A note from Terry ...

In 2003... I was asked to start a Venturing Crew, and I thought to myself, "Why would anyone want to get involved in Venturing?" It was viewed by many as a competing program to the long established programs of Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting. Venturing is different.. VERY different... Venturing is high adventure... it is outdoors... it allows girls... it doesn't really have uniforms... it doesn't involve constant rank advancement...  There were so many reasons not to do it, Why would I seriously want to do this?

There is a rapidly growing need to provide a way for today's youth (both scouts and non-scouts) to get involved in nature and find adventure.  Today's youth are growing up in much more technological world. It is of sizes never imaginable only 20 years ago. Today you can learn everything from sitting at a computer in the comfort of your home. You can make friends with people from around the world while never leaving the living room sofa. It seems so great and wonderful... but is this really what we want to do? Where is the adventure? Where is the interaction? Where is the challenge? How can I help fix this?

I believe that the only true way to develop an appreciation for the real world is to know first hand how valuable it is and to learn the lessons that it teaches. Going out and seeing it, touching it, hearing it and living it first hand. Looking out over a mountain scene with your own eyes, feeling the wind on your face and the warmth of the sun as it vanishes in the distance.

From my experience, when I reached the rank of Eagle Scout in October of 1994, I thought that I had got out of scouting everything that I could.  I had earned the merit badges, learned the lessons and developed the tools of the Eagle Scout.  Never was I so wrong in my presumptions and what was to come after that day. Because I enjoyed the scouting program I continued to stay actively involved, serving actively in many scouting leadership positions, wherever I happened to be living.  Several years had passed and I remembered the charge placed upon me at my Eagle Scout ceremony... "to give back to scouting what I took out of it".  At that point I realized that the more I gave back to scouting, the more I was still taking from it. The more that I took from it only made me want to give back that much more. What I found out was that Scouting is not just uniforms and badges and meetings, it is the people you meet, the places you go, the incredible experiences, and the countless ways that the programs of scouting help to develop strong moral citizens from today's youth who will someday help to make the world of tomorrow a better place.  Many of the same goals that are embodied in the Venturing program.

To make this group successful, I had to think differently and what better program then one that was inherently "different"... Venturing.  So I asked,  "What did I want to see every person get out of their experience with Crew 61, including myself?"

• Experience real "High Adventure" opportunities that will be challenging both physically and mentally.
• Provide a way to get out and experience our real world... not the one they see on the tv or the computer.
  
• Develop and enhance lifelong leadership and management skills.
• Develop a strong sense of teamwork based on trust, pride and friendship with all members of the team.
• Teach how to conserve our resources through "Leave No Trace" methods.
• Meet some new friends and have fun.

I hope that you enjoy your time as a Venturer with Crew 61. Take everything you can from this experience.  Use your advisors... they want to help.  Learn some new skills.  Expand your limits. Go on a high adventure trip.  Like a good investment, only later on will you realize the wealth of knowledge that you will have gained.  Maybe then you will find your own way to try to give something back.

Terry Demmer
Crew 61 Advisor -- 2003-2009