Fellow Scouters: It is with regret that the combined Keystone Capitol and Pioneer District fall camporee has to be cancelled this year.
We have made contact with the Indian Rock district, which has a fall camporee scheduled for November 7-9, 2014 at Wizard Ranch, and they are opening their program up for scouts in the Keystone Capitol and Pioneer districts. We are appreciative of this gesture, which will provide an opportunity for your scouts to attend a large fall event. Details will be forthcoming on that camporee shortly.
The Keystone Capitol district was approached by Exelon Energy in regards to hosting a camporee-type event on a portion of Three Mile island which has been set aside as a nature preserve, and several months ago, an initial walk-through was performed to ensure that the facility was suitable for this purpose. Once approval was granted by local employees of Exelon, program plans were finalized by the combined activity committees of the two districts. Over the last several weeks, it became known that there were, indeed, some obstacles to clear for Exelon, and the end result was that they were uncomfortable hosting our event at this time, based on projected attendance.
Dave Counsil and Kevin Gill worked over the last two weeks to secure a new location, which needed to be held in Dauphin County, in order to work with several outside agencies who were planning on assisting with the program, which was based on emergency services and culminating in a large-scale drill. Unfortunately, alternate sites were either too small for our needs, or were already booked, with a large soccer tournament coming to the area.
The cancellation or postponement of any district or council activity is not made lightly, as we know the difficulty in scheduling such events for your unit, as well as the reliance on them for quality programs throughout the year. Volunteer committees are working hard to ensure that the programs you are used to seeing at upcoming Klondike Derbies and spring camporee’s will be available.
Thank you for your understanding regarding this unique situation, and thank you for all you do for Scouting!