By Theresa Armstrong

Reporter

tarmstrong@gcnewsgazette.com

The Leitchfield Lions Club has teamed up with the Boy Scouts of America and expanded its group to include the young adults of Grayson Count  through a new program called the Venturing.

Venturing is the fastest growing program of the BSA. This program gives males and females, ages 14 –20, an opportunity to be involved in the community as well as enjoy high adventure activities such as whitewater rafting and camping.

Venturing provides positive experiences to help young people mature, and to prepare them to become responsible and caring adults.

The group is designed to provide the skills needed for young adults to make ethical choices, and experience a fun program full of adventure and challenges.

Members will acquire leadership skills, and take advantage of opportunities to advance their skills and knowledge in the areas of high adventure, sports, arts, hobbies, religious life, and community involvement.

Venturing is a new idea to an old program of the Boy Scouts of America. Originally it was part of the Exploring division, and officially became a program recognized by BSA in 1998.

The young adults in Venturing have found the outlet they have been looking for in their age group, through the program.

“I have been involved with the boys scouts for years and am working on becoming an Eagle Scout. I joined Venturing because I wanted to do more to help out my community,” said 15-year-old member Tyler Beauchamp. “We get to do a lot more exciting things than I did as a scout, like whitewater rafting. Right now we don’t have anything planned but we hope to go rock climbing and white water rafting this summer.”

The local group was seen handing out refreshments at the Light up Leitchfield event, which was held at James D. Beville City Park on December 5. The Ventures also had a float in the Christmas parade.

With nine members, six of which are boys and three girls, the group is a charter organization of the Lions club.

“As Lions we chose to support this group of young adults because we were looking to be more benevolent in helping out our young people,” said Leitchfield Lion’s Club President Brett Abney.  “The Ventures group was a perfect fit with the Lions Club because their ideals match well with our group.”

Although the local group became official in November they have jumped right in with activities and choosing officers.

“I joined because I wanted to get to know more people in the community and help out more,” said Kayla Oldham, one of the three female members of the group. “I also wanted to do the high adventure activities and things like that.”