BOOT or “ARMY” Camp Theme

BOOT – Stands for Build On Our Testimonies

Be All you can be in the Army of the Lord. We did cadences, a USO shows (skit night), Basic training, A Battle, we even had mail from home. The stake camp leaders all dressed camos borrowed from the National Guard. We were also able to borrow a lot of things for decorations. It was really enjoyable… everyone loved it!

Call sleeping areas barracks, Mess Hall (for food area), give leaders army titles, and focus on being in the Army of the Lord.

Theme Song: To Bring the World His Truth or Onward, Christian Soldiers;

Awards: Purple Heart (for especially commendable service), girls can earn stripes for various things, Camp Medal of Honor.

Crafts – make a Title of Liberty;

Activities – Have a mock army obstacle course set up in a field. Reenact war scenes in the Book of Mormon

This is the itinerary of one of our days at camp: (our theme for the year is “Back to Basics–we have had a lot of fun with this theme)

7:00 a.m. Wake up call
7:30 Roll Call/Base Camp/Theme/Hymn/
Scripture/Thought for the Day/Flag/Prayer/Announcements
8:00 Morning Mess Hall & KP
8:30 3rd Year Hike
9:00 1st and 2nd year hikes
4th year certification and their MP’s meet for Ropes
Course
3:00 R&R, PX, Cavalry
5:00 Evening Mess Hall and KP
6:00 Platoon Sergeant briefing
7:00 Roll Call/Base Camp/USO Show
9:00 Unit gathering (fireside)
10:00 Lights out/Taps

2000 Stripling Warriors – Who’ll Bring the World His Truth

As I have written before, we are doing “2000 tripling Warriors” as our theme. Scripture will be 1 NE 3:7 nd the camp song will be We’ll bring the world his Truth, Primary songbook.

We are having each of our wards pick a favorite Book of Mormon Hero to base their camp around. One of them have chosen- Captain Moroni and they are doing some awesome things for that. They will decorate and also incorporate the story into their camps. We are all in tents at our camp so that makes decorating a fun challenge.

As a stake we are ordering dog tags for all of the girls and then we are going to do a value activity where the girls will earn value cards the same size as their dog tags in the value colors by learning the value scripture and its motto etc. We are also ordering camo shirts for everybody. Some of our activities will include a Lamanite vs. Nephite War with water guns, and shave cream. We are going to do a first aid mock disaster, we are doing a really fun activity on our ike and having clues and treats along the way.

ABLE TO STAND Each ward is making their own Title of Liberty as their banner for camp. Daily themes: Tuesday – Basic Training – building “exercises” to build strength and endurance – daily scripture study, personal & family prayer, etc.

Wednesday – Combat Gear – The Armor of God “Don’t Leave home without it.”

Thurs. – Battle Strategies – Study of the stripling warriors, battles in the BofM

Friday – Who will be left standing at the end of the War?

We will draft them and give them a “Spiritual” instead of a “Physical”.

We will have a mock BofM battle one afternoon (with the 1st and 2nd year girls) Build a Testimony wall where each girl records her testimony on a “Brick” that will build a fortress that will keep the enemy out.

Our Stake theme this year is “United We Stand In Holy Places”, The camp theme from that is “Camp Liberty”. There is a beautiful song called “Lady Liberty”, that our assistant camp director picked up when she went to New York. The scripture for camp is 2 Nephi 2:26-29, “…we are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all…”,”…my daughters, you should look to the Mediator, and hearken unto his words, and choose eternal life…”

Something’s that came to mind with this scripture is how Christ is the first one to have fought for our liberty. Also how Moroni made a Title of Liberty,
etc.

We will be talking about the Statue of Liberty and how we are Lady Liberty’s, holding our torches high, a light to all the nations, a safe harbor for all to come, etc.

One suggestion I had for a compass activity: set up a compass course inside the church building as a scavenger hunt. Leave the ingredients for some cooking activity or treat and you can’t make it until they find their way around the compass course.

Our camp theme is also United We Stand. We are thinking about modifying the lyrics so that the song could be the theme of our YL’s. As for a bonding activity, how about making a fake campfire (out of paper) to put on the wall, sit on the floor and sing camp songs? For refreshments have fake smores.

I just attended a regional youth conference in Richland WA where the theme was United We Stand. The opening address was given by a firefighter from a local department who worked at ground zero. He talked and let the kids ask questions and then closed with a very touching video with scenes from 9-11 done to music. I know that there are firefighters, etc. all over the US who helped. You might suggest this to stake leaders. Maybe other places have a similar presentation. It was unforgettable.

A.R.M.Y. – A RIGHTEOUS MORMON YOUTH: – Were trying to do dog tags and boot camp kind of stuff. Our testimony activity is real cool. were going to have 3 or 4 games like and obstacle course and game that make you think and act together. They will earn points to use towards a reward. they will go into
a tent where there’s 40 spiritual gifts and 40 worldly gifts ( 40 because that’s how many girls are going). Each girls gets to chose just one gift.

Then they will go to the fire pit and there will be a box that says worldly gifts” on it. The girls who choose worldly will deposit them before going into testimony meeting and the girls with spiritual gifts will get to keep them. The point being you cant take it with you.

COME FOLLOW ME: – Last year we did camp around “Come Follow Me” and
each ward was assigned a different “shoe” in which to follow Christ’s footsteps etc. My ward had the Army Boot so we decorated our camp to be
like a Mash Unit and gave each level of girl an army rank, 1st years Privates and so on. At the end of camp each girl was given a little trophy
of a plastic army man spray painted silver on a block of wood with the words “Army of Christ”. It was a really good experience and a really fun camp idea.

Boot Camp: We make t-shirts using forest green shirts and then laying
leaves on the shirts and spraying with bleach diluted water. We did “Boot Attacks” to the other wards. We filled old cowboy or overboots with a garbage sack and then all kinds of candy, popcorn, and army men. Then we secretly placed the boot on the other ward’s camp tables each night.

My stake camp director has chosen the MASH (Modern Armies Serving
Heaven) theme for camp this year

I just wanted to put in a few ideas that have been fun at our camp. I have been the Stake Camp Director for four years and have had so much fun with this. Our themes have been M.A.S.H (make a spiritual happening) I gave them each a dog tag and have added a tag to that chain each year. The girls love it.

Compiled from posts made at the lds-youngwomenfiles Yahoo Group