A Venturing Celebration by Hundreds of Youth in the Woods of Pennsylvania

Crew 2001 at the Venturing Summit: Central Region Area 4 plays in Area 4 of the NE Region

Crew 2001 at the Medieval Festival
of the 2013 NE4AVOA Venturing Summit

Imagine 350 high school and college-aged young adults from perhaps a dozen states all converging on a patch of woods in Pennsylvania wearing chain mail and all manners of medieval dress.  What you just conjured up is a typical event for Venturing.

Everyone had fun, some did not want to leave, all wished they had more time to enjoy the fun of the Venturing Summit sponsored by the northeast region area 4 Venturing Officers Association at the Heritage Scout Reservation in Farmington, PA.( see @NE4AVOA)

Crew 2001 in the
Medieval Spirit

Our crew, Crew 2001 from Akron OH,  backpacks, camps, goes climbing, caving and other typical outdoor activities. However, the weekend of April 19-21, 2013 was truly unlike anything we had ever done.  Our planning complete and 180 miles later, 20 Venturers and their Advisors pile out of five cars and on to the grounds of the beautiful Heritage Scout Reservation of the Greater Pittsburgh Council.

BSA's Program
for young adults

After checking in at the Keystone building, we were given our "knights of Heritage" t-shirts, patches, and maps.  We were directed to our cabin, actually a five bedroom, 2 bath house with kitchen, dining room and living room, named for George Washington, and the last one on the lane. A special weekend was about to begin.

We spent the evening playing games and meeting other venturers at Pathfinder Lodge. Games of Twister, pool, ping pong, DDR, Rock Band, and so much more kept our youth laughing and playing until the building closed.  Back in our house, card games began and we quickly got comfortable and settled down for the night anxious for the next day.

Live Action Role Play
at the Venturing Summit

Our venturers then climbed, COPEd, shot pistols, threw tomahawks, did AtLatl, Archery, played video games and board games, branded leather and other things, learned to dance, LARPed, and much more.  The highlight of the day was when the youth and adults donned costumes for the Highland Games,

NE4AVOA Staff for the Venturing Summit

Canterbury Feast, and the dance and party Saturday night. Sunday morning was given to devotions and waffles.

NE Region President Luczka
& National President Readenour

We got to meet and hear from the Northeast Region Venturing President Christine Luczka and the National Venturing President Dustin Readenour.  While we would have liked to hear more about what venturing changes are coming, we heard that the Venturing Pants are redesigned and about to be released.  (If they only change the side pockets that would be fantastic.)

Crew 2001 at Venturing Summit

This was the first Area, Regional or National event that our crew have attended. As we did a thorns and roses on Sunday morning it was obvious this won't be our last.  Thanks to the staff at NE4AVOA and all the others for showing our youth what Venturing can be.  Venturing is more than just what happens in the local crew.   Everyone went home pumped.

Crew 2001 helping with
Sunday morning devotions

The camp was beautiful, the facilities outstanding, the programming was quite good, the food was the only low point.  OK April is supposed to be warm and lack snow, but it did not deter the young adults of Crew 2001 nor anyone else.  

Check out the pictures below and we may have more available for you to see later.

Most of these pictures are of Crew 2001.   



Good Scouting, Venture onward
Steve and Kimberly Myers
See us at the National Jamboree (Troop B326 and Crew F610)