Boy's Bulletin

Volume 2, Number 1, November 8th, 2001
"All things are ready, if our minds be so. " Shakespeare Title courtesy of John Lukacs

Meeting: Religious Emblems and Winter Camping

Mrs. Warner spoke about the Religious Emblems programs in the Boy Scouts, and specifically about the Catholic religious emblems, of which there are two. For 6th to 8th graders, there is the 'Ad Altare Del' program, and those in 9th grade and above can enter into the 'Pope Pius XII' program. The senior scouts pointed out that the religious emblems look very cool.

Those who are interested can contact Mrs. Warner at the phone # and email listed for Thomas Warner: 301-942-8789 and mdwarner@erols.com .

The second topic was the Winter Camping presentation, from Brian Cutting and Kyle McNickle. They began with the discussion of clothing, emphasizing the importance of not wearing cotton with the ever-popular frozen jeans, this time accompanied by a frozen pair of socks. We were reminded that it is much easier to stay warm than to get warm, and that it was important to keep dry. They extolled the virtues of synthetic fabrics, because they don't get wet easily, and they don't stay wet, and Brian Cutting stated that he "would swear by knit caps".

After they had finished with the topic of clothing, they described the two most important winter emergencies: frostbite and hypothermia.

Hypothermia describes a condition which occurs when the core body temperature drops severely. It can happen at temperatures as high as 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius), in bad conditions. Mr. Scheirer had once seen a sufferer from hypothermia, and he described it for us.

It had been a cold day on this one backpacking trip, and the group (not this troop, I think) was straggling out, with some fast hikers, and some slower fellows, with Mr. Scheirer in the later group. On the trail, Mr. Scheirer told the SPL to go on ahead and start a fire and prepare some hot water for hot drinks when the others got there. When Mr. Scheirer arrived, the SPL was sitting around, without a shirt, in freezing weather with no fire, no hot drinks, and Mr. Scheirer knew right then that it was hypothermia. They started a fire, got him some warm drinks, and kept hiking until they could get him to a hospital, finishing a two-day hike in one day.

Mr. Winkler had another story; this one set on Old Rag Mountain with our troop. In this one, a severe rain and snow storm sprung up during the trip, with 60 MPH winds, and when the group reached the campsite, everyone was soaked and shivering severely. Mr. Winkler knew right then that they should just go home, so they all packed up and left at about midnight. It started snowing later. He said that sometimes, a few minutes might be the crucial ones in which the choice must be made.

There was a Pancake Breakfast on Sunday, November 5th, and Thomas Warner attended. He reported to Heavener Hall at about 8:15, and he was immediately enlisted to serve coffee to those who drank it. While he did so, he noticed Mr. Scheirer, who informed him that it counted for a bead and for service hours. He left around 9:15.

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