Portsmouth Woodcraftfolk

Report from summer camp 2009.

Portsmouth Woodcraft Folk held their first summer camp since the present committee starting running the district in early 2007. The camp went extremely well with a great venue and some exciting activities some organised by the camp committee and others arranged through the venue management.

The camp was held at the Cricket Campsite- run by the Itchen South District Scouts- between the 15th and 22nd August 2009. The on site activities the children and young people got to go on included Kayaking, Wall Climbing, Abseiling, Archery and Grass Sledging.

We also organised a number of activities. We did a number of art and craft activities including making clan posters that were hung up in the marquee. We also played games including a wide game where the young people had to gather food and water (provided by mother nature, Jenny) for the two endangered animals (Donna) roaming the site and when the animals got sick there was medicine to gather for them. The adults and young people really enjoyed this and some dressed for the part!! We had a great session of parachute games where the young people got to walk on the parachute and finishing with washing machine.

Night activities

For the older group we organised some night games such as spot light and a version of manhunt. We also had a night of challenges for them which had everyone cheering on their team mates and laughing with them too. The young people enjoy the night activities so much they kept asking “what games we would be playing tonight?” We also had a number of camp fires with some great action songs.

We held a pea fare. The young people created some stalls for others to have a go on such as beat the goal keeper, skittle ally and bubble painting. Other made things such as clay pots, pictures and friendship bands to sale at the pea fare. The currency for the stalls was dried peas. The pea fare finished with a show from the great mysterio!!

The week finished with a special camp fire. For those moving up to the next age group we held a ceremony where they jumped the stick. We also had a camp fire show where the young people who had prepared ‘skits’ got to perform them. There were some great skits including the great mysterio singing with Sion on guitar, Finley hypnotising the whole group with other singing and drama skits.

Clans are the small groups that we split into to for cooking, tidying up, getting wood for the camp fire and water for cooking washing up etc. The clan is formed using adults and young people with all clans having a mixture of the age range and the group decide the clan’s name. This year the names were wild animals that included the 5 Golden Eagles.