Starting this month, nearly 600 Scouts in 59 troops and packs from northern Minnesota joined the Twin Cities-based Northern Star Council.
In late September, after several months of discussion, voting members of the Voyageurs Area Council, based in Hermantown, decided to merge operations with Northern Star Council, based at Fort Snelling.
Voyageurs Area Council included Carlton, Cook, Lake, Pine and St. Louis counties and served communities from Hibbing to Duluth to Grand Marais. It includes a service center and Scout shop in Hermantown and the geography includes a National High Adventure Base in Ely.
Scouting units in the five counties will now be known as the Arrowhead District and the Boundary Waters District of the Northern Star Council.
The merger will allow the new districts to operate more efficiently, taking advantage of Northern Star’s infrastructure, and providing more program resources directly to Scouting units.
“This move was made in the best interest of delivering the highest quality Scout program. I have seen the corporate structure of Scouting evolve over the past 35 years, and this takes into account” those changes, said Ernie Stauffenecker, Voyageur Area Council board member and former president. “I am confident that our unanimous vote to merge the Voyageurs Area Council and the Northern Star Council, as well as their combined resources, is great news for growing the Scout program and will be a tremendous benefit to young people of the northland.”
As a result of the merger, the Northern Star Scouting reach will include 30 counties, 26 in Minnesota and four in Western Wisconsin, as well as 10 council-owned camps including the Fort Snelling headquarters and Base Camp facilities. The combined organization serves over 35,000 youth and approximately 6,700 leaders through 740 units and programs, making it one of the largest youth development organizations in Minnesota.
