This summer, the Greater Alabama Council's Hugh M. Comer Scout Reservation got a big hand from some of Coosa Lodge's top Arrowmen. Coosa Lodge Chief Patrick Yim and Section SR-9 Chief Nathan Moore both worked on staff at the camp; however, they were not the only rising youth leaders on staff. Council Venturing President Taylor Casey, former Area 9 Venturing President Angie Winterton and Southern Region Venturing President Maddie Culwell were on staff as well.
Yim said that the five youth leaders, along with the rest of the camp's staff, worked together throughout the summer season to help make their camp a top-notch experience for all Scouts. They operated in many ways, such as helping Scouts with rappelling, shooting skills, and crafts. Staff were available in all instances, led by the work of the partnership that existed between the OA staff and Venturing staff.
After a successful summer working together, Culwell would like to continue working to improve the relationship between Venturing and the OA. "I think providing specific time for interaction between members of both programs would be a good way to help unite them. What I have learned from NYLT staff is that the best way to unite people is to help them bond and get to know each other better."
Among the things Culwell and Yim would like to see happen include the addition of a weekly camp program that members of both programs plan together. That way, Culwell explained, the two groups could work together to achieve a common goal.
Yim pointed out the similarities in participants of both the Order and in Venturing, noting that both programs are aimed at targeting older youth. "Instead of always holding just separate events," Yim said, "we can work together and create new ones or even add on to old ones. The Boy Scouts of America was founded to be a program to better the youth of our nation. There is no better way to do that than to have all of the older youth involved in the program working together to have fun and help create an even better program for the other youth members."