by Dave Keane
Nearly 700 Frederick County Boy Scouts of America (BSA), will be attending the Spring Camporee from April 19th to 21st. This is the Field Sports Camporee which is hosted every 5 years, or so by BSA Troop 270 in Thurmont, MD. Saturday, April 21th is the big day! The event will feature shooting, archery, primitive cooking and tools, falconry, and fishing among other activities. In the past, the PVFF and Bass Pros have taken the lead in teaching scouts to tie flies and cast. This year the fishing stations have been modified and The BOJC has volunteered to take the lead, but we still need PVFF volunteers to help. There will be two fishing venues. Fly Tying demonstrations will be presented by BOJC and PVFF volunteers in a 10ft by 10ft walled tent.
The second venue is a casting contest using spinning rods and reels, at which scouts will cast to buckets or hula-hoops for points. This event will be held rain or shine, so as the Scouts say, “Be Prepared”.
We are in need of club volunteers for this event – please come for a couple of hours, or for as long as you can stay. The Scouts will have some kind of a passport card, which will be used to indicate that they have attended each station. We will need volunteers from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM on Saturday, April 21th at each of the fishing venues. Lots of volunteers are needed to help process 700 scouts. If they have time, some of the scouts will want to return to the tent to tie a fly.
If you would like to help, Billy Noland is the PVFF’s point of contact and can be reached at (301) 514-7007 or mail him at: brnoland@comcast.net.