Venturing Chronicle Volume 4 Issue 6

Area 7
The
Venturing
Chronicle
Volume 4 Issue 6 April/May 2019 .
SAVE THE DATE!!
TLV 2019 will be
Nov 8-10, 2019
@Camp Pipsico
The Newsletter of
Southern Region Area 7
Venturing
Page 2-3 – Whitewater
Rafting
Page 4 – SRV7 VLA list
Page 5 – PowderHorn
Page 6– ASL Training Day
Table of Contents
Page 7 – President
Page 8- Advisor
Page 9 – VP Comm Farewell
Page 10-13– Council News
Page 14 – Links/Social Media

At the WhiteWater Center
by Soren French
Crew 773 Goes Whitewater Rafting
From March 29th-31st, Crew 773 went to the
United States National Whitewater Center
(USNWC) in Charlotte, NC. On Friday, we all left
right after school to make it to Lake Norman State
Park, where we were staying before it closed for
the night... Unfortunately, we missed it by 30
minutes. But, don’t worry, we eventually found
the right way in. That night all 9 of us set up our
tents and got excited for Saturday.
On Saturday, We drove the hour to USNWC
and got really excited. (If you want to see all the
Around 3:00 the four of us who decided to raft
(me, Ashley Patterson, Will Harless, and Alex
Powell) all went to the safety talk for rafting and
by 3:30 we were out on the water! The four of us
were put with 3 other people and 2 raft guides. We
went around 2 different rapid course levels that
were both tons of fun. The first time we went
through the biggest rapids, we even lost Ashley!
She fell out of the boat trying to help us get
unstuck from an eddy we were in. She handled it
really well and remembered all the safety rules!
Another raft pulled her out of the water and
returned her to us.
excitement you should see BSA Boost’s Instagram
stories; we did a takeover that weekend as well)
When we got there we decided to go zip-lining
first. USNWC has 2 amazing zip-lines that
everyone in our Crew did. One was a zip-line into
a ropes course and the other was just a simple zip
down and back. The zip-lines were lots of fun,
even if you did hit your head on the brake block.
After rafting, we all did the zip lines a few more
times and headed to the gift shop. USNWC was
really fun and we hope to make another trip there
again soon.
2

3

Area 7 Venturing
Leadership Awards
4

POWDERHORN EXPERIENCE
by Duncan Harling
Upcoming
2019 SAC Aug 25-27
http://www.sacbsa.org/event/powder-horn/2491860
2020 BRMC TBA
PowderHorn is a resource
course designed to introduce
Scouting’s adults and youth
to the exciting highadventure
program
possibilities for their unit.
One of the best training weekends
for people who enjoy high
adventure-meaning Most venturing
Crews!- is called PowderHorn. Every
Crew has a focus: some are
specialized like Sports Management, EMT skills, Outdoor activities,
among others. Powderhorn brings experts together in things like
Caving, SCUBA, COPE, Shooting and a lot of other activities so Crews
and Troops can learn how to put together a good high adventure
trip.
2019 SAC Aug 25-27
Participants are given information, watch a demonstration and get to try things in a handson
activity. Occoneechee Scheduled two weekends this past fall, with almost 30 activities
over two weekends. The first weekend was shut down due to Hurricane Florence and the
devastation left behind shut the second weekend down. Fast forward to April, where those
30 activities became 22 and were stuffed into one weekend.
Everything started at 7pm on Friday and did not stop until after 3pm on
Sunday. Crew 32 provided the Crew Guides and helped 42 people earn their PowderHorn
dangle. Folks from as far away as Northern Virginia and South Carolina learned how to put
together a great adventure for their group.
Best take away was a book of resources and friendships of like-minded
adventurers.
5

