News
Watch for updates to the Calendar and upcoming events!
Venture Crew 83, Holden has teamed up with Venture Crew 151, West
Boylston
Top Stories & Recent Events
- June 20, 2010 Crew Meeting, Holden Senior Center 6pm
- Memorial Day Parade
- May 25, 2010 Crew Leader Awarded Scoutmaster Award of Merit
- White Water Rafting - April 2010 *cancelled -scheduling conflicts
- Ice Climbing *cancelled due to rain in Feb AND March!
- Ice Climbing & Pistol Certification Course Feb 27-28, 2010,
- New England Scout Show - DCU Center - January 2010
- AMC Cabin and Ski Trip - January 2010 *CANCALLED*
Due to high winds and a winter storm the trip was cancelled. The high winds closed the ski lifts and the 22 inches of snow would have made getting home a challenge! - Town Flu Cinics - The Crew volunteered to help at the flu clinics held in December and in January!
- Event planning, Elections, fundraising, and Super Activity
discussion.
Check out the Calendar for upcoming events!
Super Activity is the year's big event and the options discussed were:
- White Water Rafting in North Carolina
- Sea Base, Florida
- European Hiking trip
Submit your thoughts and ideas to: crewwebmaster@charter.net
Fundraising ideas include an Easter Egg Hunt and Breakfast, a cell phone recycling program, and car wash. - Pistol and Rifle Shooting - November 2009
TVSR- Rutland, MA
* COPE was cancelled - instructor not available * - Shotgun and Pistol Shooting TVSR - October 2009
- Camporee at TVSR - October 2009
- Search and Rescue Demonstration - September
2009
TVSR - Rutland, MA
CERT and local Boy Scout and Venture Crews teamed up for this mock emergency. Happily, all three accident victims were located, stabilized and transported to the Command Center! - Check out the Calendar for upcoming events - Sept 27th to Feb 09
- OPEN HOUSE held on September 14th was a success, with a couple of new Crew members and Adult Advisors joining the crew! Welcome!
- Diving - September 2009
Rockport, MA - Folly Cove
Check out the pictures! - West Point Military Academy - September 2009
West Point, NY *Cancelled - rescheduled for 2010* - Skydiving - August 2009
Jumptown - Orange, MA
The group flew up to 13,500 feet and jumped! The free fall lasted 50 seconds (120 miles per hour) and then parachuted for about 5 minutes. What a rush! It was a tandem dive, with an instructor on our backs. Everyone can't wait to do it again! - Diving Lessons - July 2009
Inland Divers - Leicester, MA
Another member of Crew 83 took the Scuba Certification classes. He did his 5 open water dives the third week in July; 3 at Douglas State Park and 2 in Rockport, MA. Congratulations! - White Water Rafting - June 2009
Northern Outdoors - The Forks, ME
The weather was cloudy and it was cool, but the water was so fast and exciting! The rain Friday night was hard enough to keep us awake, but that was typical for June. We even went swimming (intentionally) a couple of times and had a great time. - The planned AMC Hut and Hike had to be cancelled because of scheduling conflicts.
- Memorial Day Parade - May 2009
Holden, MA
Several members of the Crew joined the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Brownies, marching in the annual Memorial Day Parade. It was a glorious day for the parade and a privilege to honor and remember all those who have served our country. - NRA Shooting Course - May 2009
Treasure Valley Scout Reservation
A NRA basic handgun course was offered at TVSR and included class time, range time, and an exam. Several members of the Crew completed the course and received a MA compliant Pistol Course Certificate. Congratulations to them: they now have access to the range at TVSR and are allowed to teach some shooting to younger Scouts as well! - Paintball (Unofficial event) - April 2009
- Ice Climbing - February 2009
Auburn, MA
It has been an awesome year for ice climbing and we were fortunate to be able to do some climbing locally in Auburn, MA. Mike Donofrio of Vertical World Adventures (www.verticalworldadventures.com) helped us get down to the ice (notice all the first pictures are of us climbing down!) and set up 3 ropes for us to climb on. It was great fun and good weather and we look forward to a day of outdoor climbing this summer!
