The walks to the Dining Hall at Camp William B. Snyder, the camp where the Leadership Academy course was held this year and will continue to be held in the years ahead, as well as Camp Beaumont at St. Louis, Missouri, were filled with songs, cheers, and no silent pauses. After sharing a prayer before each daily meal, there was not a period of time where someone was not being darted (frozen by blowing a “poison dart”), moosed (signaling someone to get into a pushup position and shout “moose” as loud as he or she could), or offered a duck; and that was the Participating Staff.
During one of the most important nights of the weeklong course, the Leadership Academy Staph was attacked by a stampede of these same Participating Staffers. The Leadership Academy Staphers received hugs from more people than they could count, giving them a bigger sense of gratitude for the Participating Staffers and sense of accomplishment than they could ever ask for. The day after, each Patrol Mentor witnessed presentations from the Participating Staff that few words could describe.
As Week One concluded and the Leadership Academy had just shared their farewells with the largest group of participants they had ever given a course to, they were more than ready for Week Two to begin.
With Week One having given each Leadership Academy Staph member an even stronger skill set, since they are individuals willing to always learn and improve, whether it was a Youth Stapher or an Adult Stapher, each was ready to give a course that would be as fantastic as the one they had just given.
Having greeted the new course with blow-up Spongebob dolls, wigs of every color, plungers, and a giraffe named “Thundah,” the Staph aimed to have a Registration that was just as exciting as the first, even if it meant a smaller group of Participating Staffers.
After a successful round of Registration, the days began passing quickly… but the energy and enthusiasm grew twice as fast. The Leadership Academy became filled with new songs, from the Burrito Song to the Rooster song, to songs that were a “kinda-repeatafter-me songs,” and also sounded songs that were traditionally sung each year.
Hike day was a fast-paced day, as the NYLT Leadership Academy members, staffing or participating, spread their energy throughout the entire National Mall. Tourists and regular visitors of the National Mall could only stand in awe and see the quality of the presentations given, the bravery of the presenters, and the spark each of them carried with them.
The week ended with a group of Participant Staffers who had witnessed an all-out battle of the Morning Assembly characters, who had gone through marriages, made Mac -N-Cheese, learned a few crucial lessons in Self-Defence (brought to them by the NBA [Never Been Attacked]), and gave a very excited man in a banana costume “a little more cowbell.”
Even more importantly, the Participating Staffers, from not only the second week but the first, as well, learned more about NYLT content and themselves as leaders, and are now enabled to bring all their knowledge back to their home courses and change more lives than ever.
So, having received 108 participants in total, and having possibly given the best course the NYLT Leadership Academy has given so far, the anticipation for what will be happening for next year’s Leadership Academy course is growing; and barely a month has passed since what was the 2014 course happened.
As the Leadership Academy moves on and prepares for another action-packed year, it is still in its hope, although it is quite reassured, that the Participating Staff of 2014, all 108 of them, share the new skills they have learned and inspire others to grow and develop as they have. The world now has 108 enabled Scouts and Venturers capable of things one would have to see to believe.
Looking toward 2015, the Leadership Academy will be more ready than ever to receive as much Participating Youth Staff as old and new councils send. Whether they live closest to St. Louis or Washington, D.C., or as far away as California or Puerto Rico… Be our guest, Staffers. Be our guest.
