Key Man: Day 6 - The End is Nigh!

While it may have been Friday the 13th, the date didn’t affect us much here at Patton Campus. We started out our Friday with an impressive flag raising ceremony performed by LT-1, otherwise known as Indecisive Chapter. They memorized and recited a poem, “Toast to the Flag” by John Jay Daly, and everything was really cool. Xander Foly of Les Freres Chapter says “I don’t like poems that don’t rhyme, so that poem was really cool.”

After the poem we headed off to breakfast and from there, we sat down ready hear the “Taking It Home” workshop set up by the JO’s. Jarrid Baker from Thunda Squirrels Chapter “...learned how to bring home what I learned in Key Man to share with my chapter,” and Alex Spence from Wolfpack Chapter “will be taking a lot home about doing the right ritual and making the right moves in the opening.”

From there, it was off to Degree Practice, where the Key Men engaged in their second to last rehearsal before they performed the degrees for everyone that night. Once finished, Wombat Chapter gave a inspirational Ceremony of Light and Alex Spence noted that “they did it will, especially for just one week of practice.” After the ceremony everyone went to lunch and we had tacos! Everyone enjoyed the tacos, Adam Neubauer said “It was delicious, I love tacos!” Mitchell Benoit led his table in an origami folding session and the table ended up covered in paper cranes and dragons.

If the 13th brought anything, it was only a little rain. It did prevent us from holding the Sports Finals outside, so instead we held Volleyball, Kickball, Dodgeball, and Ultimate Frisbee in the Gym with a game of the newly created Ninja (a big hit with the campers) going on in the Atrium. Everyone had a great time with the sports. Les Freres Chapter won kickball with the winning runs scored by Xander Foly and Noah Snowdon, but a great team effort was required for the win. Dibbs Chapter won Ultimate Frisbee and Dodgeball, and Wombat Chapter won Volleyball. Ninja captivated many campers and Alex Spence spoke about to us about parts of the game. He says "It was really fun, we all played fair. It got intense and we had to move fast.”

Friday may be the last full day of Key Man but that doesn’t mean that there’s no work to be done. It was induction day at Patton Campus where all the hard work the Key Men have put in over the past week paid off. Key Men cleaned up after sports, putting on their suits and got gussied up. After some orientations with new members, everyone prepared for the ceremonies of our induction. The degree teams were all amazing, with one of the best DeMolay Degree’s most of us have ever seen. After the degrees everyone met back in the cafeteria for snack and then were released for free time.

Despite the rain earlier in the day everyone was still interested in water as the swimming pool was really crowded. Sadly, however, all good things must come to and after free time ended the Key Men headed off to bed for their last night at Key Man 2010.

Tomorrow, Saturday, will be our last day here at Patton and after closing sessions everyone will say their goodbyes, and most likely exchange contact information, because the friends you make at Key Man are friends you will have forever. We’ll leave you with this quote from Tucker Daland which pretty much sums up how everyone feels about Key Man “Key Man was a lot of fun and it definitely met my expectations, it was really easy to meet people and make a lot of good friends and I learned a lot of new games. I would defiantly come back to Key Man, because it is fun beyond belief!”

Signing off for the last time!

JO Team Three - Chris Labaw, Alex Rauschenberger, Anthony Kallhoff, and Zane MacLeod