Patriots Point

Overview

The annual trip to camp aboard the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point is the capstone to the cub career. Its is the final time they will camp as cubs with their parents. It will be the most memorable trip cub scout trip for most of them. Traditionally the trip includes the Ft Sumter excursion, and is held as late in the fall as possible without interfering with the Cary Christmas parade. The trip is not open to younger scouts, boy scouts, girl scouts, siblings, cousins, or friends. It is a reward to our WEBELOS II scouts for their years of service and hard work.

Each scout brings their adult or adults with them. Leaders with the required training and two deep leadership may take unaccompanied scouts at their discretion. In addition to parents, you will likely have grand parents, step parents, aunts or uncles. Female campers accommodations are separate from male. A few scouts will bring multiple adults.

Timeline

• April beginning - Intent survey
  The main purpose of this survey is to get identify the best weekend for the scout families. Identify the last 3 weekends before the Cary Christmas Parade as options, and ask each family rank their preference. There is a discount for camping in December, but that is offset by the fact that there will be more campers aboard ship. We went the weekend before Thanksgiving, and had lots of elbow room. Secondarily, use the survey to improve your headcount estimation, and male/female ratio. Typically about 1/3 of adult campers will be female.
• April end - Patriots Point reservation
  Request the Fort Sumter excursion. Assume every scout will go and take one adult with them regardless of intent survey results. Add 2 scouts and 2 adults per den to that total; round up to the nearest 5 or 0. The reservation deposit is applied to the final bill, regardless of the final headcount. In cases where the family hasn't decided which adult will accompany the scout, assume female. Its generally easier to add a male camper than female. Your adult ratio will usually be 1/3 female, 2/3 male. Pay the deposit with your credit card; send receipt to the committee chair for reimbursement.
• September beginning - Setup PayPal, signup and payments
  Ask the pack web master to set up PayPal to accept payments and list the trip on pack200.org. Give the web master the dates, and the amount to be charged for leaders, scouts, and adult family members. The pack subsidizes 50% of scout and leader costs; adult family members pay the full price. Set the deadline for registering and paying 1 week in advance of the actual due date. This gives you a weekend to email, and a den or pack meeting to speak with individuals directly who have not signed up. They do not want to miss this trip.
• October - Final reservation and payment due to Patriots Point
  The reservation made in spring will include the deadline for final payment. This is due 6 weeks before the trip. Give the camp staff your final male & female counts, and make the final payment with a credit card. Submit receipt to the pack for reimbursement. The deposit made with the initial reservation will be subtracted from the total amount due. Tell them you want to board at 8:00pm. They will board you early if by some miracle you get everyone there before 8:00 pm.
  Recruit someone to help with restaurant arrangements.
• Two weeks prior to trip
  Send Patriots Point brochure link to families again, along with packing suggestions.
  Survey families about carpooling together with options of "I will drive alone", "I want to ride with someone", "I am flexible", and "I want to drive". Encourage car pools. Not only is a scout thrifty, he will have more fun riding with his friends.
  Request adult camper mobile number, as well as emergency contact information.
  Survey interest in optionally eating off ship. We offered: Friday dinner, Saturday dinner, Saturday desert after dinner, and Sunday AM breakfast. Most did Friday dinner and Saturday dessert.
  Request all uniformed leaders permission to share their mobile number with all campers.
  Request cub master or committee chair to file trip permit. Give them: names of uniformed leaders, # of youth, adult males, adult females.
• One week prior to trip
  Hold short meeting amongst car poolers 20 mins prior to the weekly den/pack meeting to finalize carpools.
  Prepare final roster with emergency contact info to share with each uniformed leader. Don't print yet. You will get some last minute churn.
  Email families with the final car pool list; Let them know that the final schedule will not be published until the night before the trip.
  Survey to identify those meeting to depart together and those departing directly from home/school/work.
  Call restaurants you plan to visit.
• Wednesday or Thursday before the trip
  Patriots Point publishes the plan of the day (POD) with meal assembly, excursion, fire drill, and movie times. Set the parking lot gathering time 1 hour before boarding time (7:00pm), and boarding time 30 mins early (7:30pm). The camp staff will board the group if all members of the group are there by 7:30. If not, you have a 30 min buffer.
  Set Ft Sumter excursion gathering time 45 minutes prior to departure at the big flag. Set meal gathering times 10 mins prior to that on the POD at the big flag.
  Create a P200 schedule with addresses and leader's mobile numbers. Email to all families. Print a copy for each, plus a few.
  Call restaurants with final headcounts.
• The Trip
  Identify assistants to get scouts in line, count heads, and collect impromptu info as needed. You will usually have someone asking you a question that requires your attention when you also need to be organizing the scouts and their adults. Having someone to do this is invaluable.
• Sample PODs
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/15xwWeXa8l-a2fbBTgJrajCoUkLuSYrso/view?usp=sharing
  ​​​​​​​https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uPQaArq348pGmFNmUxLa60BL5zoHW5Ey/view?usp=sharing

