Raingutter Regatta

With 2 scouts and one scout leader in the house we attend a lot of Scouting activities. Em and Rachael have weekly meetings and I have planning for the Brownie meeting, plus there is usually one or 2 events to attend. In February there was a community wide event, that they called "Scouting the Deep Blue Sea". Our community has over 50 troops and it is fun to get together with other girls in our area. Emma and Rachael always see girls they know from church, school, and sports when we participate in these events. Megan is eager to join a troop next year, when she'll be in kindergarten and can join as a Daisy.

Scouting the Deep Blue Sea was full of activities. They did activities to earn badges called "Navy Pride" and "Aquaculture", so they had stations throughout the day on topics ranging from the Bay, to Navy Boats, famous Naval Women, to pearls. They had a lot of hands on activities but I think their favorite part was the Raingutter Regatta. This is a Boy Scout event that we borrowed for our ocean theme. Each girl had a boat to put together and paint.

We got the boats a few weeks before the event. Jim and the girls worked in the garage, sanding and painting. He took them out to the store to pick out sail decorations and paint for the boats. Jim also helped with the placement and gluing of the mast and rutter. Emma put Orcas on her sail and painted waves along the hull of the boat. then she named it "Harvey Charley Jr. Pants size 8". (no, I don't know why). Rae painted stripes on her boat and put hippos, elephants, giraffes and zebras on her sail. Jim had to reposition the stickers so they were evenly balanced. She was upset at first but it turned out to be a very wise decision.

I wasn't with Emma during the event but checked with her at lunch to find out that she came in 9th in her heat of about 20 girls. After lunch Rachael's group did the regatta. There were 24 girls in the heat, there were 4 lanes and each girl raced 4 times. It was fun watching Rachael. She had her game face on and it was obvious the competition was exciting to her. The Brownies were great at cheering each other on even if boats weren't moving well. Rachael watched for her name and jumped up to her lane for her races. They each placed their boat in a raingutter lane, put one hand behind their back, and in the other held a straw to their mouth. Then they blew the boats down the lane. Rachael was great at blowing and moved her boat well. She was in her element and after winning one of the races by just a hair, she picked up her foot, pulled her arms to her tummy and gave a silent "yes". Then she congratulated the others, encouraged the next girls up and took her seat. I was so proud of her. Rachael wound up with the best score in her group, so she would race again in the finals.

Emma was also proud when she found out Rachael was in the finals. There were 7 girls in the finals ranging from Daisy (kindergarten) to Seniors (highschool). All of the girls, leaders and parents gathered to watch, as the finalists each raced 4 times. It was cute seeing little Rachael racing big girls. Emma and her troop cheered Rachael on as did Rae's Brownie troop. Rachael kept looking over to Emma and grinning. Rachael raced well and wound up coming in 3rd overall. she went on stage with the 1st and 2nd place winners both of whom were in highschool and they presented her with a trophy. She was a gracious winner and said nice things about the other girls boats. I was proud of Rachael for doing so well but also for being so gracious. And I was extremely proud of Emma for being such a great supporter and for doing her best.