Citing More Severe Weather, Camporee Ends A Day Early
On Friday morning, August 9, the penultimate day of the 2024 International Pathfinder Camporee, an official notification on Facebook stated that due to the threat of more severe weather, the camporee would cancel most of its final day.
“Because the safety of all those gathered at the International Pathfinder Camporee is of utmost importance,” it stated, “the camporee leadership, in collaboration with North American Division…has reluctantly decided to finish the evening main stage nighttime program one day early, on Friday, August 9.”
The local Wyoming paper, the Gillette News Record, cited a National Weather Service meteorologist that heavy rain, wind gusts of 40-60 mph, lightning, and some hail would likely hit the area by Saturday afternoon.
Severe weather plagued the camporee almost from the outset, as high winds and rain lashed the Cam-plex on the camporee’s opening night, forcing leaders to cancel and reschedule activities while clubs huddled in tents and trailers to avoid the wet and cold.
Spectrum associate editor Raquel Mentor, who had been there all week posting images and videos on our social media, reported that by Friday, “People are over it.”
By Friday afternoon, she was already two hours south in a coffee shop.
Mentor had stayed with Pathfinders from the Lake Union, and said many clubs were choosing to skip the final day and leave early. After battling the elements for days, she added, “That’s the consensus that most people got to.”
Mentor spent Thursday night in her rental car for fear that rain, which had fallen off and on since the camporee started, would again soak tents and sleeping gear. “I got a midsize sedan to have the option,” she said, noting that past experience had prompted her planning ahead for this type of event.
A 5k running event, plus drilling and marching competitions took place as scheduled Friday morning, as did a parade. Many Pathfinders who participated wore jackets, bundled against the cold.
Samuel Girven, also part of Spectrum’s reporting team at the Camporee, described Friday’s atmosphere as “a bit like doomsday,” noting the windy, cloudy, and muddy conditions. “I passed a club director this morning who was desperately trying to book six hotel rooms via phone,” he added.
Sofia Lindgren, the third of Spectrum’s Camporee reporters, considered her Northern California Conference club among the lucky ones who avoided the worst of the weather’s impacts: “My group got off scot free—no damage to our camp at all.” But despite that good fortune, Lindgren felt let down, she said.
“I just feel disappointed and kind of cheated. I was talking to some locals, and they mentioned that this weather is normal for Wyoming in August. I feel like [leaders] could have planned better.”
On top of the Wyoming weather, Lindgren said that the Camporee’s timing close to the resumption of the school year meant some of the young Adventists would miss their first week of classes. “For multiple reasons, they should have done it much earlier,” she said.
Mentor added that leaders also could have planned better for health and hygiene protocols, noting the lack of hand sanitizer stations in camp, and no guidelines for preventing the transmission of illnesses like COVID, which according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has seen cases rise sharply this summer.
Despite the weather and the setbacks, some expressed their gratitude to the local Wyomingites who saw the area double in population for a week.
“For the Gillette community, we appreciate the hospitality you have shown,” wrote Alicia Woolsey Spade on Facebook. “The feedback that I have received from the youth clubs is that your community has been amazing. Thank you for hosting!”
Plans are underway to bring back the International Pathfinder Camporee to Gillette, Wyoming, in 2029.
Photos by Raquel Mentor for Spectrum.
