Today I push off for 6 weeks at Camp Barstow to return for my 6th summer as camp director. So much work has gone into getting to this point. We have spent the last 10 months recruiting troops, hiring staff, having zoom after zoom and answering lots of emails. I once asked my friend James Barton (camp director in Charleston, SC) if he ever thought to keep track of how many hours he put into this job during the off season. He told me after he got to 1000 hours he quit counting. I don't know if it's been that much but the old joke about 1 hour a week does not apply when you are a 6 week employee who has a 12 month job.

I had a troop save over $125 with me this week by placing a big order on my Thrifty Merit Badges category on Shopify. As a reminder I have sourced thousands of modern era merit badges and am selling them at a steep discount over the Scout Shop price in store. This is a great way for me to recycle these and for troops to be thrifty and save money.

On Santeeswapper I have 297 live auctions this week. These include camp patches, T-shirts, pins and more. YES I have actually had some success selling Boy Scout T-shirts mostly from my home camp and the OA lodge I grew up in. I think a T-shirt might have more nostalgia than patches in some way. Over on OApatch I have 77 live auctions with some Dance Team patches leading the charge.