Trip

• Departure day
  12:30 Check off those you expect as they arrive. Organize impromptu carpools as needed. Use contact info to account for anyone missing. Someone will always decide to depart directly at the last minute without telling you. Distribute schedules to those needing them.
  12:45 Plan to depart.
  1:00 Actually depart together without caravaning.
• Friday dinner
  Meet at a restaurant near Patriots Point. We chose Sticky Fingers who set aside their back room for us. Meeting near the ship allows people to arrive somewhat on their own schedule. This didn't turn out to be a great choice since they currently have the ship's catering contract, so some of us had barbeque two nights in a row.
• Gathering the crickets. Herding cats would be comparatively easy.
  Bring a couple balls for the boys to play with to keep them occupied. Check families off as they arrive.
  Hand out paper schedules to each adult. Hand out emergency contact info to each leader.
  Have leaders wear their uniforms so you can spot them easily.
• Friday Check in
  When everyone has arrived, ask one of your assistants to go tell security that all are present.
  Gather the scouts. Have one lead the pledge, one the oath, one the law.
  Tell them that thousands of men and women have worked to build these ships and aircraft, lived and died aboard them to preserve our freedoms, and labor today to preserve them for the future. Remind them that you trust them to do what they are supposed to do and be where they are supposed to be, and to follow the rules. Remind them that they are to be with their adult or their buddy, or they get to be your buddy until their buddy reappears.
  Camp staff will find you and give you an envelope with: Excursion voucher, Lunch voucher, Survey
• Friday night.
  Ship's movie and mandatory fire drill.
  Scouts will be wired! Plan to read them scout vespers or something similar just before lights out. Remind them that lights out doesn't just mean keep making noise in the dark.
• Saturday Morning
  Camp office has coffee for early rising adults that need it. Coffee for adults is also served with breakfast. Coffee is not for scouts.
• Saturday Excursion
  Assemble at the big flag 45 mins before the excursion. Remind everyone of the rules, and that lunch will immediately follow the return at the nearby tables. Discourage snacking on the return voyage so they eat lunch.
  Present Ft Sumter ferry voucher at the ticket window 30-45 mins before departure. You will receive 1 ticket good for the entire party.
  Ferry takes about 30 mins to cover the distance to or from the fort. Scouts are allowed approximately 1 hour at the fort. The National Parks Service requires all youth to be accompanied by an adult. No unattended scouts allowed while on the fort.
  If there are enough campers taking the Ft Excursion you will have an early ferry with all passengers being campers. Park rangers allow a large number of scouts to assist in raising the flag above the fort if you are on the early ferry. If there are not enough campers, you will be aboard the ferry with others who have bought tickets to visit the fort.
• Saturday Lunch
  Have an assistant collect drink requests on the return trip.
  Get lunch when you return to the ship. Bag lunches will already be packed. Make sure they identify any that are specially packed for allergies, etc.
  Make drink request when you go to get the lunches. Staff is very accommodating.
• Saturday the rest
  Tour the ships and land displays in buddy groups. As the scouts get tired or feel they have seen everything they will reappear in the berthing area. Ensure there is appropriate 2 deep adult supervision.
• Saturday dinner
  Assemble at the designated time to eat aboard ship. Have those dining off ship assemble at the same time and depart.Most of our group ate aboard ship.
  Assemble right after dinner for a dessert excursion. Most went to Baskin Robbins about 1/2 mile from the ship.
  Saturday movie title and time will be published by the camp staff
• Sunday
  Most of our group ate breakfast aboard the ship.
  None met for breakfast on the return trip. By Sunday AM people are tired and ready to get home to make their afternoon commitments, or have decided to hang around Charleston for the day and are ready to begin their adventure.
  Check berthing area for lost items. Turn in survey at camp office to collect patches. (One per camper)

Camping and Packing advice

The Patriots Point staff provide a very good handbook telling campers what to expect. It can be found on their site at http://patriotspoint.org/pdf/patriots_point_camping_packet.pdf
Meal menus and ingredients are available online and are typically linked from the camping packet document. The catering staff will accommodate allergies and special requests. They responded to email within a few hours.

Additional items to consider packing

• Class B uniform required for Saturday
• Class A uniform for Saturday supper aboard ship
• Sheets & blanket - The berthing areas are typically quite warm. You may prefer the flexibility of sheets and a blanket to a sleeping bag.
• $$ for souvenir shops and snack bars
• Ear plugs if you are a light or moderate sleeper. The berthing area is a metal box. Every sound reverberates, so expect it to be very noisy.
• Windbreaker or warmer coat for Ft Sumter where the wind will make it cool
• Refillable water bottle
• Day pack
• Recharging battery pack for phone or other electronics. There is limited power, and priority will be given to those needing C-PAP machines.

Issues you may face

Little Johnny's brother would have an awesome time on this trip with us. Can he camp too?
No. BSA insures the participants based on their registration. Also, this trip is a reward and recognition of the scouts accomplishments.

I can't manage care for my baby/toddler/spouse. What can I do?
There are a couple nice hotels nearby. If your scout can't come any other way, you may leave the scout aboard ship with appropriately trained, two deep leaders at night with approval.

Little Johnny's father can't get there until Saturday morning. Can he still go?
Camp staff is very flexible and will work with you. A scout can travel and board the ship with appropriately trained, two deep leaders at night with approval of the trip leader. Make arrangements with the staff to board the late parent in the morning before the excursion.

Where can I get samples of all these emails?
They are here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o71pT-7XrDkyhtqGkzJQ9B8edRDa3l1l/view?usp=sharing