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scouts 20190126 095102Scouts from Ithaca’s Troop 4 – winners of this year’s Winter Camporee - working as a team to cut a tree without touching the saw

Frigid cold temperatures? Not a problem! In temperatures hovering in teens, 13 teams of Boy Scouts from Tompkins and Cortland Counties competed in a Winter Camporee. The scouts demonstrated a wide variety of skills: everything from performing as a group in an ice rescue, speed in building a fire, cutting a tree from 10 feet away without touching the saw, comparing 1st Aid skills from 100 years ago with those today and learning how to send messages without cellphones!

The annual Winter Camporee is a high point of the scouting year for the two-county Taughannock District. The Camporee experience gives Scouts a chance to test their skills against many other groups, while also focusing on teamwork and cooperation.

scouts IMG 1623Scouts from Lansing Troop 48’s Splatzer won the award for the best Scout Spirit

scouts IMG 1634 Scouts from Homer Troop 85’s Poisonous Purple Python patrol receiving 2d prize out of the 13 patrols competing

The Scouting program is focused on helping young people develop leadership and a sense of team-work as well as to value the skills each person brings to their "patrol" or team. Scouting builds good citizens by helping each Scout recognize skills in themselves and others and giving them a chance to develop those skills both in their groups and in their communities. Many Scouts go on to use these skills in activities as varied as sports, robotics and academic research projects.

The Scouts competed for the right to host the Taughannock District's highly-prized "Taughann-Duck" pole for the year in recognition of having the best scouting skills in the two county area.

This year's competition was won by the Baconator Patrol of Ithaca's 100 year-old Troop 4 (sponsored by Ithaca Sunrise Rotary). Troop 85's Poisonous Purple Python Patrol from Homer took second place with Trumansburg's Troop 13 Squirrel patrol coming in third.

scouts IMG 1642Ithaca Troop 2’s Baconator Patrol won the “Taughan-Duck” pole for being this year’s Winter Camporee champions


scouts IMG 20190126 151425407 Ithaca Troop 55’s Moonlit Wolves Patrol submitting a dessert for judging

Special recognitions were awarded for particular skills. Trumansburg Troop 13's Squirrel patrol made a SnowBallista which launched a ball over 116 feet. Freeville's Troop 46 was judged to have made the best dessert on-site. The fastest fire-building award was won by Ellis Hollow's Troop 55 Eagle Patrol, who started a fire and boiled a pot of water in under 3 minutes. Troop 4's Bacon Patrol also won the nearly mile-long sled race in a time of 6:33. The judges gave an award for the best Scout spirit to the Splatzer Patrol of Lansing's Troop 48.

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