The 2024 International Pathfinder Camporee commenced on August 6, 2024. For the first time in its history, it was held in Gillette, Wyoming’s third-largest city (approx. 33,500). Though many memories were forged through the event’s decades-long run in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the new site offered new potential.

One of the cornerstones of the quinquennial camporee was community service. Thousands of Pathfinder youths, club leaders, and other attendees embraced the opportunity to demonstrate the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in tangible ways to the host town and its residents. Nearly four dozen projects took place throughout the week; they occupied service categories such as the distribution of food and other needed items, companionship for seniors and veterans, and municipal beautification.

Cemetery Beautification

One of the beautification projects took place at Mount Pisgah Cemetery. Monuments, tombstones, and crosses commemorating military veterans suffer adulteration from hard water and mineral deposits by default through the course of time. Camporee volunteers participating in this particular venture received a succinct tutorial in removing these deposits.

Darin Edmonds, superintendent for the Campbell County Cemetery District and supervisor of this endeavor, brimmed with appreciation for this partnership between Pathfinders and Gillette.

“The relationship this community has with this cemetery is a special one,” said Edmonds. “When you look at the final resting place of these loved ones, there’s a lot of community pride in what we do here. … now they can come and say, ‘Wow! It looks really nice; everything looks brand new.’ And so we have the opportunity to do that with the Pathfinders’ help, and I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity.”

Some of the participants shared their perspectives as well. One noteworthy example comes from Oscar, a Master Guide with the Wingate (North Carolina) Lions Pathfinder Club: “It was really touching, the speech that [Edmonds] gave. You can actually feel the emotion … when he was telling us how important this place is, and how much we take for granted the people that have passed away … us coming out here to do this is a great impact for [the community].”

Cemeteries may often be neglected, but they often comprise the remains of lives well-lived. This clean-up effort was aptly described as a “worthwhile attempt to restore the human dignity God has gifted to anyone and everyone who has ever walked this sin-marred yet still beautiful planet.”

Debris Pickup

Another beautification project covered a much broader territory. Dozens of Pathfinders joined forces with the Campbell County Landfill to pick up all kinds of debris from road shoulders and other stretches of land throughout Gillette. Ubiquitous waste is a stark reality for a town that recently experienced a population spike due to an industrial boom.

“This is just a good community service project. The community sees it, things get cleaned up, it’s just helpful for everybody,” said Joey Schipman, who works at the scale house for the landfill. “This isn’t something that people want to do … it’s a never-ending problem … just getting out here and getting it picked up and leaving the community cleaner that it was when [the Pathfinders] started, it’s great. I hope people see it because it’s a really good thing that they’re doing,” she added.

The original article was published on the North American Division website.