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Lonesome Lake AMC Hut and Snowshoeing trip - January 2009
New Hampshire
The trip in January to the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut was great! We snow shoed the 1 1/2 miles up to the hut on Friday, got settled into our bunkhouses and played games and chatted with the other trekkers until it was time to make dinner. Then Saturday there was another hike - one group went around the Lake and another hiked up part of another trail, braving the icy path and brisk (and very refreshing) wind. A few folks headed back home on Saturday night, but the majority spent Saturday night as well, and then snow shoed back on Sunday. It was a good weekend, and we hope to do it again this summer, although maybe to a different AMC Hut. -
Carabiner's Indoor Rock Climbing - November 2008
New Bedford, MA
A group of six went to - Sea Base,
Florida - February 2008
SCUBA Live Aboard
February vacation 2008 was great. We joined up with 6 members of Venture Crew 52 from the Plymouth area, meeting them for the first time in Islamorada, Florida, at Sea Base. The staff at Sea Base made us feel welcome right away and helped us get our gear together and review our diving skills since most of us hadn't done any diving since the fall. Sunday morning we packed our equipment, food, and everything we'd need for a week on the water and headed out to the Conch Peal to meet Captain Denny and Dive Master and Master Chef Holly. We motored out to the first dive site and and headed into the water. The first dive was guided by our fearless leader, Diver Dave, who helped us adjust our weight belts and kept an eye on us until he was convinced that we weren't going to do anything too stupid or dangerous. We packed up all the dive equipment and headed out to our anchoring spot for the night and enjoyed a nice dinner before hitting the bunks for the night. Day 2 was bright and sunny but one of our members was sick and by midday it was evident that things weren't going to get better soon, so two of our group were picked up by a boat from Sea Base and headed back to land. The rest of the group had a wonderful time diving and sailing all around the Florida Keys and spent a day walking around in Key West. The sunset was amazing - just look at the pictures. We got in 11 dives, two of them at night, and the water was warmer there in the winter then it ever gets in Massachusetts! The last night at Sea Base was a luau, and Saturday morning we said good bye to the warm weather and headed home. It was a pleasure and an honor to spend the week with Crew 52 - you are in our thoughts and our prayers.
- White Water Rafting
- May 2007
Kennebec River, Maine
WWR in the Kennebec River in Maine The water was a cold 50 degrees, but the sun was shining and the water was fast for our outing on the Kennebec River with Crabapple. A few brave souls went swimming through the swimmer's rapids, and a few had some help being brave. We drove up Saturday afternoon and camped overnight to make our 8:30am start at Crabapple. We were outfitted with wet suits, booties, PFDs, given a paddle and boarded the bus. It was a 20 minute drive to out put out spot for a series of Class 3-5 rapids. The day on the river was followed by an amazing steak, chicken, fish or vegetarian meal which was delicious! We were on our way home by 3:15pm and home before dark.
