Drawn to Jesus: Wisconsin Pathfinder Fair 2025
- PZ
- 8 minutes ago
- 5 min read
While Pathfinder clubs may choose to meet all year round (including the summer), the official Pathfinder year in Wisconsin goes from September to May. The year begins in September with a camporee (whether it be sponsored by the local Conference, the Lake Union, or CYE/International Camporee), and ends in May with Pathfinder Fair. At Pathfinder Fair, participants gather together to learn about and worship Jesus, to celebrate what they've accomplished over the past year (in the form of watching each other's year-end videos), and to participate in challenging events that will put their skill and teamwork to the test.
This year's Pathfinder Fair theme was Drawn to Jesus: as we would be centering everything around the piloting of a new Magnets Honor, and we wanted to illustrate the magnetic pull that Jesus' love has on us. Glen Morrow, who has been our Conference's Pathfinder Coordinator and sits on the NAD Honors Committee, planned the programming and also spoke for it. In his talks, he dresses up like a magician and does a few illusions--all of which he explains are not real magic and reveals how they are done. The real magic, he explains, is the wonderful science of God's creation and the miracles that Jesus does for His people. Then he moves on to explaining the science behind magnets and does some exciting experiments with the Pathfinders. Every time, when he does an experiment, he asks the Pathfinders: "is this magic?" and they respond with the phrase that he's instructed them to use: "NO, it's magnets." Of course, that response coming from 200 Pathfinders, was enthusiastic and caused many of leaders to cover their ears from the sheer volume of it. Along with the talks, there were many hands-on stations where kids could learn the practical side of how magnets work. Many of these stations were fun (learning about electromagnets, water magnets, attraction and repulsion, and so on), but one stood out as especially memorable: a station where kids could take apart appliances to find the magnets inside of them.
Along with the theme, Pastor Zack and Glen went around the camp during the weekend to make a silly video where they "made Pathfinders disappear." This was based on viral videos by Siegfried and Joy, where the "magicians" strive to make participants disappear, but in a very incompetent way so that viewers can obviously still see the "disappeared" participants. Bystanders play along with the joke and act amazed, even though the "magic trick" was not done well. The videos use irony and humor to poke fun at magicians and people who take themselves too seriously, and in the same vein, our video with Pathfinders was to be lighthearted and fun, and the entire event was designed to discourage actual magic. You can watch that video HERE.
As a side note: every year we have a contest for Pathfinders to try their hand at designing the special event patch that is handed out at Pathfinder Fair. This year's design winner was Haiven Evans, from the Watertown Sentinels Pathfinder Club. Haiven is a young artist who has also designed Pathfinder-based art to be used in her community's public downtown displays. You can learn more about her art HERE.
Pathfinder year-end videos have replaced the displays and floats of years ago as our preferred way of communicating the awesome experiences Pathfinder Clubs had and the accomplishments they've achieved over the past year. We encourage Pathfinder Clubs to produce videos that not only communicate this basic information, but also are appealing and would make viewers want to support or join Pathfinders themselves. If you missed Pathfinder Fair, but would like to watch these videos, you can hop over to our YouTube channel HERE and see the exciting things that happened among Wisconsin Pathfinders during the 2024-2025 year!
The Fair Events take place on Sunday morning, and are a test of each Pathfinder Club's teamwork. There are always three events, and this year they were particularly challenging. In the Books of the Old Testament Relay, Pathfinders take turns running up to a board and, one-by-one, placing books of the Old Testament in the correct order. They do this using wooden boards and blocks that each club has to create for themselves, and it becomes extra challenging when you realize that each book out of place adds 10 seconds to their time.
In the First Aid Relay, Pathfinders have to take turns running up and tending to a "victim's" wounds. Once they have bandaged them in all the required ways, a final two Pathfinders are tasked with making an improvised stretcher to carry the "victim" to the finish line.
In the Trebuchet Contest, you guessed it: Pathfinders have to build a real-life trebuchet (if you don't know what that is, it's essentially a catapult with a sling). Utilizing Medieval engineering, Pathfinders have to build a machine out of wood, using only rope lashing and a few approved pieces of hardware, that will launch a 6oz water balloon as far as they can. Two ribbons were awarded for this event: one for how fast they could construct the machine, and the other for how far the balloon went.
Don't forget the basic elements that make a Pathfinder Fair what it is: Camping and Marching. Pathfinder Clubs camped around the main-camp side (as in the spring there are lots of ticks on the wild-side) and many clubs made their own food (although many still took advantage of the cafeteria option). They also marched in a camp-wide parade, which is a preparation for the Camp Meeting parade that will take place in June. Saturday night was the annual March and Drill Competition, where clubs got to test out their basic (and sometimes fancy) routines. That event ended with an all-Pathfinder competition of Simon Says, where Pathfinders had to test their listening abilities and only perform marching commands that were preceded by "Simon Says."
Among many awards that were handed out during the weekend was the prestigious 200 Club award. This is given at the end of the year to Club Directors who excelled in turning in monthly reports to the conference, hosting special events for their club (like Induction, Investiture, and Pathfinder Sabbaths), leading their club in community service, and attending important events (like LeaderShop, Winter Retreat, and Pathfinder Fair). This year, three clubs came away with 200 Club: Watertown Sentinels, West Milwaukee Serafines, and Wisconsin Academy Voyageurs. While all of our clubs are led by awesome leaders who are worth celebrating, we commend our 200 Club winners for going above and beyond in their efforts to meet the highest of standards.
In retrospect, the weekend was a lot of fun and a huge blessing. Nearly 300 attended, including adults, and most clubs participated in all of the events. We are so proud of the effort our Wisconsin Pathfinders have put into this year, and we are so blessed to have an awesome team of Pathfinder Club directors and leaders who volunteer their time to minister to our young people. Not to mention the awesome help from Camp Wakonda staff in helping make this event possible, and our counsel of Pathfinder Coordinators who make everything run smoothly. God has truly blessed our Pathfinder Club Ministry this year, and we look forward to what he will do next. We'll see you all in September (12-14) at Wisconsin Camporee right back at Camp Wakonda! And if you're wanting something to do in the summer, don't forget WIBAR (Wisconsin Bike-a-Rama) where you can bike from Green Bay to Rib Mountain (Wausau).
