Well a great time was had by all who attended the Putnam County 8 TH Annual Explorer weekend which was hosted by the Lake Carmel Fire Dept.
A special word of thanks to our Chiefs for letting us uses the Department bus as our means of transportation to and from the event.
As we left to go up to the event we where blessed with wonderful bright sunny skies. Once we arrived we registered and then began to set up our campground area. Once that was finished our Explorers participated in various stages of training which there where many things for them to learn about. The groups where broken up so as to let everyone be able to mingle and meet new friends as well as some old ones. Then we all broke for a nice lunch which was supplied locally by Applebee's , after digesting the food our explorers then followed up with more training events which lasted till about 2:30 PM.
We all took a short break and then we where treated to a guest appearance by Stat Flight at 3 PM .They put on an excellent talk and demonstration which lasted about 1 hour. After that we all had some free time in which we took the Explorers swimming down at the lake , they all had a blast and they we returned to camp to prepare ourselves for dinner which again was put on by Applebee's and held at the Lake Carmel firehouse. After a very nice meal we headed back to the camp for some free time.
Lights out at 11 PM so that others may rest after a very busy and warm Saturday. We all woke up to a cloudy and misty Sunday morning but that didn't put a damper on things as we where treated to a wonderful breakfast. This was put on by the members of the Lake Carmel F. D. After this all the fun began with different competition events in which our fine young members not only held there own but walked away with 6 awards in total including the best Appearing Explorer Post .
There where groups from Westchester, Dutchess, Putnam and Rockland counties as well as NYC. This was not a surprise to us, as we know how well they are trained by our members, of our strong and proud department. Both Angelo Sposta and I (Robert Suhre) are very proud of all our members on there exemplary efforts that they always seem to put forward and always seem to succeed.
After the competition we where once again fed with a nice lunch put on by the Lake Carmel F. D So in closing we would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to all those who made this trip a huge success. We are looking forward to the next event we will be attending as well.
Explorers in attendance where : Nicky Melillo Jr, R J Suhre, Andrew Sposta, Andrew Mutz , Sam Sciavillo, Blythe Duckett, Michael Murphy, Max Billington and Peter Kennedy along with Post 700 advisers Angelo Sposta Sr and Robert Suhre
Submitted by Robert Suhre
