Boot Camp!

For months Sarah, Toni, Sacha and I have been planning Boot Camp for the Young Women from church. As a part of the Young Women's program they have camp certification which they must complete over the 6 years. Each year has different requirements - kind of similar to the Scout program. They have to learn things such as first aid, safety in the outdoors, building and safety with fires and other life skills. This usually takes place at a yearly camp, but we decided to hold a whole day to catch them up on their certification so we don't have to spend so much time on it during camp in January.

We wanted everyone to look the part for the day so we brought along face paint and had camo head bands for them.

Sacha made some awesome signs to direct them to boot camp at the Porter's farm. The sign is obviously so cool that it was kidnapped by a couple of the YW on the way home and is now held for ransom! You will both pay Makayla and Tayla!!

We started off with Sarah telling the girls they are going to regret that they came as it was going to be a tough day. She then told them that I was once in the army and was known as 'Pit Bull' and I was going to take them through some drills. I then started blowing the whistle flat out and got them to line up and start doing different exercises - the whole time screaming at them to do it faster, harder and better.


The girls were all laughing at me, so I would scream at them 'what are you laughing at !? You are all doing push ups like a bunch of girls!!', and would threaten them with doing more push ups. Poor Zoe ended up having to do an extra 20 push ups for not lifting her knees up high enough as they were running -sorry Zoe!

Sacha also made an awesome YW torch stencil so we could put it on callico bags to each of the YW to store their camp manuals in. The girls will get them to keep after our big camp in January.

It was fantastic having Bonnie come along to teach the girls CPR. She is actually qualified to teach CPR and we were lucky enough to have a mannequin to be able to practice on.

After Bonnie taught CPR we broke the girls into 5 different groups. Each group rotated around different first aid stations. Bonnie took CPR again and all the girls got to have a turn trying it on the mannequin.


Rachael taught how to treat fractures - especially out in the bush.

Jess taught how to treat for shock, hypothermia, frost bite and heat exhaustion.

Angela taught how to deal with bleeding and showed different ways to bandage.


and Sacha taught them how to treat insect and snake bites and also burns.

For lunch Toni showed the girls how to make damper over the fire and we also had a sausage sizzle.

No camp is complete without smores (an American thing with biscuits with melted marshmallow and chocolate in between) or toasted marshmallows.


Toni had Tommy with her all day and you wouldn't even know he was there - oh - except for the time when he was crying and Toni was jiggling him around to settle him down. Dion asked Toni if it was time for a sleep or a feed and she looked at her watch and realised he was WAY overdue for a feed! Poor Tommy! He survived okay and seemed to have a great day at boot camp with everyone. He was so good all day long.

After lunch Simon came to teach the girls how to tie different knots and when you would use them and how to use a compass. When I knew we were having boot camp I knew he would be the perfect person to come along to help out as he is a policeman and also in Search and Rescue.

He did a fantastic job and was very organised with handouts and all! We were very impressed.

Some of the knots were a little tricky but I think most girls got them in the end.



After taking part in a great orienteering activity that Simon had organised, we then split the girls off back into groups to run through some first aid scenarios to see if they could put into practice what they hard learnt earlier in the day. Our poor mannequin - Arnold (named by Bonnie) had drowned in the river and the girls had to give him CPR.

Tammie had fallen down a cliff and was bleeding (fake blood and all!). The girls had to bandage her up and then throw her a rope down (using a knot that Simon had shown them), to rescue her.

Louise had fallen over and fractured her leg.

and Brystal had been bitten by a snake and was in shock.

It was fun watching them all do the scenarios as there was lots of drama. I think their acting skills were better than their first aid skills! After the scenarios Toni taught the girls about making different types of fires and fire safety. During her very serious talk I felt something on my neck. I thought it was one of the YW being silly and doing the thing where they tickle your neck with a piece of straw. I acted really cool like I didn't notice it but then I heard this awful noise - kind of a buzzing noise. I then thought that it was actually a big bug on my neck and went to flick it away when I realise it was something wet and juicy on my neck!! I quickly flicked it away and as it was so heavy it landed right next to me - onto Bonnie!!! She flicked it and I then realised it was actually a leech!!! I of course being the great leader that I am was very cool and calm and didn't distract the girls from Toni's very important fire talk. Ok - I lie!! I freaked out!!!! I started screaming and all the girls started panicking and jumped up to check themselves when they realised what was going on. I was half laughing and half freaking out when I realised I just had a blood sucking leaech on my neck. Ange killed it with the trusty old salt and then everyone checked my neck to see if I was bleeding. They then noticed the HUGE snail trail up my back where the leach obviously crawled to get to my blood.

After calming down after the leech incident Toni finished off her fire segment by showing the girls how to light a fire using a magnifying glass.

The girls then took part in a very cool 'Survivor Fire Challenge' which Sacha had rigged up. It was awesome as each team had to build a fire and then light it. The challenge was to see which fire could burn through the string the quickest which would then raise their flag.

Tayla and Lizzie were very excited to have won, especially as half their team had to leave at lunch time.

To finish off the day (6 1/2 hours later!) the girls all sat down and wrote a few of their feelings about the day in their camp manual. We then sang the 'Virtue' song together which we have been learning as we visit each ward for their ward conference.

We had a fantastic day together and hopefully the girls learnt lots while having fun together.


Just as we thought the day was over the Deloraine girls broke out a huge water fight. Sarah and I actually hatched the plan together with them and let them know when it would be a good time to do it as we didn't want it to cut out our plans of sitting down together at the end and writing down some thoughts about the day. Because we had talked to them about it we thought we were safe - boy were we wrong! First of all Sarah got drenched. I decided it was time to put the camera away as I didn't want it to get wet. Toni and I were diligently signing the girls camp manuals so I thought I was safe for sure as I had a book in my hand. I was VERY wrong!!! I got soaked and I'm not even sure who did it to me now - either Leia or Makayla. In the end a few of us were very drenched but it was a lot of fun. You actually can't tell how drenched we were in this photo.

Tayla and Makayla will be getting paid back big time at camp in January for getting us despite us working out when the water fight would be happening.


Be ready girls as you are going to regret ever messing with the stake YW presidency!!