Rise to The Challenge!
At Patriot Camp we believe one of the most important things campers can take home with them from camp is a love for this wonderful country and the knowledge of our founding texts and heroes that made The United States what it is today. Each year we offer an exciting memorization challenge for all Patriot Camp participants.
We feel strongly that knowledge and understanding of important founding documents, as well as other American texts, will empower citizens to recognize and fight for the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution.
We would like to invite ALL Patriot Camp participants (Teen Leaders as well) to take the Patriot Challenge. Below is a list of important things to know about the challenge and the requirements.
- We will only be working on some of these items (Preamble, National Anthem, Bill of Rights) during camp. For campers to achieve, it is vital they work on this at home.
- Campers will only be able to pass off memorized items with designated leaders each day before and after camp at the Patriot Challenge table Monday through Thursday of Camp. (There will be no exceptions to this, as we are all volunteers and do not have the resources to accommodate it any other way. The Patriot Challenge is named the way it is because it is just that, a challenge, and we encourage campers to work on this throughout the year to be able to achieve this.)
- There are 3 levels to the Patriot Challenge and we encourage campers to participate in all of them throughout their years at camp. (As campers grow, they can advance their knowledge by achieving each one, and we encourage them to come back year after year and memorize them all.)
- Campers can only sign off each Patriot Challenge once. (They cannot do the same challenge year after year.)
- For campers that require a school IEP please contact Laurie Wood, woody96@earthlink.com or 801-358-3070 before camp to make accommodations to some of these challenges. (Please feel free to reach out to her for any other questions you may have regarding the Patriot Challenge).
- Each challenge builds off of the others and becomes more challenging; the awards get more rewarding as well.
- At the beginning of camp each camper will notify the Patriot Challenge Table which challenge they are going to attempt to sign off. Campers will come to the Patriot Challenge Table where there will be trained volunteers ready to sign off the challenges.
Bead Awards:
Each challenge comes with a bead that can be worn on the camp lanyard. Most campers will not finish the Patriot Challenge the first year at camp, but they can wear their beads on their lanyards each year to see how they are progressing year to year. Each year the campers try again and will receive a bead for each challenge signed off that new year. Once a camper has achieved all of the beads for each challenge in that year a final bead of completion will be given. Each year this bead will symbolize that year’s theme of camp–a bell for “Let Freedom Ring,” a flag for “The Flag Still Stands for Freedom,” etc. On Friday each camper who completed the challenge will be recognized during closing ceremonies, given a certificate of achievement, and awarded the prize for that Challenge.
>> Download the Patriot Challenge Requirements
Please see the following requirements for each Challenge:
(first verse)
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
(last verse)
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Only the following:
- Legislative Branch
- Executive Branch
- Judicial Branch
- States’ Powers
- Amendments
- Federal Powers
- Ratification
(as follows:)
- Freedom of:
a. Religion
b. Speech
c. Press
d. Assembly
e. Petition - Right to bear arms
- No quartering of soldiers
- No unreasonable search & seizure
- Right to remain silent
- Right to a speedy trial by jury
- Right to a speedy trial by jury in civil cases
- No cruel or unusual punishments
- Rights reserved to the people
- Rights reserved to the states
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
(a portion of what is commonly referred to as the preamble of the DOI)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
Article 1
Legislative Branch – the U.S. Congress makes the laws for the United States. Congress has two parts, called “Houses,” the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Article 2
Executive Branch – the President, Vice-President, Cabinet, and Departments under the Cabinet Secretaries carry out the laws made by Congress.
Article 3
Judicial Branch – the Supreme Court decides court cases according to US Constitution. The courts under the Supreme Court decide criminal and civil court cases according to the correct federal, state, and local laws.
Article 4
States’ powers – States have the power to make and carry out their own laws. State laws that are related to the people and problems of their area. States respect other states laws and work together with other states to fix regional problems.
Article 5
Amendments – The Constitution can be changed. New amendments can be added to the US Constitution with the approval by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress (67, 281) and three-fourth vote by the states (38).
Article 6
Federal powers – The Constitution and federal laws are higher than state and local laws. All laws must agree with the US Constitution.
Article 7
Ratification – The Constitution was presented to George Washington and the men at the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, Representatives from twelve out of the thirteen original states signed the Constitution. From September 1787 to July 1788, the states met, talked about, and finally voted to approve the Constitution.
November 19, 1863
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
St. John’s Church – Richmond, Virginia
March 23, 1775
"There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
- I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed...
- Success is not measured by where you are in life, but the obstacles you’ve overcome.
- The happiest people are those who do the most for others. The most miserable are those who do the least.
- Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands.
- The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women.
- If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there’s shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.
- I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.
- Lord, I’m going to hold steady on to You and You’ve got to see me through... Twant me, ‘twas the Lord. I always told him, I trust to you. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me, and He always did.
- Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
- But where, say some, is the King of America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain... so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king.
- Our present condition is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a constitution withouta name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence.
These are the times that try men’s souls” American Crisis Number I. Thomas Paine
These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: T’is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared, that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER,” and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to GOD.
