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What is "High Adventure" ?
Many High Adventure program opportunities exist for experienced,
older Scouts and Explorers. This is the culmination of all of the things that
Scouting should have taught to a boy: character development, citizenship, and
personal fitness. It is also the ultimate in outdoor experiences; beyond the
exciting, but lower keyed summer camp programs. Most High adventure trips are
expeditions with one or more purposes that involve a week or more in remote
outdoor settings. Participants of a High Adventure trip should have mastered all
of the basic outdoor skills and be ready for an outing that will offer new
challenges. Adequate personal preparation and conditioning is recommended for
all participants of High Adventure trips. |
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Why should our unit take a High Adventure trip?
If this question must be asked, the boys in your unit probably aren't getting everything they can out of the Scouting program. It should really be phrased, "Why aren't we taking a High Adventure trip every year?" Every program, whether Scouting or elsewhere, has a goal. It is the thing to strive for, the prize for a job well done. In the outdoor portion of Scouting, that goal is the
privilege of taking a Boundary Waters High Adventure Canoe Trip. It gives a boy the opportunity to put into real-life practice all of the camping and cooking skills, first aid preparedness sessions, and all of those knots that he spent literally years learning. It is the reason for "the patrol method: function as a team, or flounder separately."
Sometime between the ages of 13 and 15, nearly all boys undergo fairly rapid transition from child to adolescent. Physical growth is the most obvious and dramatic. Shoulders broaden, chests expand, voices change, clothes are out grown.
If your unit is losing older boys because of "a lack of interest" or "they have other things to do," it may be that your program is only addressing the 11-13 year old age bracket. The "monthly Saturday night campout" gets stale after three years. Older boys need more from their Scouting program than newer boys do. High Adventure can help fill that need.
The councils (and units) that have become the national leaders
for keeping boys in the Scouting program focus on three main areas:
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An emphasis on honor camping programs such as
The Order of the Arrow, or local programs like Kansas City's Tribe of Mic-O-Say.
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An emphasis on advancement to Eagle.
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An emphasis on annual High Adventure Trips.
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