BALOO stands for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation, a training program that helps Cub Scout leaders learn to take their packs camping safely and confidently. It combines online learning with hands-on overnight training, and at least one BALOO-trained adult must attend a pack overnighter. Those leaders return to their own towns ready to get more young people outdoors and involved.
Hosting that training is a feather in the cap of any “Scout town,” and for many years, it felt like a given that Chelmsford would host it at Sunny Meadow. We had the facilities, the space, and deep connections with Scouting. We also had something you could see just by walking around: Eagle Scout projects showing what young people could accomplish for their community.
There were so many projects that we had a popular scavenger hunt to find a bunch of them, then talk about what the Scouts had built and how their work improved the place for everyone. Sunny Meadow was both a training ground and a living example of what those leaders could bring home to their own communities. To me, those were the golden years of Scouting and Chelmsford.
Now BALOO is no longer held at Sunny Meadow, and the campsites sit empty. Eagle Scout projects are being removed, with more slated to be retired or closed. Scouts cannot even hold their expo on the common. When I look at what was once a thriving, multiuse site, it feels like a cold wind blows through, with only echoes of the laughter that used to fill it.
Even now, I smile remembering the hundreds of Scout leaders who came through town over the years and said, “We need a place like this in our town.” That meant something. We had created a place that inspired people to go home and do more for their own kids and communities.
Those visiting Scouts and leaders are gone, and projects are quietly disappearing. I remember what we had, what we built together, and how alive that place felt. It is a different world now, and a little sadder.