Mike Armitage - Operation Flying Start

A tradition at Fire Mountain is that it always rains the first week of the camping season.  In 1980, the second year of the Fire Mountain Standard Patrol program, was no exception.  True to form, Mother Nature provided an evening deluge of flood proportions. The camp program staff eagerly looked forward to a shortened day with the anticipated cancellation of most evening activities on Monday evening.

During the evening SPL meeting a 12 year old Scout questioned the wisdom of canceling the message relay race in spite of the torrential rain.  The race consisted of relaying a verbal message around the lake using runner, canoeists and row boaters (from the patrols).

After several minutes of heated arguments by older, more experienced SPLs the young Senior Patrol Leader spoke his piece.  He argued that bailing was important boating skill, that true Olympic runners ran in the rain and that it would be a good experience for patrol members to learn to deal with wet weather in a controlled situation... the game when on as scheduled.