Summer Camp at Southport [Photo Gallery]

July 2006

Camp for me this term was a very different experience for a number of reasons....As this was only my second camp and my first as a junior officer my eyes were well and truely opened to the work that goes on before, during and after camp, sometimes this can easily be taken for granted. This became apparent to me when a few months before camp I was landed with the job of quartermaster, not as exciting as sports/entertainments officer but equally as important!

My camp started a couple of weeks before the advance party left, a few visits down to the church to help Mr.Taggart out with odd jobs down in the hall and gradually the Smiley Hall became covered in camp materials and the unmistakeable smell of camp. Guy ropes needed to be untangled along with a lot of checking,counting and recounting, seemed silly at the time but I do realise that the counting was vital. At one stage my brother Christopher (10) came down to help out, there's always jobs to be done so he was certainly kept busy!

 

 

Then early on the 5th day of July the advance party set off for Southport. It was now too late for counting and checking, the quartermaster had to be sure, which I was. It was now full steam ahead to Southport's Bankfield Lane and we reached it with no hitches. We were met with a flat field with a significant amount of hay and long grass, not the best start but we had to carry on regardless.

 

 

Rumbles of thunder were in the distance and the grey clouds were approaching, 'seperating the men from the mice' was a term i heard used and I'm pleased to say that there wern't many mice in the advance party. The camp site gradually took shape and was completed with time to spare for the main party arriving which was as we had planned.

 

 

 

From this point onwards I saw camp through different eyes, lots of little monkeys running about had to be told where to be and when to be there. Once upon a time I was one of those wee monkeys so I knew all their tricks, but generally the boys were well behaved and I didnt have much work to do in that respect. Instead of being up out of my tent running about I was now telling people to get back into their tents, instead of peeling spuds I was reporting others to spud peeling duty and instead of playing football I was refereeing.

 

 

However there was still plenty of time for to be a boy again and mix with the boys during go-karting and football where the competetive streak still remains within me but I still had to be careful not to get too involved as some of the boys are quite a bit smaller than me. Tent games also bore no relevence to me this year as I wasnt competing but it was good to see the other boys taking it serious and picking up where the junior officers had left off.

The title 'junior officer' indicates to others that as officers we aren't quite there yet, which is very true. Camp 2006 was a learning process and part of my developement from a junior officer into a senior officer. Tasks with responsibility like being quartermaster did this learning phase no harm and will certainly benefit me in the future.

 

 

Following my completion of the KGIV Course at the end of July I hope to use this with the experience gained at camp to be an influencial officer in the future of the 25th.

 

Jason Burke