Padres Scout Night: July 16, 2010!

(photos coming soon!)

On Friday, July 16, 2010 - thousands of Scouts and families converged upon Petco Park, home of the Padres for our first Padres Scout Night of the year! With the Boy Scouts of America covering nearly 10% of attendees at the game, our Scouts cheered on as the Padres beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 12-1!

The excitement of the evening, however, came not simply because of a fantastic game played by our home team, but also from the patient Scouts and families awaiting the unique opportunity to participate in the overnight campout.

As the game came to an end and the fans left the stadium, over a thousand Scouts, family members, and friends waited anxiously for the next part of the evening to begin. Thousands of sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks, and more had been dropped off prior to the game, and as Scouts were able to pick up their belongings in preparation for the campout, they were treated to a postgame snack of hot dogs, cookies, sodas, and more.

Finally, the time came when they opened up access to the field and the thousand lucky overnight campers spread out across the green looking for a place where they could relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. With sleeping bags, pillows, air mattresses in hand, our Scouts got a chance to enjoy the movie "Rookie of the Year" on the jumbo screen.

While at first, Scouts could be found running around the field, taking photos, and visiting their friends, soon a peaceful silence fell upon the stadium as tired feet and eyes found rest beneath the bright lights of the stadium and the night sky. Of course, by peaceful silence we also mean against a backdrop of white noise as leaf blowers and pressure washers punctuated the silence throughout the night as Petco staff worked to clean the stadium.

Not before long, the night was over, and as families packed up and headed home, we were able to celebrate another successful Scout Night out at Petco Park. Many thanks go out to all those who made this event a fantastic success, including the entire Padres organization and representative Logan Washburn.

Special thanks to BSA coordinators Brian Ruark and Conrad Olson as well as Vic Enchelmayer. The event would also not have been a great success without the volunteers who showed up early Friday afternoon and stayed halfway through the game to help check in overnight campers and collect gear, and of course the thousands of Scouts and families that came out to enjoy a night of great baseball, a fun movie, and a chance to lay on Petco field underneath the open night sky!