The scent of campfire smoke drifted through the woods last weekend alongside cheers, laughter and the sound of a bugle at the start and end of the day.
Throughout the day on Saturday, gangs of Cub Scouts hiked from station to station as they tried their hand at knot tying, fire building, first aid and other classic scout skills. By nightfall, nearly 200 scouts, parents and leaders were gathered by Council Rock singing scout songs and laughing as scouts of all ages performed skits between a pair of bonfires.
The annual Needham Camporee, now in its 29th year, is hosted by Needham’s two Scouting America troops at Camp Nehoiden, a 34-acre property next to Needham’s town forest. Owned by the Needham Scouters Club, an organization made up of Needham’s troops and packs of Scouting America — the century-old organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America — Camp Nehoiden serves as the home base for camping, hiking and events that connect generations of scouts.
Nationally, membership numbers have been declining for Scouting programs in recent decades as other options compete for kids’ time and parents’ wallets. In Needham, as it was elsewhere, membership took a hit during the pandemic.
“After getting through a full day of Zoom school, another hour of Zoom Cub Scout meetings was just too much,” according to John Judge, scout executive for the Spirit of America Council which serves the Greater Boston area.
Membership has rebounded locally, according to Jim Murphy, the longtime scoutmaster of Troop 13. “Both our troops are doing really well,” he said.
Parents say they like seeing their kids away from screens and engaged in character-building activities, and the children themselves simply have fun without even realizing the life skills they are learning along the way. Judge points to the badges required to earn Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest rank, as those that make young people well rounded.
“It’s citizenship, it’s first aid, it’s cooking, it’s personal management, it’s physical fitness,” Judge says. “Even if you only pick up 70% of those skills, it’s a plus.”
For Chris Klucznik, it was opportunities to learn practical life skills, participate in community service, explore the outdoors, and have fun through STEM and physical activities that drew his family to scouting.
“We wanted to add an activity that complemented the sports and academic extracurriculars our kids were already involved in,” Klucznik said. “Our oldest son expressed interest and joined Pack 8 in third grade. While he knew a few of the kids already, he quickly made new friends and even encouraged others to join over the next couple of years. His younger brother had a similar experience when he joined in second grade.”
Across the region, there were roughly 12,000 scouts pre-COVID and projections indicate there will be about 7,500 by the end of the calendar year, up from 7,200 the year before. For Bridget Smyser, cubmaster of Pack 8 since 2020, the importance of Scouting runs deeper than numbers. She has been involved with Cub Scouts since 2008 and, like many leaders, has continued after her two sons grew up and left the program.
At a ceremony last spring at Milton’s Camp Sayre, more than a dozen fifth-grade boys moved on from Pack 8 into one of the town’s two scout troops. Many of those scouts were on hand at Camporee, acting for the first time as hosts after several years of attending as participants.
At Pack 4, the story is one of growth. “Last year we unexpectedly doubled in size,” said Cubmaster Ryan Bagwell, who is also an Eagle Scout. The pack now has 69 registered members.
Jennifer Erickson of the Spirit of Adventure Council points to the value Scouting offers for parents, both monetarily and in terms of time spent with their children, as one of the enduring appeals.
“The Scouting program lasts throughout the entire year, and we are much cheaper than football or hockey,” Erickson said. “Plus, as a parent, you are not just on the sidelines watching. You are in there playing the games and experiencing it with them, which is huge from a parent’s standpoint.”
Bagwell credits the older Scouts for making the Camporee welcoming to newcomers.
“If you’re a new family and you’re camping for the first time, it can be a really sort of harrowing, anxiety-producing experience,” he said. “The real heroes are the older Scout troops. They make it really easy for new families. It’s very low stress.”
Zach Rubin, senior patrol leader of Troop 13, is one of those youth leaders. He attended the Camporee himself as a Cub Scout and now helps run it.
“You now realize how much work goes in behind the scenes,” Rubin said of being one of the organizers. “Our goal is that the Cub Scouts have a good time and think, ‘I want to do this more, I want to be involved.’ If we achieve that, then we had a successful weekend.”
On Sunday morning, a scout played “Reveille” to wake up the camp. He was too late for many, however. With dozens of tents set up in close proximity to one another, more than a few of the cub scouts were up and running around long before the bugle sounded.
Despite the early wake up, there were no complaints to be heard. As scouts and their families hiked back out to the Horsford Pond parking area, they traded stories, compared the mallets they built out of sticks and logs, and showed off the badges they received at check-in the day before.
“As a kid who was into science and exploring nature and being active, but not into organized sports, scouting was a place I could be myself,” Pack 8’s Smyser said. “Those kids are still out there and it’s great that scouting is still there for them.”
The Scouting America website includes a list of all the packs and troops in the area.
Reporter Brian Keaney’s two sons were participants in the Camporee.
Save as PDF