GimletBlog

2013 Vigil Class, T’Kope Kwiskwis Lodge, Order of the Arrow:  The Vigil Honor is a high mark of distinction and recognition reserved for those Arrowmen who, by reason of exceptional service, personal effort, and unselfish interest, have made distinguished contributions beyond the immediate responsibilities of their position or office to one or more of the following: T’Kope Kwiskwis Lodge, the Order of the Arrow, Scouting, or our Council’s Camps.

• Order of the Arrow – Vigil Honor
• Wikipedia entry for Order of the Arrow
• Blog post:  Thing One joins the Order of the Arrow, April 2009

On June 14, 2013, I showed up at Camp Pigott with giant paper heads of a Chapter Member that he made to campaign for Lodge Chief. The Lodge Activities Vice Chief provided us with cardboard with which to make armor. Later, I was sent away to do the Vigil Ceremony. Few people in the Order of the Arrow are selected for Vigil Honor:  The cap for nomination is 2% of the lodge the requirements for nomination are three years of being a Brotherhood member and exemplary service. In the OA I have been a Chapter Chief and a Ceremonialist. The Ceremony entails staying up all night.

After the Vigil Ceremony (Which was, by the way, the first one to involve the new Longhouse), we had a breakfast for all the Vigil members, posed for photos, and played Diplomacy until the Camp Pigott Staff Orientation started. When you’re sleep deprived, you can do a lot of things. Taking care of a newborn? Pshh. I got Germany two supply centers in one year and kicked France out of one of mine, being awake for 24 hours! That number made it up to 30.

After my brief stint as co-Kaiser of Germany, the Camp Pigott Staff orientation started. Among the staff were members of my Lodge, six staffers from 2012, and the Camp Director’s friends as directors. I was the only person from 2011, but I heard that someone else from 2011 was coming back as well. I am the manager of a newly remodeled Trading Post this year. The Counselors in Training were also at the Orientation. There is also a higher Male-Female Ratio. There are about five women out of probably 30 Staff, but that is a drastic increase compared to one last year and none the year before.

As an 18 year old, I get to stay in the Fancy Adult Cabin, which not only has its own bathroom and some TV’s, but it will also have actual Hygiene and a lack of trash on the floor.

The Vigil Ceremony is a great way to conclude my OA activities (although I might go to the September Ordeal, and also the activities two years from now), and I also know I will enjoy my time as Camp Pigott Staff for the third year.

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Editor’s Note:  This year Thing One served as Order of the Arrow chapter chief of the largest chapter in the local lodge, and one of the largest OA chapters in the country.  He organized a program that included a “Lock-in” party for the chapter before Christmas; running the program at the District Camporee; running the program at the OA Section Conclave; running numerous troop OA elections; and participating as a Ceremonies Team member at four OA Ordeals.

“It’s a great year to be T’Kope” -Advisor

T’Kope Kwiskwis is the Order of the Arrow Lodge which I am a member of. It was featured on the Joseph Csatari OA Painting as one of the four most influential lodges. I was elected to be a Chapter Chief (Local subgroups of Lodge) in May 2012, and I will be finishing my term this month. I have also been selected for the Vigil Honor, the highest honor in the Order of The Arrow, given for exemplary service to the OA and scouting.

The OA is well known for is Native American Lore and Culture. Our lodge performs Potlatches with stories and dances given to us from local Native tribes.

In 1962, a longhouse, designed like a Quinault longhouse, was built. It was an all-weather building for ceremonies to be held in, because you know how western Washington weather is.

After 30 years, the Longhouse began to fall apart, and had to be torn down. Ever since, there had always been talk about the possibility of a new longhouse. Eventually, these conversations became actual announcements, and before long, the Architect who designed Bill Gates’ house was drawing up plans.

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Three mosquito bites, a little road rash on an elbow, and one lost neckerchief slide:  Thing Two has entered the world of Cub Scouts.  He was excited as a little boy can be to go.

With an early morning wake up and a DVD to make the hour drive to camp go quickly we headed out and went back in time to 1876 and the  “Brinkley Territory”.

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When Thing One started work this summer, he thought he would be working at the Trading Post again.  He’s putting in a few hours there, mostly to reconcile the cash register, but this year most of his workday is spent at the Archery range.

One of the earliest pictures to appear on GimletBlog, this photo was taken at Thing One’s eleven year-old scout camp, held at Camp Pigott:

Six years later, he’s the big staff guy helping the younger scouts!

The first week took some getting used to, but now Thing One has settled into a routine and is enjoying the new job.

Thing One didn’t participate in any of the skits and songs last year, but this summer he has a part in an opening campfire skit, leads one of the opening campfire songs, and leads a dinner song.  The opening campfire this particular week was held in the dining hall because it was raining too hard, which is saying something for these parts.

The Gimlet happened to be spending part of a week at camp as a Camp Commissioner, and had no warning that Thing One was going to be part of the campfire until he began his song, at which point The Gimlet picked his jaw up off the floor, found his phone and began to film the performance:

Watch Thing One’s opening campfire song (QuickTime)

After this, the head camp commissioner advised The Gimlet that Thing One’s dinner song was worth the drive (and camp dinner), so the whole family visited on the appointed evening.   All the drama classes in school and the hard work of our former ward choir director have paid off!

