Day 68, Saturday, April 16th.
Today was the 2nd day of the Spring Camporee. It rained really hard last night. The wind was really bad too. I was really worried that we were going to loose some tents, but they all stayed up.
After breakfast, the Scouts spent the morning going from station to station learning how to deal with emergency situations. They didn't know how soon they were going to be practicing everything they were learning.
While the Scouts were having lunch, the Camporee staff quietly brought in over 50 "victims" for the mock disaster. The Scouts didn't even know there was going to be a mock disaster today. Were they surprised when the emergency vehicles came rolling into camp with their lights and sirens going!
Several of the Scouts were caught totally off guard and thought that something really bad had happened. There were 2 large rescue units, a large fire engine, 2 John Deere Gators, an incident command vehicle, and the Battalion Chief's vehicle that came rolling into camp all at the same time.
The Camporee staff had staged a mock disaster scene back in the woods for the Scouts to practice their skills on. The scene was a simulation of a tornado disaster. There were people all over the place with all sorts of injuries. The Scouts had to treat the injuries quickly and then had to transport the injured victims back to the parking lot where the emergency personnel were waiting.
The emergency personnel then had to triage the patients, get them stabilized, and then loaded into the ambulances for transport.
After they were loaded, the ambulance would then drive to the far side of the parking lot where the victim would then get out so that the ambulance could turn around and go back for another patient to load up.
Little did the Scouts know that while they were participating in the mock disaster and learning all the skills that they were learning, the emergency personnel were doing some serious training too! The whole mock disaster was put together so that the Scouts would learn Emergency Preparedness and First Aid skills, and the emergency personnel would have a chance to train on a large scale disaster. Everyone came out winning with this one!
After the Scouts had completed the mock disaster it was time for a debriefing. The Battalion Chief said he was really impressed with how well the Scouts reacted to the disaster, how well they knew their first aid, and how well they managed to handle the situations they came across. He gave a few suggestions of some ways to make improvements, but overall he was really impressed with the job that the Scouts did. He even admitted that his emergency personnel had made a few mistakes and that there were things that they needed to improve on.
After dinner there was a quick campfire program, along with the OA callout ceremony. This is where they call out the newly elected OA candidates.
Shortly after the OA callout ceremony, we had the OA Brotherhood ceremony where the OA Ordeal members can seek to become Brotherhood members. My son Tommy was one of the ceremonialists in the Brotherhood ceremony. I really enjoyed watching them perform the ceremony.
By the time the ceremony was over it was time to get to bed.
For my 100 Days of Scouting today:
I participated in mock disaster.
I assisted the ceremony team with their OA ceremonies.
Today was one of the best days of Scouting I've had in a very long time, and was it ever fun!
Have a great day, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!
That is an awesome idea for a camporee. Well done. I'm going to keep that idea in mind for the future.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. How difficult was it to coordinate with EMS, etc?
ReplyDeleteI was not in charge of the coordination between the Camporee committee and the local emergency personnel, but when I have worked with them in the past it really wasn't all that difficult to coordinate. The Fire Dept. has a training officer that is in charge of all training, and he's always looking for training opportunities. I own a towing company and we have 4 different Fire Departments that come to my shop to train on vehicle extrications and other procedures on a regular basis. Working with them is usually really easy. They really appreciate opportunities to get in some really good training. If you're looking to do something like this I would start by calling the local Fire Dept. in your area and ask to speak to the training officer. That's where I would start. Thank you both for the great comments. -Jim
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