Thursday, February 18, 2010

Boys from Troop 401 in Merrimack. The Lightning Bolt Patrol were the winners of the Klondike Derby Competition.

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Boys from Troop 401 in Merrimack compete at the semaphore flag communication station. Max is holding the flags, Robert and Kyle are with him.

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Boys from Troop 401 in Merrimack. The Lightning Bolt Patrol were the winners of the Klondike Derby Competition.

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Boy Scouts from across New Hampshire braved the cold Feb. 6 to compete in this year’s Klondike Derby Competition, which brought back older stations in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

The competition was at the Lone Pine Hunter’s Club in Hollis, where 261 boys used the skills they’ve learned to earn points on their performance. Merrimack Troop 401 “The Lightning Bolts” took first place, followed by Nashua’s “Patriot Patrol” in second place and Hudson’s “Guido Patrol” in third.

According to John Pelletier, senior district executive for Daniel Webster Council of New Hampshire, the whole event went “very smoothly and had better participation than the last few years. Things are growing,” Pelletier said. “We had a very good weekend.”

The Scouts had to pull a sled full of gear through the woods and stop at separate stations to challenge their “knowledge, teamwork, leadership and Scout spirit.” Tasks include igloo construction, fire building and building sleds out of lumber.

Mark Gath, vice chairman of the program and leader of the Klondike Planning Committee, said that the boys take the event very seriously, with some even running practice derbies beforehand in order to get their names engraved on the trophy.

Gath wanted to honor the organization’s anniversary by incorporating skills that have not been taught in Boy Scouts for some time.

“We looked back in some very old handbooks and brought back some very old stations that haven’t been done in years and years,” Gath said.

One of these older stations had the boys “milking” a plywood cow with training udders, which was then used in some hot chocolate.

One of the harder challenges was semaphore signaling, where they had to learn to use signal flags to spell out long-distance messages.

Jon Fickett was in charge of this station and was pleasantly surprised by the Scouts’ performance with semaphore because even the adult leaders were unfamiliar with the practice.

“It was different for the boys,” Fickett said. “They usually understand the skill, but with semaphore they had to learn from scratch.”

Clyde Ferrell helped run the station and believes that flag signaling is an important skill for the scouts to learn. “Now we have cell phones and computers, but in semaphore, you can communicate with somebody on the other side of a lake instantly.”

Mark Lambert, building committee chairperson for the Lone Pine Hunters Club, is a liaison for the Boy Scouts and is proud of what the competition does for the young boys. “We have a lot of fun being here helping scouts out,” Lambert said. “It is definitely a fun time that’s for sure”

Doug Davidson, another member of the Lone Pine Hunter’s Club, has two sons in Boy Scouts who both participated in the derby.

His son Dakota is a member of Hollis Troop 12 and led his patrol through the derby. He sees the derby as a fun opportunity to spend time with his friends and gain new experience.

“We actually got to spend time together in a freezing cold tent,” Dakota said.

According to Davidson, the club has hosted the derby for the last three years because of the life lessons it teaches the boys.

They learn cooperation, independent thinking and problem solving with their fellow scouts in order to reach their goals.

“The camaraderie of working together to accomplish a task is probably the greatest thing,” Davidson said. “The Lone Pine Hunter’s Club is a vigorous member of the community in supporting Scouting.”