Canoeing on the Lake

By Sandy Vitellaro

My many years involved with Camp Fire have provided me with many wonderful
memories and experiences. Over the years as an adult member, my role originally
started as a co-leader to my daughter’s first grade group. Unfortunately, our leader
moved out of state so I took over the group.

In my early adult days in Camp Fire I was accompanying a group of Discovery
(middle school) and Horizon (high school) youth on a weekend camping trip which
included canoeing. I had never been canoeing before. I took the required canoeing
training. The training included knowing the parts of the canoe and paddle. We
were also taught the different paddling strokes, portaging, and how to determine
the depth of the water. I felt confident that I had it all down pat. I could name the
parts of the canoe and paddle, I knew the different strokes and when to use them,
and I felt confident that I could determine where the water was deep or shallow and
how to navigate around debris.

The day of our canoe trip we were choosing who would be in the three person
canoe. I decided that since this was my very first canoeing experience, I felt that I
should be with youth that had canoed before. I asked who has been canoeing? I
thought it would be a good idea for my maiden voyage to be with two others that
had been canoeing in the past. That seemed like a good idea.

My life lesson from that experience…… Know what question to ask. The other
two youth in my canoe had been canoeing before, but they never paddled. My
question should had been, who knows how to and has paddled a canoe? Little did
I know that we were three novice paddlers. From then on I gave serious thought to
how to pose my questions.