Eden, Vermont is one of the main boy scout camps around the country for summer adventures. This summer, however, it will be closed due to the fact that it is located near an asbestos mine in a contaminated area.
The EPA told the scouts that there is a dangerous level of asbestos in the area of the Mount Norris Scout Reservation. This obviously raises concerns for parents who have sent scouts to the area for years.
Last year, my boys were part of the group who went to the Goshen camp in Virginia without being told that there was an e-coli outbreak, here. Some of the parents and scouts became sick and (despite the fact that I am a scout leader) I am very disappointed in the way that the organization handled the matter.
There remains considerable question over the state’s failure to address the fact that an asbestos mine was next to a camping area. Even a closed mine is considered potentially harmful without proper testing and containment.
For the full story, click here
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Ahh.. the Goshen camp. One of the highlights of my childhood. I had my first kiss at Indian Wells. Its been so long since I have been there, its nice to know that its still up and going even though it seems to be run by idiots now.
I am so glad your parents talked you out of it and you listened to them! That war was a lie and so are the ones we’re in now. It horrifies me to think of so many dead and wounded in an insane quest for empire and the spoils of war.
Jill,
‘but realized the horror …’ above should have been: ‘but didn’t realized the horror …’
Jill,
“The military is very good at targeting their market.”
At some point after high school and after realizing college wasn’t an option I walked up to a female soldier in a bookstore (She looked FABULOUS and together and not much older than me.) and asked things like ‘do you like being a soldier, what do you do etc. etc. She was very positive about her career choice. I sent off for information about the armed services. I had a job at that time but it was still an option to join up.
As it turns out my parents cautioned me against it. My dad was a WWII veteran and my mom tried to sign up during that war but was 4f- the diagnosis saved her life since it alerted he to an illness (TB) she didn’t know she had. They weren’t anti-service type folks. The upshot of their counsel was short and to the point; nobody in the service respects women in the service, and, if they send you someplace interesting even behind the lines (as support personnel), you could get killed.
This was in early 1967. I had heard about Viet Nam by then but realized the horror of it at that time. It was one of the few and last time I just accepted the wisdom of my parents on its face. 18/19 year olds know everything; we don’t need advice. 🙂
Girl scout cookies
Apparently everybody in the chain of command up to the national scouting org. gets a cut of the cookie money however many levels that might be. I didn’t follow up the statement (with them or anyone else) to find out what the girls were talking about either.
I figured ‘why would a couple of 12 year olds lie about being told something like that’. 12 year olds are smart enough and reliable enough to know if they’re being told not to accept free money. Even if they’re not told why or where the instruction comes from.
lottakatz,
The military is very good at targeting their market. They bring climbing walls to festivals around here and go for the 6-13 age group. In high school they like to drive their hummers at homecomming. They also send teachers and pricipals to faux boot camp where these same people come back all pumped up about basic training and how great it all is, to sell the idea of joining up to the kids–ARRGGG.
I didn’t know that about cookie sales. That stinks.
Re article: “I am very disappointed in the way that the organization handled the matter.”
I followed the link and the linked story didn’t go into much detail about what happened so I’m kind of in the dark about why the response was disappointing. Did the Scouts have prior knowledge, not close down the camp soon enough? I am missing the point and need enlightenment.
Jill, Yes, I saw that story earlier today and had to wonder “what is wrong with these parents?” and the Scouts. This looks like a militia-in-training camp or something.
I was a Scout and boy, has it changed. I was distressed when the Girl Scouts were urned into cookie ho’s. Now it looks like Eagle Scouts are being turned into a incipient militia.
I once offered cookie selling Girl Scouts that came to my house $10.00 to give to their Scoutmaster for ‘odds and ends’ rather than buy the cookies (the local cut of cookie sales is very small- about 10%) and they told me ‘no’, they weren’t allowed to do that, they had to sell the cookies, those were the rules. Wow, who turns down free money? It looks like some aspects of scouting are being used to turn todays kids into a (targeted) future labor pool.
Well I should have figured that there was more than one Goshen. 😉
And with the Bowling Green comment, I completely forgot about Kentuckey having one as well. Ohio has a Bowling Green too.
So I thought you were speaking about the Indiana/Ohio area.
Thanks for the clarification! 🙂
Sally:
No I work and live about 30 miles from where I grew up here in Richmond, VA.
Mespo….are you a Hoosier?
This is another big danger to Scouts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?hp
The Trouble with Angels. Or Nosy Boy Scouts, or maybe boys in general. We swam naked in the Colorado river as a kid during camping trips for Boy Scouts.
We had a tragedy in Bowling Green at a Scout Jamboree a few years ago when a tent was erected near a power line. Four scout leaders died in a preventable accident according to OSHA which would have issued the citation had the organization been a for-profit. I wonder what safety procedure are in place when you have all those kids in one spot.
On a better topic, I just drove through Goshen a few days ago, and the scene is a must for anyone believing that human invention can match Nature for visual beauty.