History of Venturing Crew 61

Crew 61 was started on July 1, 2003. Although it may seem relatively young, it is already the oldest continuously active Venturing Crew in the Northeast Iowa Council. When it was started, the key draw was to offer a major high adventure trip on almost an annual basis, with the first trip announced as a high adventure to Yellowstone National Park the following summer. This immediately drew in several Chartering Youth Members, enough to officially form the crew. The original chartering crew members were David Overman, Sam Duneman, Clint Mausser, Brian Pfeiler and Ben Kurt, four of which are Eagle Scouts. The chartering/founding advisor was Terry Demmer and the first Associate Advisors and Crew Committee members were Roger Wesetemeier and Chris Demmer. Our Crew was first chartered by the American Legion Post #137 from Dyersville until the following year when the Dyersville Sportsman's Club accepted the role as our Charter Organization.

Throughout the first year the crew planned several other activities and training events, most were geared more to older members as compared to the closely affiliated Boy Scouting program that often focuses on advancement and activities for younger inexperienced scouts.

2004 was our first full year of operations. The first half of the year was primarily used to prepare for our first major trip to Yellowstone in late June, planning details and acquiring the necessary personal and crew gear to make the trip. The trip was a fantastic success and there were a lot of stories, pictures, and a crew mascot, a can of "SPAM" lunch meat that returned with us after the 3,000+ mile trip. Members from the crew that fall started to learn more about longer backpacking trips as it was decided to start planning a larger backpacking trip for our next high adventure.

During 2005, Crew 61 went on it's second major high adventure trip, a backpacking trip to Isle Royale National Park, located entirely on a 50 mile long island in Lake Superior. That same year was a second rock climbing event at Backbone State Park, where the Crew served as the first testing group for the new "Off-site Climbing Program for the Northeast Iowa Council that would.

In late 2006 the Crew officially was able to become co-ed, with the addition of Jessica Drees as an Associate Crew Advisor. However, the crew didn't have it's first female members until June of 2007 when Jessica relocated to Arizona and Karen Althoff joined as our female advisor.

In 2007 the Crew continued to expand by adding several highly energetic youth members that would shape the crew for following years. That summer our third major high adventure trip was completed, a massive 9 day trip (3,000+ miles) to the deserts and mountains of Utah, including over night stops at 2 National Parks (Arches & Canyonlands), 1 mountain summit (Mt. Timpanogos), many great shorter hikes, spectacular viewpoints and several awesome points of interest throughout the journey. 

During 2008, Crew 61 celebrated it's 5th Anniversary. Membership has continued to steadily grow each year and more events have been added to the calendar. The year began with an overnight lock-in event while skiing at Sundown. That summer, Crew 61 contributed a major help to building a large majority of the new Navigation Course at Camp Klaus and developing the training materials. A canoe trip with Troop 60 to the Upper Iowa River and participating in the first ever council Venturing activity (Venturepalooza) were a few highlights. Additionally Crew 61 became the first Crew in the Northeast Iowa Council to present the Eagle Scout Award to a youth. A December ski outing at Chestnut capped off the busy year.

2009 was a banner year for Crew 61. During the spring, the Crew organized and staffed a training event on land navigation that over 40 Boy Scouts attended on the newly completed Camp Klaus Navigation Course. In July, the Crew went on a joint high adventure trip (our 4th high adventure) with Dyersville Troop 60 to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.  August we participated in the 2nd Venturepalooza event, where members of Crew 61 were elected to fill 2 of the 3 cabinet positions for the newly formed Venturing Officers Cabinet. During the fall the crew took a day trip to go hiking at Effigy Mounds National Monument near McGregor, Iowa.  During the year, we added 3 more Associate Advisors, 2 from youth members that had aged out. Our registered youth membership exceeded 25 people for the first time ever. More astonishing was that of those registered, an astounding 90%+ were primarily registered with Crew 61!  At the end of 2009 our crew had it's first major change-over in Crew leadership.  Crew Advisor Terry Demmer became the NEIC Venturing Chairman and Mike Puetz stepped up from Crew Associate Advisor to fill the position of Crew Advisor. Terry remains with Crew 61 as the Crew Committee Chairman.

Activities for 2010 continued with another incredible high adventure to Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana.  A record sixteen members of Crew 61 boarded the historic Amtrak "Empire Builder" route in LaCrosse, Wisconsin and headed west, bound for the majestic mountains of Glacier National Park with a week of seeing the sites and hiking out into the wild backcountry to experience the awesome sights and fantastic experiences.

The only way that we could possibly surpass this year is to start looking ahead to 2011 and 2012... Possibilities include Acadia National Park along the Atlantic Ocean in Maine and/or going west to California and the sites of Yosemite National Park!  Sign up will begin soon so be ready so you don't miss out!