camera angle --



These pictures were taken from the roof of the dining hall. Not only was the photographer on the roof, but I recall that, on occasion, we would set up a hose team on the roof to spray down on the water balloon battle.

And how dare we have a water balloon battle!!! A bird or a turtle might try and eat some of the latex balloons and choke to death. And what about the environmental impact!

And how dare we advocate kidnapping, sword play, and rebellion? What were we thinking?

We were thinking "If I were 10 years old; what would I love to do"?




It is hot in August. Water balloons are cool! Pirates are icons. Everybody knows they are the bad guys. A ten year old knows that you can count on a buried treasure if there are pirates. Buried treasure means maps. Perfect for Cub Scouts and Webelos.

We were Pirates!! Aaarrr!!!

Before Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Black Pearl, we were Pirates!


| View Show | Create Your Own | Playlist

If you want music, click the little speaker in the bottom left corner of the slide show.

Susquehanna Council

Camp Karoondinha is the summer camp of the Susquehanna Council.

I thought it would be a good idea to check out the council website. You can too, by clicking the graphic above. I found the site to be mediocre. I don't have real high standards, but I thought the site had a weak navigation, needed to be updated in many areas (Camp particularly, but other areas seem to be stagnate), and was lacking an up-to-date news letter. On the positive side, the council web site did have a current and updateable calender of events and some on-line training resources.

The area I found most interesting was the Order of the Arrow section of the site. It had several pages of informative and historical information. A history of both Camp Karoondinha and Camp Kline are posted. There is information on past Lodge Chiefs, Tiadaghton Lodge, and FAQ's about the Order of the Arrow. If for no other reason, check out this part of the council web site.

Sadly, the histories presented about both camps addresses the physical histories of the camps. When was the camp founded, who donated how much money to build which buildings, etc. are detailed in the histories. This has further encouraged me to work on this blog, for it is not the buildings that make our experiences at camp memorable; it is the Camp Staff.

1989 Camp Staff Photo

Camp Staff from 1989. Thanks to James Bartlett, Dan Daneker, and John Connolly for filling in the gaps in my memory. My memory is not as good as some others (like John C. aka Otter).

First Row (L to R) - Eric Startzel, Brent Criswell, Tim Bowers, Steve Wyant, Sam Stahl, James 'Fly' Rider, Dave Whitnack, and Troy Shade.

Second Row - Dan Daneker, Murray Roberts, Eric Heberlig, Carl 'Butch' Stamm, John Connolly, Mark Reeder, Steve Schreffler, Les 'Cookie' Spencer, Dan Carney, Bob Guttman, Doug Spotts, and Kurt Eck.

Third Row - Mike Whipple, Aaron Golumbfskie, Jamie Wright, Jim Bob Walton, Matt "Chewie" Charnosky, Todd Snyder, Brian Shaffer, Corey Eckrich, Dave Campbell, Jerry Hugar, Jerry Rupert, Casey Popp, Brad Campbell, Jon Wyant, Lance Lyons, and Mike Persing.

I use to be skinny!

One of the disturbing things that has happened to me since I started digging through the old camp memorabilia is recognizing how fat I am now. Or, more politely, I used to be skinny!

I have noticed that the reports on the news are correct -- at least in the micro-cosm of Boy Scout Camp. We are getting fatter. I don't mean fatter as we get older. I mean, the kids in the pictures from the nineties are bigger than those in the eighties. At least it looks that way. As more pictures get posted, you will be able to decide for yourself.

Paul Snook (in the middle) was my sumer camp 'dad'. Alan Franz (on the left) was the Order of the Arrow Quartermaster. This picture was taken at the National Jamboree. I could use some help with the date. I could also use an update on Alan. I know he did a 'globe trek' a few years ago. Any leads on Alan?

Camp K Staff 1989

Camp K Staff
Originally uploaded by kurteeck.

I put the picture on 'flickr' with tags. I tried to get everyones names. There are still a few people whose names I could not remember. Help out if you can.

Getting Started

A while ago - the beggining of December - I received an e-mail from Jon Sawicki (aka Father Jon). He had apparently done a search on the web (Googled 'camp k'?) and found a hit for a post on my blog 'ECKSCLAMATIONS'.

I was immediately excited becuase it meant someone besides my mom had looked at my Blog. Then, as I thought about it over the Holidays, I realised that there might be an audiance for posts about my camp experiences. Others have attempted to create camp web sites (The KSA comes to mind) and they do not seem to have staying power. Maybe they needed to be simpler or more accessible. I do not know.

It seems like it might be time to start a site for posting pictures and stories from my experiences at Camp Karoondinha, Camp Kline, and other Scouting events. I hope that I can actually start to develop a routine group of viewers and contributors. It would be nice to know that the effort is being put to some use other than exercising my limited computer skills. I'd like to share as well. Hopefully others will contribute.

Many of us who have had experiences as staff members have gone on to accomplish great things. I would also like to spotlight individuals periodically.

So, here it is. An attempt at a blog about growing up a Boy Scout.