Watch Thing One’s dinner song (QuickTime)

Lyrics to Thing One’s songs can be found in the songbook (Word document) of one of our neighbor troops.

Thing Two wanted to wear his Tiger Cub uniform to camp, where a cute little brand new Cub Scout attracted as much attention as one might expect.   Boy Scouts encouraged him to stick with Scouting so he could attend Camp Pigott some day; the youngest scouts seemed especially interested in giving advice to the only scout in camp smaller than they were.   Adults had a new audience for all their corny jokes, all of which Thing Two loved.  After all the noise and excitement of a big Boy Scout camp, he’s ready for his turn at Cub Scout camp!

At the beginning of the summer, Thing Two expressed his delight that we wouldn’t have to listen to any of Thing One’s annoying songs.  Instead, all of Camp Pigott has to listen to them.  However, Thing Two not only didn’t seem to mind listening to the songs, he sang Thing One’s song for the rest of the evening.

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Thing One is back at Camp Pigott for the summer, where he will be working in the trading post again.   We were reminded again that summer weather doesn’t really start around here until July as we packed up Thing One’s gear in the drizzling rain.

Thankfully it wasn’t raining at camp, but the camp roads were mostly mud.  Thing One loaded up a wheelbarrow with his gear, and headed up the hill to The Rock, where the under-18 staffers live.

The over-18 staff members stay in yurts like these:

He joined up with his fellow staffers and was eager to be on his way.

We spent a little time walking through the less muddy areas of camp, and The Gimlet visited with the adults in the main office.

As we drove away from camp, Thing Two said, “Now we don’t have to hear any of those annoying songs Thing One likes to sing!” (Which both Things had been singing on the drive to camp.)  But by the time we got home, Thing Two didn’t feel well and had to rest for a little while.  He misses his big brother, annoying songs and all.

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Last year we measured the Things before Thing One began his summer camp staff job, so it seemed like a good time to measure them again.

Just like last year, Thing One spent his brief break between school and work eating, sleeping, and watching Doctor Who (with a hefty dose of yard work added to the routine), and it seems to be a winning combination:  he now measures just under 6’1″.

Thing Two is keeping pace behind his big brother, checking in at just under 4’1″.

This summer Thing Two begins Tiger Cubs!  Such a milestone deserves its own blog post so for now we’ll briefly mention that he’s headed to Cub Scout Resident Camp with the Gimlet later in the summer, and an activity-filled year with his school friends in the neighborhood cub scout pack awaits him in the fall.  As you can see, he’s just a little excited about starting his own scouting adventures.

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It’s time to catch up with Thing One’s latest scouting activities before the summer begins:

Every year Thing One helps his local Order of the Arrow chapter place flags on the veterans’ graves at Evergreen-Washelli.  Early on the morning of Memorial Day, when most people are celebrating the holiday by sleeping in, this cemetery is probably the busiest place in the city.  The OA chapter, along with several other Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Girl Scout groups, perform this service, and the work goes very quickly.

Thing One was elected OA Chapter Chief for the upcoming year!  Congratulations, Thing One!  He is looking forward to a great year of fun activities and plenty of the “cheerful service” for which the Order of the Arrow is known.  This year promises to be especially historic as the lodge’s longhouse will be rebuilt at Camp Pigott, and hopefully completed in time for next spring’s Conclave.

In other good news, Thing One’s braces came off in May.  We’re hoping for more frequent smiles in the pictures now.

Looking ahead, Thing One will have a brief break after school ends, then he returns to Camp Pigott for his second year of camp staff, followed by his third year of NYLT staff.

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On July 2^nd, 2011, I went to Camp Pigott for the staff week, to prepare to staff there for five weeks. I worked in the Trading Post, so during staff week I unpacked stock, inventory and learned how to use a register. Then on Friday, there was a ceremony where all new staff got pouches and all returning staff got a new row of beads. The beads on the pouch say what your area is. For example, blue is aquatics, orange is craft lodge, green is eco con, black is shooting sports, one gold bead is area director, and white is trading post, kitchen and other support staff. Each year you work at Pigott (or Brinkley, a camp on the same property) you have another row of beads.

I worked in the Trading Post for four of the weeks, one of the weeks doing dishes, and that week had over 400 people. This was hard, however, according to the other people in the Trading Post, that week had the weirdest people so it may have been the best week to work in the Dish Pit.

Throughout the four weeks I was in the Trading Post, there were times when few customers were there. Whenever there were large camp wide events, like patrol or troop games, some of the Trading Post staff would drive the golf cart and sell ice cream in coolers.   I always staffed the Trading Post during these times, so there were even fewer people and less soda and ice cream in the fridge and freezer. During this time I would draw pictures, which I unfortunately left under a counter there, and talked to other staff that didn’t have much to do during the event.

The staff housing is divided by age: under 18 staff lived in one cabin, the Rock, and some over 18 staff lived in a big yurt, or snoho, another cabin. The head cook, assistant program director and program director lived in small yurts, and the camp director lived in a house on the camp property. Other people in the Rock would make it a mess within a day.

Overall I had a good experience staffing and I would do it again.

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