Leave No Trace For Every Kid Program at Scout Camps

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I just wanted to send another reminder about the great opportunity we have next summer (2018) for our council camps to participate in the Bigfoot's Playbook pilot program BSA is conducting with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

BSA will be incorporating The Center's Leave No Trace for Every Kid program into Cub Scout Day Camps, resident camps, and Boy Scout 1st Year/Trail to 1st Class camp programs through the use of Bigfoot's Playbook. Targeted for ages 6-11, Bigfoot's Playbook is a far better resource than anything we have currently to teach Leave No Trace to our Cub Scouts and your council can get it for free by participating in the pilot program!

There is still time to register as we are still looking for camps! We will be recruiting camps through January and notifying camp partners in February with materials being sent out in March.

The pilot will be testing a set of Leave No Trace focused activities that can be facilitated by camp staff, aiming to expand Scouts understanding of outdoor ethics while meeting the outdoor ethics requirements in the Cub Scout and first year Boy Scout programs. The pilot activities can be incorporated into programs already planned for summer camp or used as stand-alone program.

This pilot is seeking to include roughly 40 camps across the country whose staff have a variety of experience levels teaching Leave No Trace. Having a Leave No Trace Trainer or Master Educator on staff is not a requirement to participate.

Any camp can participate as long as they are willing to incorporate the activities in Bigfoot's Playbook into their program.

Much like the activities in 101 Ways to Teach Leave No Trace, the activities in Bigfoot's Playbook vary in duration from something camp staff could lead given some spare time during the day to activities which require designated time set aside for Outdoor Ethics program.

Have whoever in your council is in charge of the Cub Camp program or first year Scout program fill out the registration survey and submit it. We will take care of the rest and notify everyone in Feb.

I will be coordinating the Big Foot's Play Book pilot program for the Outdoor Ethics Task force with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. If you or your council representatives have any questions, please contact me at jnl82381@gmail.com. If it is a general question that is worth sharing I can repost it to the OutdoorEthics-BSA Yahoo group. Thank you and I look forward to working with you as we get this pilot program running!

Thank you for encouraging your councils to participate!

Sincerely,

Josh Lamothe
Outdoor Ethics and Conservation Chair
Southwest Service Area
Narragansett Council, BSA

Leave No Trace Master Educator
TREAD Lightly! Master Trainer
Leopold Education Project
William T. Hornaday Awards Adviser