What is Venturers? It's a co-ed Boy-Scout group for teens and young adults 14-20. There are no uniforms, no badges, etc. Crews are
adventure based, and much like Odyssey of the Mind, create and plan their own adventures based on their interests..with adult help only in the form of safety-issues.The crew decided to sta
rt with a day at Mc Gimsey Park (San Antonio) copes challenge.It was a great day for working on team-building and trust. The crew learned the importance of constant communication between team members in order to stay safe and be able to proceed through the various elements.
The morning was spent learning how to spot eachother and
practicing on the lower elements.
Time was also given to review and
discuss what went right and what
went wrong after each challenge.
After lunch the crew ventured (ventured..get it??) to new heights on the Challenge Course and trust falls..where team members intentionally fell backward off of 20 foot beams and trusted their team to catch them and bring them down safely.
Austen debating whether he really wants to continue. 10 minutes later he really does fall..on accident..and his team brings him down safely. Mom (me) is grateful for all the time they spent
earlier in the day learning how to do this...otherwise..we would have had one broken and squished Austen. Instead..he survived to go on with the higher courses later in the day!
Mason on Monkey Bridge..part 1 of the Challenge copes course.
Cody posing for a picture..okay, maybe not. Trying to decide the safest way to proceed on Part 2 of their Challenge course.
Mason on Monkey Bridge..part 1 of the Challenge copes course.
Cody posing for a picture..okay, maybe not. Trying to decide the safest way to proceed on Part 2 of their Challenge course.
That is it. The kids had a fullfilling peanut butter with jelly and apples lunch and spent the day discussing "Silly Willy". One rope burn injury on Justin's neck. Other than that everyone was just worn out and ready for tacos and a hot-tub by evening. The hot-tub was broken, so they played on ATV's instead. You know..because everyone replaces hot-tubs with ATV's...
What's next? Who knows..this motley crew seems to be leaning towards gold mining adventures..they just haven't decided when and where yet...rumor has it Alaska is the place to be. For the more immediate future I believe they are looking at a Copes Challenge weekend, repelling and shallow water scuba diving. All in all, a fun group of kids!
2 comments:
that's so exciting to hear that they finally have a venturing crew out there! i've been participating with a venture crew here in San Antonio that a couple (now more than a couple sice getting to know alot of them) of my friends are involved with. they do alot of caving and rapelling primarily, so that's a total blast. Brina probly told you about last sunday when he and i went caving with some people, and that was with this venture crew.
but really, you have no idea how utterly excited that makes me to know that those kids get to be involved in a Venture Crew! How did it get started?
It is cool, isn't it? I din't know you were venturing! Scouts contacted Trish at the Club to see about having meetings there..and so it began.
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