We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Articles

2023 NCAC Summer Camp Guide

by

Planning your summer? Check out our summer camps! The 2023 NCAC Summer Camp Guide is now available online.

www.ncacbsa.org/summer-adventure

cub scout logo

Cub Scouts

Is your scout going to be a rising Tiger, rising Wolf, rising Bear, or rising Webelos or Arrow of Light? Cub Scout camps all have an overarching theme. It’s Off to the Races at the District Day and Twilight camps. Find one near you! Or get ready for a mysterious week at Day Camp at Camp Snyder. The theme this year is ???. Ready for the next step up? Sign up for a short overnight camp at Camp Snyder’s Resident Weekends.

Are your rising Webelos and AOL dens looking for a weeklong adventure? Camp Ross is Goshen Scout Reservation’s dedicated overnight Webelos camp. The theme this summer is Sherlock Ross: The Case of the Disappearing Camps. Help the camp staff solve the case!

Scouts BSA

Is your scout bridging into a Scouts BSA Troop? There are plenty of options. Camps Bowman, Marriott, and Olmsted at Goshen Scout Reservation offer a variety of dining options, unique and favorite Merit Badges and activities, and exciting programs for new scouts, older scouts, and all the scouts in between. Finish out your summer with Camp Catoctin BSA’s expert Merit Badge counselors in mid-August.

Is your Scout not able to attend camp with their Troop? Are they looking for a second week? Check out our options for individual scouts: Goshen runs Provisional Camp each week and Camp Snyder has Scout Specialty Week with both overnight and day camp options.

Older Scouts, Venturers, & Sea Scouts

Need more adventure for older scouts, Venturers, and Sea Scouts? Sign your unit up for a backpacking trek or a river trek at Goshen’s Lenhok’sin High Adventure. Individuals can find adventure with a High Adventure Base Trip to a National or local High Adventure with a council contingent run by the NCAC High Adventure Committee. Order of the Arrow members should also make note of GOAT, the Goshen OA Trail Crew.

And of course, for those ages 14 and up who just cannot get enough summer camp, there is always the option to join summer camp staff!

There are so many options that all this is only a brief summary! View the 2023 NCAC Summer Camp Guide for details and pictures on all the possibilities for your summer. Get outdoors, have fun, and #adventureon!

www.ncacbsa.org/summer-adventure

BSA Troop 706 is a Cut Above in Serving Cub Scouts: Pinewood Derby Cut -Out Day

by

Troop 706B, sponsored by Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Maryland, hosted their annual Pinewood Derby Cut -Out Day on Jan 7.  For over 20 years, the troop has been assisting our next generation of Boy Scouts by offering this fun filled Cub Scout event.  Cub Scouts, along with an adult, started with a safety briefing, then entered the cutting room where they designed their cars, work with the trained T 706 leaders to cut their cars, sanded and then weighted in for accuracy. The many tools, industrial machinery and complex vacuuming system was all provided by the youth and adults leadership of troop.  Together, they helped to cut over 360 cars for the upcoming Pinewood Derby season!

 

25th Anniversary Venturing Lock-In

by

The Venturing program is what many scouts do to have more adventurous activities while still staying true to the scouting principles that draw so many to scouting. This year, Venturing turns 25 years old! To celebrate, the Council Venturing Officers’ Association (CVOA), is hosting a lock-in at Sportrock Climbing Center in Alexandria, VA.

This will be an amazing opportunity with opportunities to rock climb, work on requirements for the mountaineering aspect of the Ranger award, hang out with some of the amazing scouts and Venturers in the council, and celebrate a milestone achievement for the Venturing community. This event is open to Venturers and non-Venturers. All that is required is that someone be of Venturing age (14 to 21 years old) and interested in doing some climbing.

The lock-in will be February 10-11, from 9 pm to 9 am. Sign-up can be completed using this link (https://forms.gle/9Xx3Bk9MckR85UYU7).

I look forward to seeing many of you there. Join us as we lead the adventure!

NCAC Welcomes New Scout Executive/CEO

by

Mario Perez Heads National Capital Area Council, BSA

JANUARY 5, 2023, WASHINGTON, DC — The National Capital Area Council, Boy Scouts of America (NCAC) is pleased to announce Mario Perez as Scout Executive/CEO as of January 1, 2023. Craig Poland, the former CEO and Scout Executive, retired on December 31, 2022.

Since 2019, Perez served as Deputy Scout Executive/Chief Operating Officer of the NCAC. Previously, he served as the Scout Executive/CEO of the Yucca Council, Boy Scouts of America. Yucca Council serves nearly 5,000 youth and over 2,200 volunteers throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico. Over a twenty-one year career, Perez has successfully served four BSA Councils and helped to achieve Council objectives in the development and implementation of programs for Scouts of all ranks. His aptitude to work with youth and adults from diverse backgrounds and socio-economic conditions (rural, urban, multi-cultural, corporate, military etc.) has helped in the accomplishment of successful volunteer recruitment, youth membership growth, innovative fund-raising programs and creative youth program delivery.

