Venture Crew 42 offers unique opportunities

Living in Europe offers an abundance of opportunities not only to travel, but to test a person’s limits, meet new friends and make a difference.

That’s just what K-Town’s Venture Crew 42 is all about. This Boy Scouts of America affiliated organization focuses on adventurous activities, such as hiking, camping, white water rafting, skiing and snowboarding. Additionally, it teaches lifelong life skills, such as leadership development, public speaking, interviewing and mentoring.

It is made up of young men and women 14 to 20 years old. The program of events is created and led by the youth members and guided by adult advisers. Some youth members include high school students from Kaiserslautern as well as Airmen who are less than 21 years old. The advisers, who assist the youth, include several lieutenants and Airmen from local units.

Crewmember Heather Tooth has been with the group for more than a year and has taken advantage of leadership development, team building and high adventure opportunities. She said two of her favorite activities so far are Kodiak, a leadership camp in Garmisch, and Intercamp, a European Scouting camp held this year near Maastricht, the Netherlands.

“(Kodiak is) a weeklong leadership camp. Each day we learned a new component of leadership and did an activity to go along with it. My favorite activity was the white water rafting; it helped us learn the concept of teamwork, because if we didn’t all work together, we could end up tipping the raft in the rapids,” Tooth said. “We also did other fun activities like a hike, biking, a high ropes course and a service project.”

Crew president Brendan Towlson has been with the group since it initially formed in 2012. He recently returned from a weekend of camping at Intercamp, having interacted with more than 3,000 Scouts from across Europe.
The best part was the food that was prepared by the venturers. The food is an incentive at any camping event, Towlson said. Another fun and unique part of Intercamp was that the crew got to swap gear, patches and neckerchiefs, as well as interact in other ways with the European Scouts.

Not many American children get the opportunity to interact with German, Dutch, Polish and Czech youth, and that’s something that can have lasting impressions for those Scouting in Europe.

“Some of my best European experiences have been camping and exploring with the crew,” Towlson said. “This is a great program that I think any young person would enjoy.”

In their free time, besides camping, members of the crew check out local restaurants and go bowling and rock climbing.

K-Town’s Venture Crew 42 invites everyone to go venturing. The next adventure will be a trip to the fun forest ropes course in Homburg on June 27, then bouldering in Kaiserslautern on July 17. They are planning a backpacking and camping trip July 27 and 28 and a kayaking and camping trip Aug. 17 and 18.

Crew 42 will have an open house from noon to 2 p.m. June 29 in Bldg. 2783 on Kapaun. This will coincide with youth and adult training opportunities.

Crew 42 meets the first and third Wednesdays of each month on Kapaun. For more information, email crew42ktown@gmail.com.