Spirit and Traditions

White Stag is a lot of fun. One of the first things you do at camp is make your own patrol flag and create your individual patrol yell. You'll need it too, because you won't be able to eat unless you can show a little spirit! You'll get to take part in campfires with plenty of enthusiastic songs.

And there will be quiet times, when you take a walk in the deep woods and, staring into a fire, are challenged to reflect on who you are and how you can become a better leader. You'll make new friends and likely leave camp with a list of your patrol members' email addresses and cell phone numbers.

White Stag touches you. It teaches you respect and concern for others. Hiking as a patrol, you will learn to look out for your fellow patrol members, to think about the entire team's needs and charactertistics. You will learn to trust your patrol leaders and counselors, and to follow them even to someplace you've never been before.

Most of our modern, civilized world is stripped of the shaping moments found in the White Stag Leadership Development Program. White Stag will influence you spiritually and emotionally. Even if you belong to a Boy or Girl Scout troop, a church, synagogue, temple, or other social group, it is unlikely that you have had the kinds of experiences you will find in White Stag. White Stag stirs in your hearts a desire to become a better person.

Each one of you wears the badge of the White Stag... I want you to treasure that badge when you go from here and remember that it has its message and meaning for you.

Hunters of old pursued the miraculous stag, not because they expected to kill it, but because it led them on in the joy of the chase to new trials and fresh adventures, and to capture happiness. You may look on that White Stag as the true spirit of Scouting, springing forward and upward, ever leading you onward and upward to leap over difficulties, to face new adventures in your active pursuit of the higher aims of Scouting—aims which bring you happiness.

These aims are to do you duty to God, to your country, and to your fellow man by carrying out the Scout Law In that way, each of you will help to bring about God's Kingdom upon earth—the reign of peace and good will.

The pursuit of the mythical White Stag is never ending. As humans, we can never achieve perfection, never know all there is about leadership. The arrow topped by the infinity sign used in the program indicates the never-ending process of leadership development, of moving towards the ideal in pursuing the White Stag. This symbol was first used by Béla Bánáthy on the cover of the original description of the White Stag program in 1963.

Choose the phase that sounds most fun and fits your age. Space is limited. Apply for camp today.