The Origins of Venture Crew 911

Crew 911 was started in April of 1989 as an Explorer Post. Advisor Jack Schooley started Post 911 after being part of a First Aid Crew that had fallen apart. Three people from that Post started 911 with help from the Denver Area Council and St. Anthony Hospital. The only inspiration these three had was the kids that the program would benefit.

In the first year, Post 911 had the bare minimum of five youth and five adult members. After their open house in September, they recruited about ten more youth members. This small group of friends provided first aid support for Frontier District's Klondike at Camp Tahosa in Colorado. This led to other Frontier District activities and finally in 1993 the Post participated in Weblos Weekend. From this single event, their reputation spread and led to all of the district support they are involved in today.

Schooley recalled some of the best and worst times: "The beginning was difficult. We didn't know where we wanted to go exactly. We started with an emphasis in search and rescue and even took some of our youth members out to ESAR, a search and rescue convention in Washington. After that trip, our youth members decided that this[search & rescue] was not something they wanted to do. The best time was the moment that I finally realized that all of our hard work had paid off. At the 1999 Council Camporee, we had a mass triage experience and everyone was putting their training to work. Everyone was willing to help, and that was a great feeling."