Venturing Crew 272 was created in order to bring youth of Saint Joseph's Parish and surrounding area together as a community.  Anyone 14 years old (and graduated 8th grade) through age 20 is eligible to join.  Meetings are held every other Sunday in Carew Hall after 5:00 Mass.  Anyone who wishes to join can see Mike Keller, the parish music director, to find out any other information.  Our Crew is, at this point consisting of around 20 members.  In order to recruit new members this October, we are planning to set up a fellowship night after Mass to share information about the crew. We'll speak at all the Masses inviting anyone interested in finding out who we are and what we do.  We are planning all sorts of events.  We are hosting a benefit concert of Religious Inspirational Music by composer Chris Catalano to support Operation Veronica, a group that sends useful items to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to make them a little more comfortable by giving them a small "taste of home".  The crew is helping the parish with Breakfast with St. Nick by staffing the craft and cupcake workshops for the children who attend.  We are involved in service projects in the parish and the community.  We conduct an evangelization outreach to our scouting district by preparing and helping with the Masses at District Camporees.  As a part of our evangelization effort we recently prayed the Rosary with seniors residing in a local nursing home and are available to help with and/or lead prayer, especially the Rosary where invited.  We are also available to share fellowship with our "older" brothers and sisters by playing cards or just sharing tea and conversation.  This winter's super event is a trip to Rockefeller Center and additional destinations in NYC before Christmas.  The group decides what events they wish to plan and carry out.  It is a group effort and everyone is included in any decisions.  Our meeting dates and activities are posted in the parish bulletin on the Youth Activities page.
   

A few of the Crew 272 members and I attended an overnight leadership training session in Mattituck. (VLSC)  It was a great experience and we had a chance to meet people from two other Venturing Crews, including our neighbor Crew 777. Crew 777 sponsored the VLSC and its members have been really helpful in helping us to get our crew started.