By Christopher Cox, Advisor
When the cold breezes of February hit, local Scouts hit the beaches, but not for the typical get away that most Yoopers expect in the depth of winter.
Sixteen EUP Scouts — who called themselves the “Yooper Castaway Crew” — headed to Sea Base near Key West, Florida. Sea Base is one of the four national high adventure bases for Scouting America, along with the more familiar Philmont (focused on hiking), Northern Tier (focused on canoeing), and Summit (focused on white water rafting and climbing.)
Events at Sea Base included sailing on the Atlantic Ocean, SCUBA diving, snorkeling, deep sea fishing or, like our EUP scouts becoming castaways for a week on a remote deserted island located a short seven-mile ocean canoe trip offshore. Once on the island, the Scouts worked to improve habitat for key deer and manatees while living on the island for a week.
They also participated in programs on coral reef restoration and seeding, visited a turtle hospital, and performed volunteer work to enhance the National Marine Sanctuary. These learning and service experiences improved the scouts understanding of marine biology, conservation, and habitat management. In addition to all the learning and service there was some fun; including night time snorkeling, deep sea fishing and shore fishing for sharks. Several of our Scouts swam in the ocean and experienced salt water for the first time.
Scouts from across the EUP included youth from Newberry, Sault Ste Marie, Pickford, and Escanaba. These youth met and planned for more than 15 months to prepare for this adventure; these meetings focused on teamwork and perfecting the needed skills to be castaways. The group also prepared physically, swimming and snorkeling weekly at the Rudyard pool, hiking with heavy packs, and lifting weights to improve their paddling strength.
The group was very busy raising funds to help offset the $3,000 per person costs which include program costs and airfare. They had can drives, car washes, Butter Braid sales, two burger bashes, and a letter writing campaign. A few of major sponsors included Peninsula Federal Credit Union (Escanaba), Oswalds Bear Ranch, The Bear Trap, The Goat Locker, and Great Lakes Roofing among many others.
Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venture Scouts, and other Scouting America programs are active in the U.P. If you are interested in learning more, please visit https://beascout.scouting.org. Our local Newberry Troop meets at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Mason’s Lodge here in town. Dave Edie is the Scoutmaster.
