Battle Lines The Official Newsletter of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association

Spring 2007

Scouts visit the Daniel Lady Home

With education of the public, especially the children which GBPA feels is our future for preserving our heritage, as one of our mission goals, we have been able to promote and encourage the Daniel Lady Farm as a wonderful camp site for Boy and Girl Scout Troops and school groups when they come to visit Gettysburg. GBPA does not charge for their stay at The Farm; we only ask that they do some kind of community project while on the property. This year GBPA has been fortunate to have scouts visiting us on two separate occasions.

On April 6th a caravan of boy scouts from Connecticut arrived at The Farm for a four-day stay in Gettysburg to work on a badge. They loved the location and were so excited to investigate the house, barn and fields, especially after going on their 3 hikes, ghost tour, etc. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate as well as hoped for and the Gettysburg area had its worse spring storm that weekend. But, being dedicated Boy Scouts, they continued their campout in the two-day downpour even when the barn and pole building were offered as refuge. GBPA was told by the leaders that this was part of the boys’ endurance training and that even though their clothes didn’t entirely dry out while hanging in the barn, this was one of the best trips that the troop had ever taken. Because of the rain, they didn’t get to complete all of their community project tasks. The boys were very apologic and asked if they could come back and try again. That offer was not refused! We recently received a $100 donation from the troop with a note that they hope to see us in two years.

The last weekend in April saw the arrival of 21 girl scouts and leaders along with their counterpart of 30 cub scouts and leaders from Mechanicsburg, PA. A ghost tour was arranged for the group on Saturday evening. On Sunday, the girls, under the direction of Leader Kris Bernard, planted flower bulbs up in our Memory Garden, which had been donated and delivered on Saturday by Philip and Elsie Morey of Gettysburg.

The boys’ community project was to build some bird and bat houses and install them. As part of the project, Ray Wenzel, a GBPA Board member, invited ‘The Birdman’, Mr. Fred Clark, to come speak to both groups about the local birds of Adams County, their characteristics, and the true facts about bats. Their leader, Steve Bernard, guided the boys as they built and painted the houses on site. They will be coming down at a later time to install them.

In addition, a special request was made to see if they would be able to make a floating goose nest for on the pond. GBPA has had some regular guests over the past several years. Migrating geese stopped and built nests, but the foxes have always eaten the eggs. Steve rose to the occasion & built a wonderful floating nest. Now we just need someone with a small boat that can help us secure the nest out in the middle of the pond. If anyone has the opportunity to help us with this request, please contact Ray Wenzel at (717) 630-9974. Ray and Steve worked on the project for over a month and it was well worth it to see the excitement in the boys and girls eyes, especially when the floating nest was launched and it worked!

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