Perez grew up in western Kansas, where his parents and three siblings still reside. He is a graduate of West Texas A&M University in Canyon TX, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He is a Vigil Honor member in the Order of the Arrow and completed his Wood Badge ticket in 2006.

“We are excited to have Mario Perez lead the National Capital Area Council,” said Jim Morgan, NCAC Council President. “As Deputy Scout Executive, he has demonstrated his leadership ability during the last few years through the pandemic and its related challenges. I’m confident his proven skills coupled with his vision for the future will keep our Council at the forefront of the Scouting movement in this region and the entire nation.”

“Mario Perez’s hard work and dedication have always been appreciated by our Board,” added Morgan H. Sullivan, NCAC Executive Vice President. “We have been fortunate to depend on his experienced management these last few years. Now, his leadership will take the NCAC forward and benefit even more of the youth in our region by providing the highest-quality Scouting program possible.”

“Over the next few years, my strategic goals are to purposefully connect with community partners to increase our service to the community, to establish new Scouting programs throughout our region with conviction, and to lead the implementation of a far-reaching Strategic Plan that will lay the foundation for the next 25 years of Scouting in National Capital Area Council,” said Perez.

In 2022, the Council’s theme was “Adventure On.” Last year, our Scouts performed more than 440,000 hours of service to the community, 1,263 Scouts attained the highest rank of Eagle, and 5,372 youth experienced the outdoors at one of our camps.

# # #

About Scouts, BSA and the National Capital Area Council

Scouts, BSA provides the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be “Prepared. For Life. ™ The Scouting organization is composed of 1,042 million youth members between the ages of 6 and 21 and volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories. For more information, please visit www.Scouting.org.

National Capital Area Council was organized in 1911 and today stands as one of the oldest and the Council with the largest youth membership in America, at just under 34,000 Scouts. The Council territory includes the District of Columbia; Frederick, Montgomery, Prince George’s, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland; and in Virginia the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier, Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George, Stafford and Culpeper as well as the independent cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Fairfax, Manassas, Manassas Park and Fredericksburg in Virginia; and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, please visit www.NCACBSA.org.

“Reel-In and Recycle!”

by

SEA SCOUT QUARTERMASTER PROJECT SUMMARY:
From Jan thru November of this past year, I was able to successfully lead our Ship 1942 in the assembly and installation of 20 Mono-Filament Recycling Tubes at five marinas across Northern Virginia. The installation of these recycling tubes was part of my Sea Scout Quartermaster project, and my BSA Distinguished Conservation Service Award project.  Three of the marinas were within the NOVA Parks system located at Fountainhead Marina, Occoquan Marina, and Bull Run Marina. The other two parks were part of the National Park Service located at the Washington Sailing Marina, and Fletcher’s Cove.

BSA DISTINGUISHED CONSERVATION AWARD PROJECT SUMMARY
My BSA Distinguished Conservation Service project was focused on the Air and Water Pollution Control Category. Mono-Filament fishing line was collected in these 20 recycling tubes during the summer of 2022, and I was able to collect 32 miles of fishing line. The line was shipped by West Marine (free of charge) to Berkley Institute in Iowa to be recycled. Overall, my project increased the number of recycling tubes from 8 tubes to 20 tubes, an increase of 150%. The largest impact came from the increase in line collected, from 1.68 miles in 2021 to 31.9 miles collected in 2022. An increase of 1,798%, or an 18-fold increase.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
Another key element of my BSA Distinguished Conservation Service project was to provide Community outreach. I attended five Community Events in order to educate and inform my Community, where over 850 people attended:
1) GREEN EXPO (Apr): 250 people attended at the Vienna Community Ctr.
2) Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math (STEAM) (Apr)): A large event
where 380 – 400 people, with 28 exhibits at Laurel Ridge Middle School.
3) Student Environmental Action Showcase (SEAS) (May): George Mason Univ
Community Virtual Event with 40-50 attendees and 39 presentations.
4) 19th Annual GREEN Community Celebration (Jun): Shirlington Library Plaza,
in Arlington, VA. with150 attendees, 12 booths & electric cars/motorcycles.
5) NCAC Sea Scout Cub Scout Fishing Derby (Jun): Fountainhead Marina
where 52 Cub Scouts were taught fishing line recycling & fishing!

Below is the NOVA Regional Park Manager’s thank you note for my projects:

Dear Quinn,
“Thanks to your efforts, individuals and families visiting Fountainhead and Bull Run Marina can enjoy fishing as a recreational amenity of the park, while also being able to recycle their fishing line and preserve the important environmental resource we have in the Occoquan Reservoir”.

Sincerely, Kate Irwin, NOVA Regional Park Manager

Winter Golfing

by

It may be winter, but that didn’t stop Scouts from Dale City Troop 102 from working on the Golf Merit Badge! They had a great morning at Burke Lake Park working on their posture, grips, putting, driving and chipping.