Work Stories from a Boy Scout camp

infernalspectre

825

So what happened was a bunch of staffers went to another camp and pranked it, by pushing their canoes into the middle of the lake, writing wash me on dirty windows, leaving plastic sporks all over the parade grounds and raising our camp flag on their pole. They were found out because they had properly signed out of our camp. So they were fired, and the climbing tower was going to be too low on staffers to stay open for the rest of the summer. So they asked campers that week if they'd stay as staff, and I did.

So this is gonna be a long one, and don't worry it turns out okay. There is this other staffer, let's call him Carl. So Carl often led outbounds, where the campers head out from the camp and stay the night somewhere else. The specific plan for this trip was to canoe (two kids were in kayaks) across the lake our camp was one, down a river a way until there is a covered area for a campsite. It was somewhat windy when we left, but nothing I hadn't been out in already. However the camper that was my canoe buddy wasn't very good. Well we got to the end of the peninsula, and checked the lake to see how bad the waves were. Once again, nothing I hadn't been out in. So we decided to carry on.
And that's when shit started going down. The wind kicked way up, and the waves were starting to be over 3ft tall. I managed to separate myself from the group, and even though I was putting my full strength in moving towards them, the wind and the waves were pushing me back. So I gave in and spent my effort just keeping the canoe afloat. Eventually after being swept about 0.75 miles away from the group we managed to land on a tiny island of plants.
Now safely on land I decide to call the lifeguard who drives the motorboat to come get us. But he doesn't pick up. So I call another 10 staff, until I realize it's dinner time and there is no reception in the dining hall. So I think I'll call the office number. But I didn't have that number, so I did what any self-respecting 20 year old would do, I called Mommy. After opening with the line "Mom, can you do me a solid?" I managed to get the phone number and called the office. Luckily someone was in there, and they got the motorboat driver. So he comes and picks us (just me and the one camper) up, drops the camper back at the beach and takes me to find the rest of the people. We find most everyone else on another little island close to camp but then they mention that they don't know where the two kayakers were. So we start to motorboat around the shoreline to try and locate the kids. Mind you the waves have grown and are cresting over the motorboat, so at this point the driver and I are becoming hypothermic. Before we find them we are called back by the boss man so he can officially organize the search. Realizing our condition we are sent to report our knowledge and then warm up.
Search and rescue, the sheriff's office, and the fire department are all located. It gets dark. I'm pacing back and forth in the office thinking that I may have the deaths of two kids on my back. And then we get a call, they were found. Turns out they had landed on the shore just north of the island were I landed. And they were found after having dried off, gotten back in their kayaks and slowly kayaked back to camp. All while we have four boats scouring the lake for them. Talk about stress.

tl:dr search party finds lost kids calmly making their way back to camp, I get laughed at for calling my mom.

honestly though, I love it. It's crazy and stressful, but still I would be working there right now if I could

We have a requirement that we are attached to an anchor, so I couldn't get up and do it myself, but the dude got so scared that he latched onto the wall and wouldn't let himself go down, even though that would end it. So we got a ladder out so he could climb down that. Still too scary. So my boss climbed up the ladder and just tore the kid off the wall. He fainted and I lowered him down to the ground slowly. Got the medic to check him over and that was that.

We were practicing a rescue were boss man was pretending to have a back injury while in the trees. And since it was interesting, there was a large crowd of campers watching us. Doing the practice rescue meant that we weren't ready to open on time. All of the staff members of the tower except one were participating in doing the rescue. So when the one staff member who wasn't working, and was instead flirting with the female staffer (who isn't on the tower) reminded us we were running late our boss craned his head out of the body casket we had tied him into (to prevent more back injury) and shouted "WELL MAYBE IF YOU HAD BEEN DOING YOUR JOB AND SETTING UP INSTEAD OF FLIRTING WITH MCBOOBS OVER THERE WE WOULD BE READY".