St. Vincent’s hosts a Catholic Scouting group composed of the the following four branches: The Braves, Kateries, Cadets and Guides. This program is dedicated to fostering leadership, community and personal development while teaching teamwork, responsibility and life skills. This method offers our traditional Catholic families enriching experiences for children and a real method of education to support and complement what is practiced in the family as well as at school.

Braves and Kateries

Braves (boys) and Kateries (girls) are four year programs for children ages 8-12. Under the patronage of the North American Martyrs and St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the boys and girls meet separately for three hours every other week during the school year at the district house in Farley, MO. Meetings contain elements of prayer, activities, games and talks with a priest and supervisors. Each child has a Progression Trail sheet with the skills and good habits he/she needs to acquire in order to progress and be promoted to the next rank.
 

The children are invited to work on projects to achieve pins which can then be worn on their uniform. Once a year, during the summer, a 5 to 7 day camp out at Spirit Lake in Perry, KS, offers the children space to reinforce the skills with outdoor activities, games and overnight camping.
 

Cadets and Guides

The Cadets (boys) and Guides (girls) are a four year program for those aged 13-17 years. The key moment of any Cadet or Guide’s life is the Promise they make before staff and peers. This promise to serve and their personal engagement becomes the main leverage for the efforts demanded as well as an incredible help in consenting to sacrifices against their own natural vices through the teenage years. Scouting aims to build character, virtues and leadership. It is a unique chance to offer teenagers wholesome friends and activities where they can safely learn how to exercise their freedom, the care of younger members, and the practice of leadership. It comes as no surprise that in Europe, most of the vocations come from the scouting movement.
 

Divided into patrols, they compete with each other in the practice of skills such as camping, packing, cooking, navigation, observation, communications, and other sports. Leadership is taught as the teens are occupied in activities with one to two daily leadership meetings to correct and report on improvement and difficulties. This year long program aims toward the summer camp where acquired skills are put in practice in a two to three week camp outdoors.
 

Meetings are held once a month by the Patrol Leaders in order to prepare for the monthly camping outing from Friday night to Sunday morning. Both the Guides and Cadets learn these skills, but are set apart from other scouts because they aim to foster Catholic life and Catholic virtues in the youth.