Hello Everyone,    My name is Garrett. I am seventeen and am almost a Life Scout with Troop 73 from Pathway to Adventure Council. In 2014, my council participated in a merger with another council to form the Pathway to Adventure Council. The merge was formed mostly due to economic issues in the other council. Now that the merge is completed, the council is trying to close Camp Shin-Go-Beek and Camp Mach-Kin-O-Siew. I strongly believe that this is the wrong decision for the council to make. Camp Shin-Go-Beek did have a few years in which the participation at the camp dwindled, but the summer of 2015 significantly grew for that camp's participation. I believe that if the council put some of the money from the trust fund into improving the camps, they participation will skyrocket even more. Also, the camp grounds are not currently being used to their full potential. My troop has spent one weekend a year staying in the cabins at Camp Shin-Go-Beek and cross country skiing throughout the camp's trails. I believe that this is a gold mine that is just waiting to be struck. Advertising the camp to winter camping could raise the prophets astronomically.    

I know that this sounds like a lot of business, and it partially is, but there are also a lot of people who have grown up at these camps. Camp Shin-Go-Beek has been open since 1948. That is 67 years of boy scouts attending this camp. One of my previous scoutmasters practically BUILT one of the campsites when he was younger.     I am also a great example of the kind of boys that this camp has helped. I lost my father in early 2009 to cancer and Boy Scouts was where I found male role models. Camp Shin-Go-Beek is where I grew up. I know that I could have gone to any summer camp and had a similar experience, but Camp Shin-Go-Beek is where I learned to be who I am today. If Camp Shin-Go-Beek is closed, I will have lost the place that I grew up. I am not the only one, I can guarantee that in the 67 years of its existence, Camp Shin-Go-Beek has helped MANY boys like myself find who they really are.    Please help us try to keep our camp open. We would greatly appreciate any help we can get.  Thank You,  Garrett Allar