CYC SEASCOUTS MAIL CALL BY MARK CORTER
It’s been a fun year since Sea Scouts restarted at the CYC last summer. Let’s try to see if we can recap the year.
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The program was reorganized in June of 2021. We started with eight Scouts. They came over from another ship, plus a few brand new Scouts. The first goal was to get organized and come up with an action plan for the year. We came up with several activities and concentrated on
The excitement for the program was starting to build. The Scouts ended the sailing season with a fall camp out at Warren dunes. The next meeting, we discussed what we could do to help with the Christmas tree ship. We found that Captain Schuenemann’s grave marker was at Acadia cemetery near Schiller Park. We went out to the grave site and offered our respects and had a small ceremony in honor of Captain Schuenemann.
uniforms for the Scouts so they can be more recognized at the yacht club. The adult leadership was secured and support for the program started to grow. The Scouts continued to use the Chicago council’s sailboat “Reflections’’ and the small red whaler. They also went out sailing on the Skipper’s boat “Maris” and helped with a Mac back delivery last summer on Lloyd Karen’s “Taipan”. The Scouts used the red whaler in the Chicago Regatta boat parade, decorated it with lights and some fairly large flags. That was probably the first time that the club was exposed to the Scouts on a larger scale. They also helped with docking several of the members’ boats that day and made pretty good first impressions.
During the winter months there wasn’t much to do on the water so the Scouts helped with swim classes, teaching other Scouts how to swim. They also visited the National Museum of the American Sailor at Great Lakes Naval Base. That’s where they learned all about tattoos for sailors and their meanings. We had a few questions to answer from the parents after that trip, especially what the pig and rooster meant on the tops of feet. A few of the Scouts wanted to head to North Chicago to get some tattoos, we’ll have to plan that trip for another day.
Blinker ✶ Summer 2022
Scouts helped with offloading the trees and had a great time, they even met Lee Murdock.