Holding an ASL Training Day
with Occoneechee GAPS
The mission of Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to
make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values
of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. The GAPS committee’s purpose is to provide
resources, guidance, and training as tools to help adult leaders support inclusion
of all scouting families AND to offer support to Occoneechee staff in identifying
needs in order to prevent crisis. GAPS recognizes that trained volunteer leaders
are enthusiastic about supporting scouts with disAbilities. They understand the
demands put on their patience and time yet remain compassionate in
accommodations for rank advancement. GAPS strives towards building selfesteem
and feelings of accomplishment to enable successful outcomes for
everyone in Scouting.
by Kaelyn Harling
On April 14, 2019 Crew 32
Committee member Bryant Cunningham
invited folks from Occoneechee Council’s
GAPS team to come to Crew 32’s meeting.
This event was open to all of LaFayette and
Highlander Districts. Crew 32 welcomed
Troop 716 and 742 and Pack 82 scouts to
participate in this event.
Translators and local Deaf services advocates signed and explained some of the
history and obstacles deaf and hard of hearing people go through. The participants learned about two
distinct dialects of sign language in the United States and some of the international sign differences.
They heard from a hearing mom with deaf children and an older man who lost his hearing gradually
as he grew up, as well as an older Scouter in the deaf community.
Scoutmaster Rodney Dinkins was born deaf and learned to do basic lip reading and
sign language as his way to communicate. He works in a mainstream job, but he discussed how
different reactions to his deafness at work made him aware of the difference between mainstream
and inclusive. When he was able to have limited translator services, his work productivity suffered,
but moving to another facility that had already determined to offer full time translators because a
number of their employees were deaf or hard of hearing
and everyone on the team needed to be able to
communicate in both directions made a HUGE difference
in how his work was perceived.
Scoutmaster Rodney Dinkins taught the
Crew how to sign the Pledge of Allegiance.
6

President’s Corner: Ellie Leonetti
Thank you all for the
amazing term. I would like to
personally thank my three vice
presidents: Connor Harling, Soren
French, and Ian Reed for being an
amazing team this past year.
Working with you all has been an
honor, and I extend my
congratulations to Connor for being
elected the Southern Region Vice
President of Communications and to
Soren for being elected the Southern
Region Area 7 VOA President.
from Tidewater Council
Although I worked closest
with my vice presidents, I would also like to thank all of the
committee members who were able to serve this term. Without you all,
the area would not be what it is today. I want to thank the people who
I met this term, who offered advice and leadership through the
stressful situations, and I want to remind everyone that if you were a
part of the area, you helped our VOA in some way.
As this term ends, let’s remember to leave positive legacies.
In and out of Venturing, everything you do will be remembered. Make
a point to leave positive memories in someone’s mind, whether it is a
grand gesture or a small smile. Venturing is something we all have in
common, and we are lucky to all know at least one thing about each
other: We care about Venturing. As you move forward, find common
connections with someone else and use that to be a great influence in
their life. Although this term is ending, for everyone a new chapter is
starting, and I wish you luck in all future endeavors.

Advisor’s Corner: Rick Daigneault
Spring is finally here. Time to get outdoors to do some camping, hiking,
climbing and most of all feeding the mosquitoes and ticks. Their lives matter in
the big pitcher painted by Mother Nature. Spring is also the changing of the
guard or in our case the changing of the VOA Officers. I want to thank Ellie,
Soren, Connor and Ian for an amazing term. It was a joy to be your advisor and
we all look forward to see what great things you accomplish in the future. To
Soren and your newly selected Vice Presidents, I am excited for all the
possibilities that lay before you in your 2019-2020 term. The twelve councils in
Area 7 are counting on you all to represent them and helping them grow their
Venturing program. Remember that a good sign of a leader is not to make one
self better but to make everyone around you better and it is your job to make all
the area council VOA presidents the best they can be.
Spring is also about graduations. I have met some awesome young people in my
travails around Area 7 that will or have graduated from high school or college
this spring. I would like to recognize two that are a big part of the area VOA
team. Ellie Leonetti is, SR7 VOA president, and is graduating from Great Bridge
High School in Chesapeake, VA. She will be attending Virginia Commonwealth
University in the fall and She is joining a crew
in Richmond close to campus and plans to help
with Heart of Virginia Council VOA. Next I
would like to recognize Samantha “Sammy”
Lambros, past SR7 VOA Vice President of
Program and now SR7 VOA Admin Advisor.
Sammy graduated from NC State University
and is rolling right into graduate school. For
them and all the other Venturers graduating,
CONGRATULATIONS from all of the Officers
and Advisors of the Area 7 VOA.
from Colonial Virginia
8

