Issue #14 – April 2016
A Note from the Founder – Quest Clubs for Adults and Seniors
by Kerry Cordy
As Quest continues to expand, we have discovered that adults love to earn badges just as much as the kids do. As a result, we have seen an increase in adult participation not only in earning badges with their kids, but also forming clubs specifically for adults. From active outdoors groups to indoor crafting groups and everything in between, adults are rediscovering how much fun it is to learn new things.
Senior Centers have also discovered Quest and have begun opening clubs specifically geared toward senior citizens to keep them active. At Hilltop Estates, a retirement apartment complex in CA, they have begun adding badges to their Travel the World program. Each resident receives a “passport” and every month they “visit” a different country. They watch a travel show about the country, eat food from that country, learn about it, etc. and then receive a badge for the country they learned about. They have also added badges to their activity days such as their Dr. Suess Day where the residents earned their Dr. Suess badge.
You are never too old to stop learning, so choose something new you want discover; get out there and earn a badge!
New Badges We’ve Added!
Click on the badge to be taken to the requirements page.
March Logo Contest Winner!
The winners of our February Logo contest are Jazmyn and Kale Sabator! Congratulations!
We hope you enjoy your $10 Quest Clubs gift card!
Pointers for Patriots
Did you know active duty military members or their dependents can get a National Parks Pass for free?
This allows you entry into any State or National Park free of charge ($10 per day or $30+ per year).
You can get the pass at any National or State Park.
NEW! Quest Clubs Location Page
We have added a Club Location page to our website. It can be found on our
secondary menu at the top of the page. We had several requests to create
one and we were finally able to! However, the page is still under construction
so keep that in mind as you browse it. Also, if you would like to be added to the
page, please email us at kerry@questclubs.com!
The page can be found here: http://questclubs.com/quest-club-locations/
Featured Club of the Month
Tehachapi Mountain Scouts – Tehachapi, CA
We have been building pretty steadily since our first meeting in October. We are slowly hashing out our program, but currently have 15 kids, and plan on a large recruitment drive come summer. We started Tehachapi Mountain Scouts because girls and boy scouts just lacked in outdoor activities. Our kids never got out in their programs, and they told us the kids just don’t want to do it anymore. Well our kids were begging to get into nature, and we live in the mountains. So we figured why not. After a bit of digging we found Frontier Girls. As our primary gripe was for our daughter. As we were looking into the program we found the quest club, and found that would be more fitting to our organization.
For us the primary benefits of a Quest Club are having access to all the program materials, and “scouts in a box” so to speak. It gave us access to information, materials, and a shop that would have taken us years and a lot of money to get to where we are today.
We also like the customization. We did not want to be tied down to you must do XYZ, we wanted to build a program where it was more like a traditional scouting organization. Outdoors and Nature Conservancy.
Our mission is to educate our children through engaging activities in the areas of nature conservation, exploration, and leadership.
We felt the best way to do this was to stay autonomous. We did not want a charter. We wanted to be it. So we put our heads down and took the hard route. We raised some money to get started, and had an amazing lawyer, John Linford, help us Pro Bono with the incorporation of Tehachapi Mountain Scouts in California. He was amazing, and very interested in our goals.
We obtained permission from the City of Tehachapi to use the scout hut free of charge for our weekly meetings. Minus road closures we have met every wednessday since October!
After that we obtained insurance and started our meetings in October of 2015. Since then we have hovered around 15 kids, both boys and girls. We currently have a custom uniform, and accept scouts 3-18. We also accept special needs scouts. Our insurance gives us a capacity of 50 kids, and we hope to get closer to that this summer.
Late February we received our 501(c)3 non-profit status from the IRS. So now we are aggressively pursuing grant opportunities for the kids.
Over the last few months we have completed 9 merit badges. Held 2 Super successful fundraisers. One for root beer floats at Walgreens, and one was a bake sale at Kmart the weekend before Christmas. We had a major natural disaster in our town of Tehachapi when the hwy 58 had miles of mudslide close the whole town off for a week. We talked to our scouts about disasters, disaster preparedness, and visited the salvation army for a tour and presentation. On Veterans day we visited the VFW, spoke with veterans, and got pictures with everyone.
Today (3-23-16) We completed our first hike, 3.5 miles! We have more hikes scheduled bi-weekly through the end of summer.
We have a great bunch of kids, who are eager to learn, and love our meetings.
We have been slowly editing the program to meet our needs. This last week our scouts came up with our own unique pledge for Tehachapi Mountain Scouts:
I pledge to explore my world everyday and find ways to make it better I pledge to conserve all of the earth’s resources, use them wisely, and teach others to do the same I pledge to use teamwork, passion, and cooperation to help my fellow scouts and leaders I pledge to lead by example by being honest, trustworthy,courteous, and helpful I pledge to explore, conserve and lead in all that I do.
We also have custom levels designed for our scouts that match the quest club:
Greenhorn Red Ribbon
Children Age 3-5 or in Preschool.
Wanderer Yellow Ribbon
Children Age 5-8 or in grades k-2.
Pathfinder Blue Ribbon
Children Age 8-11 or in grades 3-5.
Guide Green Ribbon
Children Age 11-14 or in grades 6-8.
Explorer Yellow Ribbon
Children Age 14-18 or in grades 9-12.
The best way to reach us at the troop level is our facebook page:
Anyone wanting advise, can always email me at this email directly.
Daniel Burgess
Today (3-23-16) We completed our first hike, 3.5 miles! We have more hikes scheduled bi-weekly through the end of summer.