YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
Eric Song is looking to start the Crew program in Jones County now that his son, Chayton Song, has become an Eagle Scout and is searching for youth who would be interested in the program.
He said his wife grew up in Jones County, and he ended up in Jones County his junior year of High School. Chayton said he’s lived in Jones County his entire life, and he enjoys the county.
“Now that my sons made Eagle, there’s nothing he can do in his current troop. We’re looking at starting something called Crew, and it’s something that’s not really known about,” he said. “It’s for boys and girls ages 14 through 20, and instead of working on merit badges they work on ALPS, which stands for adventure, leadership, personal growth, and service.”
He said those in Crew can go on any adventure they want. They just have to plan for what they want to do. He said there are also leadership positions within Crew, personal growth is something they want to individually work on and service is something they do to give back to the community.
“I’d love to start a Crew here in Jones County. To start we need a sponsor and then we need a minimum of four adults and five youth. We want to see if there is any interest here in Jones County,” Eric said.
The local man said this program is good for the youth in Jones County, because it gets them doing activities outdoors and talking to people their age. He said the Crew program is a lot of fun, because they have more choices in what they can do compared to Scouts.
“We are hoping to get this program running by August, so we can do some sort of activity in June or late July,” he said.
“I thought once Chayton made Eagle I’d be done with Scouts, but I want him to continue that growth and have fun.”
Chayton said he would like to do a lot of the adventuring while in Crew. He said people can do pretty much anything.
He said he wants to go fishing and continue learning as much as he can.
“This program helps people grow. You have to grow religiously and mentally,” he said. “If you don’t have a lot to do right now, you should come join. It’ll be a lot of fun.”
Eric said if people have questions about joining the Crew program, they can email him at jonescountycrew@gmail. com.
