Troop 1916 Goes Venturing
Venturing is a great program for scouts who are at least 13 years old and have completed the eighth grade. Venturing’s purpose is to offer the older, more mature scouts in a troop build character, promote citizenship, and develop personal and mental fitness. The program emphasizes adventure, leadership, personal growth, and community service.
Troops can design and implement a full Venturing program that helps their scouts find out about more their about their interests, their capabilities, their limits, and earn awards for their achievements in Venturing.
An elite group of six scouts from Troop 1916 headed off to Camp Highroad near Middleburg, Virginia, on November 2-3, 2014, to give Venturing a try by enjoying the thrills and spills (hopefully not too many of those) of their high ropes course that they designed themselves.
After the short drive to Camp Highroad, we set up camp and had a dinner of Dutch Oven delights, including pineapple upside down cake! It’s amazing to watch a bunch of the older guys just get stuff done when they want to eat. We sat around the fire and lamented at how poorly our fantasy football teams were doing.
We woke to a quick breakfast, broke down camp and then headed over to the ropes course. After a safety briefing from Waldo (yes, his name was Waldo), the boys headed upwards to the trees to engage in the ropes course. There was no question that two scouts, Nino and Tommy, won the troop’s unofficial Award for Bravery (or simply the fact that fear had not reached their brains).
Venturing is a great part of the scouting experience. Here’s to many more outings for the more senior scouts, who really did seem to enjoy being out without the little fellas around for once.
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