What Activities and Leadership Approach Does Troop 653 Offer?

Troop 653 is a Scouting America troop that combines a youth-led leadership model with an outdoor activity program. According to the troop's own site, its approach centers on the Patrol Method and a "Youth Led" structure, while its activities range from campouts to backpacking, bicycling, sailing, and canoeing. The stated aim is to build leadership, self-reliance, and lifelong friendships. This is an explainer for anyone weighing whether the troop's program fits a young person's interests.

The leadership approach: Patrol Method and youth-led

Troop 653 describes its leadership model in two connected parts:

• The Patrol Method — Scouts are organized into small groups (patrols) rather than one large unit, so leadership happens at a scale where each member has a real role.
• A youth-led approach — The troop frames this as "how the Scouting Program teaches leadership through doing." In other words, youth take on responsibility for planning and running things, and leadership is learned by practicing it rather than by instruction alone.

The site sums this up with the phrase "Leadership, Self-Reliance, Lifelong Friendships," which links the method directly to the outcomes the troop is aiming for.

Activities offered

The troop lists a set of outdoor and adventure activities that it says "teach valuable life skills and introduce youth to new adventures":

The range matters if you're comparing options: this is not a single-sport or single-focus program, but a mix of land and water activities. The site presents these as examples of what the troop does rather than a fixed calendar, so specific timing and frequency aren't stated there.

How the activities and leadership model connect

The two halves of the program reinforce each other. A campout or backpacking trip is not just recreation — it's the setting where the Patrol Method operates. Someone has to plan the route, organize gear, and make decisions on the trail, and in a youth-led troop those tasks fall to the Scouts. That's the mechanism behind the claim that the program "teaches leadership through doing": the activity is the classroom.

The same logic explains the other stated outcomes:

• Self-reliance — Scouts handle logistics and problem-solving with decreasing adult direction.
• Life skills — Trip planning, teamwork, and outdoor competence carry over beyond Scouting.
• Lifelong friendships — Shared trips and a small-patrol structure create repeated, close contact over time.
• New adventures — The activity list is deliberately varied, so members encounter things they haven't tried before.

Achieving Eagle Scout

The troop also highlights the rank of Eagle Scout as one of the things Scouting offers. Its own framing is candid: "Not everyone will accomplish this, but for those who do, it is monumental." If the Eagle path is a priority for your family, treat it as an available goal within the troop rather than a guaranteed outcome, and ask troop leaders directly about advancement support when you visit.

What to check before deciding

The site gives the program's shape but not its schedule or costs. Before committing, it's worth confirming:

• How often each activity type actually appears on the calendar in a given year
• What gear and fees are involved for backpacking, sailing, and canoeing specifically
• How much adult involvement versus youth decision-making happens in practice on a typical trip

Troop 653 meets almost every Monday night at Red Mountain United Methodist Church, just north on Power at McDowell Road, and the site notes that no invitation is needed to attend. Visiting a meeting is the most direct way to see the youth-led model in action and to ask the questions above.