The young women and men involved in Specialty Explorer Posts in Utah County aren't just sitting around watching TV this summer.
Nor are they drag-racing on Main Street.Quite the contrary.
They're either on the radio relaying the position of an athlete who's part of an Extreme Challenge marathon event or rapelling down a mountainside as they train for a super climbing activity.
Or they're in hospitals helping in pediatrics, learning first aid or on the range at Heber Valley Gun Club, perfecting their target shooting.
Some are learning to work with injured animals while others are learning to scuba dive.
"We had over 400 kids involved in the Specialty Explorer Posts in 1997. Nationwide we have 9,000 of these type of specialty posts," said David Jones, Boy Scouts of America specialty post coordinator. "One local post, the medical at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, has been going for nine years."
All of the posts offer adventure and leadership skill-building in a variety of interest areas, but some offer adventure with a little more challenge than others.
Young women and young men enrolled in the Search and Rescue post were called out in June to help find a lost hiker on Y Mountain who had fallen to his death.
Those in the amateur radio post, advised by radio enthusiast Terry Gardner of Pleasant Grove, will probably help with communications during the Olympic Winter Games in 2002.
The teens in the scuba diving post are going to be diving off the coast of Cozumel, Mexico in a few weeks.
"The kids in Post 2970 are viable members of the Search and Rescue team," said Pete Bell, adviser to the explorer post linked to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. "We had them out with us in the effort to find the hiker. They kind of handled the brush beating part at the bottom of the cliffs. They got soaking wet but you'd think it was the funnest part, the way they acted."
Bell has about 40 teenagers in his post: about half are female.
The post meets twice a month and members work through the same training agenda that adult members of the Search and Rescue team follow.
"This month, it's focus is on man tracking," said Bell. "Then we do boat rescue, canine training, climbing."
Members of the post are issued numeric pagers and expected to learn the codes that tell them what type of call is coming in, where they need to be and what's needed.
"The kids get real into it," said Bell.
For some, the post training provides a springboard into a career or into the pursuit of a lifetime hobby.
Teenagers who work with Dr. Vaughn Park at the Alpine Animal Hospital in Provo find out whether veterinary medicine is really what they want to do for a living.
Those involved in the medical post hear from surgeons and doctors who can tell them exactly what to expect in a medical career. They visit the emergency room, ride with the fire department, put themselves in casts for April Fool's Day.
Kids in the amateur radio specialty post buy a bare bones radio to begin with and borrow the high frequency radio at Utah Valley State College to communicate around the world.
Eventually they buy more expensive equipment and become seriously hooked on providing a service that links segments of the world together, both in times of crisis and for the day-to-day events.
The good ones stay with it for life.
"We interface with the sheriff's department. We were there, too, helping find the lost hiker," Gardner said. "We're kind of the switchboard for all the transmission. Amateur radio is a very service-oriented activity as is the Boy Scouts of America organization."
Nancy Johnson, adviser to the Biathlon/Shooting Post, said the values of service, leadership, fitness and social exploration in the Explorer program line up perfectly with goals she likes to teach as she trains new gun handlers.
Kevin Peterson, adviser to the Recreation and High Adventure Post, says that post's agenda is determined by "what the kids want to do - canoeing, mountain biking, skiing."
"We see a lot of increase in self-confidence because it's kind of a challenge. It's such a new and different experience. It's a whole new area of nature," said Bob Matthews, advisor to the Scuba Diving/High Adventure Post. "And we go to interesting places: the Bahamas, off the Florida coast, California. Plus the kids are involved in the planning and the fund raising."
"The hidden agenda, of course," says advisor Homer Workman, "is to build character."
Workman, along with Steve Jaussi, advises the new Wilderness Survival Explorer Post. The group has planned a spelunking adventure, a water-skiing campout and a mountain man rendezvous in Wyoming in the next few months.
"I'm interested in youth," said Workman. "And one thing about this, you're constantly reinventing yourself as post members come and go, grow up and graduate."
Girls and boys ages 14-20 can sign up for almost any of the posts for $7 a year. In some cases, registration is limited so each individual advisor needs to be contacted. Others will take every teen that applies.
Usually, parental involvement is welcome. "I'm just one guy," said Dr. Gary Clawson, advisor to the medical post. "Parental involvement is crucial to the post's success."
In addition, where there is great interest such as in fly fishing or aviation, David Jones will work to help set up a post and/or find an advisor in a particular area. Call the Boy Scout office at 373-4185 for more information.
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Additional Information
Some Specialty Explorer posts in Utah County
Post #1973 - Amateur Radio - Terry Gardner: 785-7517
Post #1997 - Biathlon/Shooting - Nancy Johnson: 647-5780
Post #1980 - Career Exploration - Thomas Richards: 227-8759
Post #1984 - Leadership - David Wilson: 224-0249
Post #2955 - Medical Careers - Dr. Gary Clawson: 371-7080
Post #1999 - Primitive Tech/Wilderness Survival - Homer Workman: 374-1876
Post #1985 - Rec/High Adventure - Kevin Peterson: 489-8955
Post #2978 - Scuba/High Adventure - Bob Matthews: 225-7894
Post #1998 - Veterinary Medicine - Dr. Vaughn Park: 374-0622
Post #2970 - Search and Rescue - Pete Bell: 343-4134
Post #1971 - Law Enforcement - Richard Healey: 343-4005
Registration is open to youth between 14-20, male and female.
Posts #2970, #1971 are limited to ages 16-20.