- Novice
Kayaking Clinic - May 2007
Deerfield River, Deerfield, MA
Learning to white water kayak with Zoar Outdoor was just amazing. There were two instructors for the group of 8 and we spent the morning getting fitted into our kayaks, wetsuit, paddling jackets, PFDs, helmets, and skirts (no , not that kind! the kind that fits over the opening in your kayak so it doesn't fill up with water and sink) and practicing basic maneuvers on a pond. The weather was perfect - sunny, 70 degrees and no wind. We wish we could say the same about the bugs! The most important thing we learned was the wet exit, how to get out of your kayak when it flips upside down. We learned some basic paddle strokes, the sweep stroke for turning and the forward stroke for speed. We also discovered how important it is to maintain an "edge", the angle the kayak is at for the different maneuvers. The kayak is controlled by your paddle and the way you shift your body weight and brace your knees. After lunch we headed to the Deerfield River and some whitewater. We learned about eddys and how to move from the eddy to the current (eddy turn and peel out), how to ferry across the current and practiced our wet exits. The instructors, Jeff and Scott were fun and easygoing and very helpful, keeping us out of trouble and letting us just have fun in the water. We headed back to Zoar base around 4:30pm and then set up camp in nearby Mohawk Trail State Forest. We had our dinner and made a fire and went to bed early, to be ready for the next busy day. We met at Zoar base at 8:30am Sunday and spent some time reviewing basic water features and strategy, like how to decide which side of the river to stay on and how to plot out a course. Then it was back to the river to practice more strokes, the skulling draw (to move sideways), the hip brace (to prevent flipping), back paddling, and how to turn or control a spin with a draw. We played some games to reinforce these skills, and had an early lunch and headed back to the same spot we had been yesterday. From there is was all downstream and lots of white water. We practiced surfing on rocks, finding eddys and just had fun in 4 miles of mostly white water, including Pinball 2, Miami Beach and so many others. Scott and Jeff showed us some more advanced moves like enders, bow stalls, 360's in a hole and other amazing tricks. We traveled all the way to Zoar Gap before getting out of the water, carried our kayaks up to the pick up point, and then walked up to look at the Gap while we waited for the van to pick us up. We were hoping to see some kayakers or canoer's go through, but it was late in the day so we just talked about classes of rapids, pointed out the eddys, and talked about how much fun we had. We headed back to Zoar base, turned in all our equipment, thanked Jeff and Scott, and headed home. We can't wait to get back out on the water!
- Ice Climbing
- March 2007
Keene, NH
The ice climbing trip with Vertical World Adventures (www.verticalworldadventures.com) was great. The ice was in good shape and the day was one of the warmest this year. We went up to a snowmobiling club in Keene where we were the only ones climbing the ice. It was a great learning experience and lots of fun thanks to our guide and instructor Eric. We learned about how ice climbing differs from rock climbing, how to place screws in the ice to clip in to, how to determine if our placement of the ice axe would hold our weight, and how important it is to get a good hold of the ice with our crampons so that our feet don't slip. It was so much fun and a great day.
- Sky Venture -
February 2007
Nashua, NH
We got to practice our Sky Diving moves without jumping out of a plane in their vertical wind tunnel. An instructor enters the tunnel with you and helps you learn what position to get into to maintain flight without hitting the walls or trampoline like floor. We communicated by hand signals because it's so noisy that it requires ear plugs. Each person rotated through twice, first to get a feel for it and then again to practice moving up and down in the tunnel. After we were done the instructor got in alone and showed us some amazing moves, flips, and positions. It was good practice for sky diving in June! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures because we were all busy flying!
- 24 Hour Ski a Thon - February 2007
Wachusett Mountain, Princeton, MA
The conditions were pretty good at the mountain, but nobody stayed late because the following morning we were headed up to Okemo Mountain in Vermont with Troop 182. The slopes were crowded but we had a good time skiing and riding. (Okemo was awesome!)
- Rhode Island Rock Gym - January
2007
Lincoln, RI
This was a joint event with Troop 182 and it was really a great day. We started off with a lesson in belaying for those of us who needed a refresher course or who had not done any climbing before. Then we we left to our own devices to climb or boulder. We spent as much time bouldering as climbing, and spent a lot of time falling onto the thick mats from upside down boulders. It was tiring, but good practice for our ice climbing event coming up soon!
- Revolutions Soccer Game & Campout
- November 2006
Foxboro, MA
The kick off to the new school year was a professional soccer game and campout. It was a great game, with the Revolutions winning the game 3 to 1. The game (which included a chance to get on the field, meet some players, and dinner) was followed by a campfire before getting into our tents. We broke camp early and headed home, opting for breakfast at a little restaurant with the largest breakfast menu in New England. This is from Chris: We left the church around 2:00 after we waited for who else but Jack, we then were on the road. In about an hour we got there arrived at the very fancy Normandy Farms Campground. After setting up camp in the field and then hanging around for a little while we went to the Revolution game. When we got inside we tried all of the different moonwalks and soccer things they had for us to do then we waited for the game. Kenny, Jack and I got to be ball "kids" for the game and it was a lot of fun, all three of us had a blast but it was extremely cold on that field and Kenny and I braved the whole first half with shorts and a t-shirt. At the beginning of the game the whole troop got to march on the field with our flag it was very cool, Jack had a blast touching the grass. After the game Kenny, Jack and I got some autographs from the players and then we found the rest of the troop and left for the campground. We got there started a fire then fooled around until 12 or so except for two people who were burning stuff. We then woke up broke down and left and got out before the rain came.
