Why should High Adventure be a part of your troop?

Adventures in the wilderness are at the heart of scouting.
• Keeps the scouts excited and engaged
• Retains youth as they grow older
• Provides enormous opportunities for learning and advancement
• Builds confidence, team building, and leadership skills
• It’s FUN!

How do we get scouts interested in High Adventure?

Several techniques exist to help broaden the minds of young scouts and motivate them to want to take on high adventure experiences.

Patches, Medals & More Patches!

There is a robust reward and recognition program built around high adventure activities. These awards are sponsored by local councils and apply to backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, canyoneering, trail building, SCUBA diving, peak-bagging,… and on and on and on. All of these awards are built around specific High Adventure themes or activities that scouts can get excited about and pursue.

Check out the Awards section on this website to begin exploring the possibilities.

Themed T-shirts, Caps, Sweatshirts and Other Gear

Some troops implement achievement levels for their scouts via training and adventure completion milestones (e.g.: number of backpacking events or miles hiked, etc.) Different colored Class B shirts allow scouts to actively display their accomplishments and help to motivate other scouts to strive to achieve the same.

Use Court of Honor Events to Showcase High Adventure Activities

Reserve a portion of the Court of Honor to specially award High Adventure patches & medals – making a big deal out of the accomplishments each scout achieved in earning them.

Ask the Troop Scribe or Webmaster to create a slideshow or video of all your amazing events, themed to music. Sit back as the images from these great activities inspire and advertise the adventures. Scouts in the audience will see themselves (and their friends) on the big screen. Before you know it, they’ll be clamoring to do more!