Family Troop Structure Makes Way for New Camp Experiences

Scouting America Troop 466, a Coal City based group with members from surrounding communities, including Diamond, Dwight and Gardner, attended their first summer camp as a family troop at the beginning of July. Youth participants, aged eleven to seventeen, chose historic Owasippe Scout Reservation, the nation’s oldest scout camp, to attend this year. The camp is located in Western Michigan, and is part of Pathway to Adventure Council, which serves Chicago and Northwest Indiana. In its inaugural years, scouts traveled across Lake Michigan by steam ship or around the coast by train and hiked the rest of the way to camp.

Troop 466 was grateful to have automotive transportation, including a trailer of shared gear for their week of adventure and learning. The scouts earned several merit badges, including archery, art/sculpture, camping, canoeing, communication, cooking, environmental science, first aid, fishing, horsemanship, mammal study, search & rescue, swimming, and shotgun shooting. First year campers also participated in a half-day program called pathfinders to learn scouting basics, including knife and fire safety. In total, six area scouts earned twenty-five new badges in five days. While trekking the sandy dunes of Michigan proved challenging for most of them, all persevered and achieved the goals they had set for themselves for the week.

Know someone who would enjoy scouting? Look us up at beascout.scouting.org or stop  by any Tuesday evening meeting at 490 S Illinois Street in Coal City at 7p.m.