- High Adventure - Camp Richard -
August 2006
Nantucket, MA
Our High Adventure trip (August 5-12, 2006) was a weeks worth of sun, water, and fun. We hit the beach every day, swimming and body surfing the waves of Cisco and Surfside Beach. Unfortunately, we were not able to get any diving in because the Divemaster at the Sunken Ship was out of town for the week. The camp itself was very nice with hot indoor and outdoor showers, a lodge with ping pong and pool tables, and great covered eating areas. For our service project we mowed some of the general camp areas and removed a shrub that had been damaged during the construction of the Lodge. One night we took an old grill to the beach and cooked and ate dinner while watching the sun set. The weather was great, the water was a relatively warm 70 degrees, and the accommodations were quite comfortable.
- Diving Certification Weekend -
June 2006
Rockport, MA and Pawcatuk, CT
On June 17-18, 2006 the Crew members taking the dive class completed their 5 open water dives. On Saturday we went to Rockport, MA to Old Garden Beach and completed 3 dives. The weather was beautiful, the ocean was calm, and there was so much to see underwater! We saw plenty of lobster, fish, a ray, crabs, etc. We had a great time with our instructor, Eric and his assistant, Jim. Saturday night we drove to Westerly, RI and spent the night because we had to be in Pawcatuk, CT at 8am to meet up with the rest of the class for a chartered boat ride with Captain Rolo aboard the 40 ft Release Me. Our instructors Eric, Jim and Leo joined us for the 45 minute ride to Fisher's Island in New York. We completed our first dive and finished demonstrating our skills (very different from doing them in the pool!). During our 1 hour SIT (Surface Interval Time) some of us became seasick, so we decided not to do our second dive at the same point out to the shipwreck Olinda but to move to the leeward side of the island where the water was calmer. That proved interesting because when we got to the bottom (about 24 feet deep) we discovered that the visibility was only about 2 or 3 feet. It was a great dive though, because for the first time we just got to enjoy the dive (no skills to demonstrate) and spend the time just observing the underwater environment. We did really well in terms of sticking with our buddy on that dive! We logged our dives, had our logbooks signed, and got back into the dock around 4:30pm. It was an exciting and tiring weekend, but we are now NAUI certified open water divers. It was a long road but lots of fun and well worth it!
- SCUBA certification
class - April 2006
Inland Divers in Leicester, MA
On April 29th, 2006 5 Crew members started a SCUBA certification class at Inland Divers in Leicester, MA. This class meets on six Saturdays from 1pm to 5pm. Each class consists of 2 hours of classroom time and 2 hours in the pool. Fortunately, the pool is indoors and heated. At the end of the classes, there will be two days of ocean dives from Rockport, MA. These dives are the final exam of the class. This is quite a time commitment, (with tests and homework!) but is a lot of fun. The SCUBA certification is good for life and allows us to go SCUBA diving anywhere in the world.
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24 Hour Ski a Thon - February 2006
Wachusett Mountain, Princeton, MA
On February 24th, 2006 we went to Wachusett Mountain's 24 hours Ski-A-Thon. Everyone met at different times up at the Mountain and skied until 2 am. Most were in bed by 3 am, which allowed everyone to get a few hours sleep before the Breakfast Fundraiser and Bake Sale at the Senior Center. We raised about $200 and have lots of supplies left over if we decide to do this again. Thanks to all the crew members who showed up clean, smiling, and mostly awake.