2015 Homeless Campout - Troop 1 - night of December 11, 2015

Location - Frankfort KY

Mileage - 1/2 mile from home
Weather - Warm.  NO Rain
Clothing - T-shirt, long pants and fleece jacket.
Shoes - Hiking Boots - for exploring under the bridge
Camping Style - I slept under a cardboard box
Sleeping bag - I brought my Teton 0 bag, but didn't use it until 2 AM.  I had my wool blanket, and was warm until about 2 AM.
Sleeping - I slept on my cot.
Main Activities - This is the third year that Troop 1 has done this campout.  They met at their chartered organization and walked to the Soup Kitchen for supper.  After supper, we walked to Capital Bridge where the man was found frozen to death in 1984.  That was the reason why the Soup Kitchen and Men's Shelter was started.  We went to the bridge this year, and a guy named Gene was asleep under the bridge. He had been drinking and was kicked out of the Shelter earlier in the day.  As of December 28,2016, he has been checked into a rehab facility in Lexington KY where he will be able to sober up.  Since Gene was under the bridge, we did not invite the Scouts under the bridge to see what the conditions were like.  This was the 2nd year in a row where someone was under that bridge during Homeless Camp.  Last year it was Bennie.  After the bridge, we went back to the church to get settled for the night.  The news crew was there, and interviewed several of the Scouts.  The video is posted on this blog.
Extra Gear - No extra gear for this trip.
Nights Camping - 1
Total nights camping so far this year - 22 nights in a tent or outside in 2015!  I also had 3 nights inside a building with the Scouts.  This was 2 nights at Aldersgate Camp in the Lodge in December 2015, and 1 night for the lockin at the beginning of the year.

Next Campout - The next campout will be in 2016.  January 30, 2016 is the Klondike Derby.

This was my cardboard shelter.  It was quite comfortable.  

Troop 1 and Tyler from Troop 215 camping area.

One of the scouts from Troop 1 being interviewed during the campout.

Same Scout being interviewed.

This is me talking to the reporter.  Nothing I talked about was put in the story.  Being on TV is not why I was there.  This was my first year at the homeless campout.

Council of the Eagles.  This is a great story, and will be used in many upcoming Scoutmaster Minutes.  As I was sitting in front of the camping area, two guys walked by.  One of them I recognized.  He had lived at the Shelter when I first started at Executive Director.  I knew it already about the guy who had lived at the Shelter, but both guys are Eagle Scouts; they are brothers too.  They ended up spending about 30 minutes talking to the Scouts at the campout about working on their goals, and if that goal is obtaining the rank of Eagle Scout, they must work hard.  They talked about all the benefits of being an Eagle Scout.  The guy who had lived at the Shelter pulled me aside later and told me that he was doing well now.  He told me that he had simply lost his way while he was living at the Shelter, and I reminded him of who he was.  I was a Cubmaster of a Pack in Frankfort when I first started at the Shelter.

Since that night, I've been thinking about why I would be in the role of a homeless shelter director, especially as someone who was a registered Scouter that loved my work with the Scouts.  The guy who talked to the Scouts that night was the only Eagle Scout that I know of who has lived at the Shelter since I've been here.  However, there have been many guys who have been involved in Scouting.  I hear about it all the time from the men who live here.  They tell me how they miss the fun times that they had as a Scout.  

These Scouts have simply wandered off the trail of life, and I feel like I have a chance to remind them that the trail is still there to be  traveled.  That has to be why I'm here.

And so ends the 2015 season of camping.  What an adventure it was!  22 nights camping outside in 2015.  21 nights outside in 2014.  I joined Troop 215 as an ASM in December 2013.  I had one campout with the troop in 2013 (one night).  That means I've had 44 nights camping since December 2013 to the end of December 2015.