Timberline: Orange Beads

Timberline: Orange Beads

(Timberline part 18)

One year I had a particularly conscious SPL when it came to camp cleanliness. As we were cleaning camp the last day in preparation to leave he could not get the participants to pick up the trash. He kept showing them pieces that he had picked up just after someone had walked right over it supposedly also picking up the trash. Finally he came to me extremely frustrated and even somewhat mad from the lack of attention they were giving to the instructions to clean the camp. I looked at him and said “well lets see if we can find a way to help them have a desire to do it.” As we discussed it he reflected upon the past week and how eager some of them had seemed to collect beads and that orange beads had been particularly sought after. We decided that we would give an orange bead for every 10 pieces of trash that they brought to him and that after they had picked up 100 pieces we would trade the beads for a candy bar. Well the results were fantastic and we even had a bow saw and some other items found that had obviously been there long before we had set up camp the previous Saturday. It was fun to also note that they were a good number of boys who wanted to keep their orange beads rather than turn them in for the candy bar. I wasn’t too concerned because I had a supply of beads that would insure that the camp was spotless before I would ever run out of beads. It was really successful and saved the SPL from going into overload.