In a nutshell, Venturing is a youth development program within Boy Scouts that is co-ed and young men & women from 14 – 21 years of age can participate. Just like Boy Scouts, it is youth lead and has leadership components (elected positions) to foster leadership & personal growth, awards for youth to earn and crews seek fun activities & high adventure to help them develop into responsible citizens with a strong moral compass.
This is a photo summary of how our day went……
Venture scouts from Crew 288
Lake Gulf of Mexico………….
We didn’t need to put a diver in the water to find an area with abundant scallops as you could see scallops from the boat and you knew when you were in a good enough area to start your scalloping.
Kaitlyn with the first of many
A lot of firsts…………..
Austin with his first ever scallop
Catalina with her first ever scallops
John with his first ever scallop
Dick Basye with his first. Dick is the founding leader of Venture Crew 288
Austin & Jamie having a good time.
New to snorkeling - Miranda going after a scallop
There were plenty of scallops for our group
I call these big ole mossybacks found in the sand/mud bottom as they are larger than the scallops found in the adjacent seagrasses
Catalina
My daughter Kaitlyn with a good effort
Storm to our south with a lot of lightening caused us to pick up anchor and move north
Icing them down
As these chilled, we motored away from the storm and upon anchoring on the second spot the Venturers hit the water again…………..snorkeling in almost 5 feet of water the scallops were abundant here also
Jamie on the hunt for more scallops
Austin on the hunt
Another mossyback
stone crab
My daughter Kaitlyn
Horse conch
Variegated sea urchin
Catalina with her catch
9 shuckers made quick work of our 10 gallons of scallops.
South African funnyman John working on some scallops
Everyone is pitching in……
Heading back in….a fun time was had by all!
Venture Crew 288 Scallywags
It’s quite an honor to be able to work with this group of young men & women and to introduce them to outdoor activities that they’ve never experienced before. One of our next scheduled Venture outdoor adventures will be introducing them to another old time Florida favorite………frog gigging.
Among many other outdoor activities, Crew 288 has gone to local ranges to shoot rifles, shotguns & pistols, whitewater raft, camp, SCUBA dive, and some of our Venturers have attended a week long National Youth Leadership program. Here’s a link about Venturing if anyone is interested:
http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Venturing.aspx
It’s a great program!
Hoo Yah
Brian
The first timers will remember that forever.
