Campfire-official

Scouting stories, scouting photos and other scouting stuff.

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What's this blog?

This is my first attempt at creating a blog for Scouting related stories. I have the intention to never recognisably put someone on screen. I would like to share stories and photos from my own memories as well as things you send me!

Scouts always have billions of stories to share, and I do too. This blog is open for everyone to take a peek at what Scouting is, or for Scouts to relate to.

Who is behind the fire?

I am a Scout from the Netherlands who has been in Scouting since I was 5. I have been a leader for many years. And on top of that I like to be internationally active as a volunteer.

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Sometimes you gotta weave your own hammock if you forgot to bring one.

Very peaceful activity, would recommend!

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Today I will be working as a volunteer at the National remembrance day of 15th of August in the Hague.

This is a day where we celebrate the freedom of the entire kingdom of the Netherlands (including Indonesia). And also remember those who have fallen to realise this freedom.

It's my second time helling here, and it's amazing to do.

15augustus1945.nl for info!

Home - Nationale Herdenking 15 Augustus 1945

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Fun scouting story is that one time I was at camp and my tent almost got crushed by a tree because of a windstorm :)

"Fun" story.

Actually reminds me of the time I had a tree almost fall on me (with a difference of 3 meters) while biking.

And when a tree branch broke off which totalled the car park next to my mothers. As a small kid, so I barely remember.

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Part of Scouting is creativity. AI generated content is not creativity.

Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk

[this-is-trans-joy]

The girl scout to not even a girl pipeline.

Im a proud gold award scout and im proud of my 13 years in the girl scouts, even if im not a girl anymore

Same goes for the boy scouts to bit even a boy anymore pipeline

One of our very close family friends is a trans woman in her 60's and she often talks about back when she was a boy scout.

This is trans joy!!!

[nifty-lost-boi]

This is so cool!

I was thinking "I don't fit either of these, but I have Scouting experience. What's my pipeline?🤔" Then had to gently tell myself "ummm☝️ it's much more of an Origin Story actually 😅" So here's that bc I think it's pretty neat actually 👍

(TLDR: I've been all of it and none of it at the same time 😂)

⚜ Wanted to be a Girl Scout as a tiny kid so badly, like my cousin ⚜ No Girl Scouts in my rural area ⚜ Was gifted the Brownie Handbook anyway and read it cover to cover till it was falling apart ⚜ Dad and younger brothers get involved with local Boy Scouts, dad becomes the local Scoutmaster (Troop Leader) ⚜ Tries to be involved as much as possible alongside the other boys, but as the "Scoutmaster's Daughter" ⚜ Likes the program and skills and achievements WAY more than Girl Scouts, but cannot officially earn anything because of being "a girl", participates to hell and back anyway with No Recognition (Anecdote: My kid brother used some of his own winnings from an activity I helped with to get me a prize knife that I really wanted, since I couldn't be credited with anything 😄💜 I'll always remember that, and I'm so sad the knife got lost) ⚜ Gets called "queer" as a teenager for being "a girl" in uniform alongside the boys, before I even knew what the LGBT+ community was (this was after gay men were allowed to be leaders) ⚜ Lost drive and momentum for it all after years of being a Weird Exception and having nothing to show for it. Also in senior high school and busy trying to graduate on time. ⚜ Girls get allowed to be Scouts, and the name is changed from the "Boy Scouts of America" to "Scouting America"!!! ...right as I age out and into adulthood 😞 ⚜ I discover as an adult that I've never been a girl or a boy, but am nonbinary and genderqueer. So I reclaim the word that was thrown at me as a kid and now identify as Queer in all aspects of myself ☺️

I am so incredibly happy that there are kids who can join their brothers and actually get recognized for their participation and hard work!

And if I had been allowed to, I would've earned Eagle Scout like I watched my my younger brothers do. I am Positive in this.

So I never was a Girl Scout though I pretended, and I love dropping "I was in Boy Scouts!" as a reason for various skills I have. It just confuses everyone about my AGAB even more than my androgynous appearance does 😂 So I think it all kinda worked out in the end

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Last summercamp I bought some really nice cherries at local farmer. And I was handing them out per one to the kids. Mainly because they were really really big and sweet. And the children had a nice moment of free playtime.

Some kids didn't want one, which was fine.

Others really liked them.

One kid has never in his life ever had a cherry. And I think a whole world opened for him that day.

His entire hands were purple, and he really really liked the cherry.

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I used to work at a supermarket. A small part of my job was Binding stacks of crates together.

I have gotten multiple complaints about the bindings being too "tight" and "unable to pull apart". Girl... I literally used knots with a pull-release.

And then there worked someone else who was a scouter at another group. He would only complain that I took too long making good knots, when I could just make shitty ones in less time.

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Mom can we have fire?

No we have fire at home.

Fire at home:

At this camp we were sadly not allowed to make a fire because of all the dryness. Luckily some of us brought red lamps and we had a yellow beercrate.

[leftoverspacedust]

HI! Friendly reminder that the girls in my troop are GIRLS IN SCOUTING. They are SCOUTS. NOT girl scouts. thank you.

[justanangelsyippee]

average scouts summercamp experience, am I right?

No, but why did I get so much muscle in 14 days and get a lot tanner than usual?? Like I'm mediterranean, of course I get tan but what the hell was that. I have gone to more scouts summercamp (I men i'm a scout) but this one affected me physically the most.

[cinder-cider27]

I have a friend who, when we played DND at camp this week, was a paladin who's oath was the scout promise and her patron god was Lord Baden Powell.

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We were on camp near the water with the cubs. We if course made some agreements about when and how the kids were allowed near the water. They could play near it, and because of the heat could even splash the water arround if they wanted. But because the water was very steep and deep at the start of the water, the kids were not allowed to go into the water. Everything went fine the entire week. Until: One kid, fell into the water. At a time when the kids weren't even allowed to be near the water. Cleaned him up, dried him off. One day later, guess who fell in the water? Same kid. No other kids fell in. Only this one boy.