[Philmont] One mans opinion

One factor that is not well addressed on this list is that a trip to
Philmont, from the perspective of *most* youth, is just another
outing - until they've been there.

Unless you have enthusiastic, experienced adults to help
the youth see the sweetness of the trip, the youth will be
hard pressed to really get behind going. So there is a real
argument for having adults repeat.

In our troop, since I've been involved, we have had treks in
2003, 2005 and 2008. Of those three trips, only one adult
repeated for two, and no youth repeated. On the trip with an
adult repeater, there were only two adults on the crew and we
had 11 in our crew. That adult did not take someone else's
spot, and he had an opportunity to go with each of his two sons.

Of the 2003 and 2005 crews, Every one who has since
aged out is now an eagle. Of the last four still in the troop,
all but one is also an eagle. That last is working on it.
I don't know if there is a relationship between their participation
and achieving Eagle, but there you have it. Obviously, the
2005 crew was a very young crew (our oldest at the time was 15).

Has our troop's ability to go three times in six years deprived
other units from doing so? Possibly, though there are programs
at Philmont that go unfilled, Rayado, OA Trail Crew, Autumn
Adventure, Kanik, short treks. Has it resulted in 25 different
youth going and doing full treks? Certainly.

For those who bemoan troops going every other year, do
you really feel we've somehow taken advantage of you by
having these three treks?

Don Roberts
Fullerton, CA
PTC/International 08 (two weeks!)
Daughter on Mountain Woman trek

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Received on Fri Jun 6 14:58:36 2008