In the third week of August, the Crew sent two members, Nat W. and Nick W. to take part in Chief Seattle Council's second National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) course of the year. Nat went to experience the course as a participant, while Nick was on staff for his second consecutive year. He served as Assistant Course Leader (Program) for four of the six days.

After the original Course Leader left for a family vacation, Nick was promoted to Course Leader and worked with the Course Director directly for the remaining two days. This is astonishing due to the fact that, due to some complications, he almost didn't get to staff for a second time at all!

The second week of the NYLT course yielded an extremely enthusiastic group of participants - and an extremely high number of staff applications, with nearly the entire course seeking to serve as a staff member for the 2013 NYLT Season. A new fashion trend even emerged mid-course; wearing sleeping bags everywhere. The course photo, shown above, was even taken in this new style of dress! It will be extremely hard to choose next year's staff from such a bunch of highly-qualified scouts.

The staff experienced a great few weekends together training for the course and constructing some of the permanent NYLT structures up at Camp Sheppard. To apply for staff, you must demonstrate an exemplary performance during the year you are a participant and submit an application. To staff multiple years, you must be invited back by one of the course directors. As a reinforcement of their dedication to leadership, the staff are not paid. However, they do receive some pretty snazzy jackets. This course was noted by multiple adult staff members, including Harrison, the Camp Sheppard director, as one of the best they had ever seen. Thanks to all the participants and staff for a great week, and I hope to see you all at NYLT Week 2 2013!