My Last Issue as Area7 VP Comm
by Connor Harling
This has been an interesting year. I have made a lot
of good friends and learned a lot about teamwork. I
feel like I have met my goal to regularly
communicate with the Crews in Area 7. I hope you
all agree.
To do that, I put together an awesome team to help
me. Venturing, to me, is about meeting people with
different skills and interests and finding ways to use
our differences to make things awesome. This is my
last regular issue for Area 7. I am privileged to be
able to continue my friendships with my Area 7
family as part of the Southern Region.
I look forward to getting to know the other Areas
and finding people who want to help me continue
building bonds and communicating with Venturing
Crews all over the Southern Region.
For the past two years, I worked with Kelsey Hager
on the Social Media Team. Danielle Davis chaired our
Instagram and SnapChat platforms. Kaitlyn Cook
Chaired Twitter. My lil bro Duncan was on the
Facebook Team.
If you look through the newsletters this year, my
family helped out a lot. My sister Kaelyn formatted
this and wrote some really strong articles. My mom
looked up the council calendars. And Duncan wrote
a lot of last minute articles for me. My newsletter
team of Allison Montgomery, Danielle Davis, Ashley
Patterson were bolstered by stories from Soren
French and Ian Reed from the VOA.
None of this would have been easy without support
of my Advisor Tedder Reed. We met at Orientation
and again hung out at TLV. He nudged me but gave
me the freedom to try things. His quiet confidence
in me helped me speak up. It meant that I wasn’t
afraid to interact with Mr. Rick or Dr. Marybeth. I was
able to be a solid part of the Area 7 Team. Thanks
again Mr. Tedder!
If you can help me at Southern Region, or here at
Area 7, we could always use new faces!
My view of Venturing
9

Area 7 is a family. As you look at the Council level
events, see what resources are nearby.
Each Council offers an Adventure
–Council Camporees
–Venturing specific events
•Each Award Level has a Learning Component
–Venturing
•-Personal Safety and Awareness
–Discovery
•Goal-setting training
•Time-management training
–Pathfinder
•Project management training
•Experiential training in conflict resolution,
communications, group dynamics, cooperation, and
ethical controversies
–Summit
•Mentoring
•Each Award Level has a Personal Leadership Component
–Crew Officer Orientation
–ILSC
–NYLT
–Rangemaster
–Leave No Trace
•Each Award Level has a Skills Component
–Hunter Education
–NRA Shooting Skills
–First Aid
–Wilderness First Aid
10

Council News
Blue Ridge Mountains
Cape Fear
Wakefest
Jul 12 – 14, 2019
Claytor Lakes Aquatics Base,
Colonial Virginia
All Summer Long
East Carolina
Wilderness First Aid Training
Jun 1 – 2, 2019
James City County Recreation
All Summer Long
11

Council News
Heart of Virginia
Occoneechee
All Summer Long
Durham Bulls Scout Night
June 1, 2019 all-day
Durham Bulls Athletic Park
Old Hickory
Old North State
BSA Scout Night with the High
Point Rockers
Saturday, May 18th, 2019 at 6:30pm
All Summer Long
COPE Instructor Training
Registration 6/7-6/9
12

Council News
Shenandoah Area
Stonewall Jackson Area
Archery Instructor Level 1 Training
Registration
6/1/2019
8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
All Summer Long
Tidewater
Tuscarora
Wilderness First Aid Training
May 18 - May 19
First Aid/CPR/AED
May 25
Camp Work Weekend
Jun 1 – 2, 2019
Camp Tuscarora
965 Scout Rd, Four Oaks, NC
13

Follow us on
Social Media
On Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
11327804303
Or Southern Region Area 7
On Instagram
sr7venturing
On Twitter
Sr7Venturing
On Snapchat
sr7venture
It’s never too early to consider joining
Area 7 Venturing Officers Association!
Dates to Consider:
Orientation 2019: 16-18 AUG, NC
TLV5 in 2019: 8-10 NOV, Camp Pipsico, VA
Orientation 2020: 21-23 AUG, VA
TLV 6 in 2020: 6-8 Nov, NC
If your Crew does something awesome,
let us know! You could be featured!
vpcomm.srv7@gmail.com
Make your plans and Save the Date!!!
TLV 5 will be held at Camp Pipsico
November 8-10, 2019
Want to be on staff? Contact Ian Reed at
vpprogram.srv7@gmail.com
Have a story idea? Email me
or message me on Facebook.
vpcomm.srv7@gmail.com
Editor in Chief-Connor Harling
Reporters- Soren French, Kaelyn, Duncan, and Connor Harling
Designer-Kaelyn Harling
Photos-Soren French, Michele Harling, Connor Harling
Finder of Info-Michele Harling
Chief Adult of Communication-Tedder Reed