More Scouting kilted

[Nick]

This weekend I went to the spring conclave for our Order of the Arrow lodge, Ag-Im (Ojibwa for snowshoe). It's a service weekend where the lodge readies the council summercamp for campers and inducts new members. For those that don't know, the OA is an organization within the BSA that is youth-run and focused on service.

I wore my UK Workmans for Saturday. I was on the woodchipper crew, and we chipped a lot of wood. My knees and arms got pretty scratched up, but I volunteered for the job, so it's not like I wasn't expecting that.

I was wearing pants when I got there Friday, and some people commented on that. The last few times many of them have seen me I've been kilted (apparently pictures of me kilted at the centennial camporee have been circulating among the event staff). There was one boy, an Ordeal member candidate, who heard us talking about it and the rest of the night was making snide skirt comments, but I didn't hear anything from him the next day.

In addition, my brother recieved the Vigil honor, the highest honor in the Order of the Arrow. Now everyone in my family (me, Justin, dad, and mom) is a Vigil member, something very rare indeed! (The symbol of the Vigil honor is the triangle on the arrowshaft on the sash). Here's a picture of me, my brother (with the big ol' grin) and my dad. My mom is the advisor for the lodge storekeeper, so she was at the store when we took this.



The capotes we're wearing are a family thing, too. They're French-Canadian coats from the fur-trapping days. Dad made his several years ago, when I turned 13 he gave me a blanket and the pattern, and the same for my brother. They're all Hudson Bay 4-point blankets.

It was quite a weekend, I'm pretty worn out.