The O Foundation of Brookhaven is seeking recruits to serve onits 2008 venturing crew, a media-focused team called “Teens onTop.”

Recruiting efforts will continue Monday with a meeting atPolly’s Restaurant at 6:30 p.m.

Venturing crews are a type of community outreach programsponsored by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), though members arenot required to be members of that organization. Organizations suchas the O Foundation form venturing crews and then register withBSA, after which the crew falls under the scouts’ umbrella ofsupport, which includes the use of BSA facilities and supplementalinsurance that covers crews while they work.

Crews can be geared toward any number of functions.

Mike Culpepper, Senior District Executive of BSAs Andrew JacksonCouncil, said venturing crews are formed of like-minded students inan area by gathering similar results of career surveys issued atarea schools. Brookhaven’s Teens on Top is dedicated to videoproduction.

“When I was young, growing up in Brookhaven, there wasn’t a lotof opportunities,” said Rose “Polly” Powell, president of the OFoundation. “With our venturing crew, we’re trying to give kids achance to experience the media and hopefully introduce them totelevision apprenticeships.”

In 2007, Teens on Top produced a half-hour video documenting theDr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Festival in Brookhaven and thevideo was shown locally on Cable One. For its achievements, thecrew was invited to WLBT 3 in Jackson to spend a day on theset.

Teens on Top members learn about video production on thejob.

Joe Dillon, a student at Co-Lin Community College and 12-yearNavy veteran, where he specialized in information technology andcommunications, serves as the video editor for the crew. He teachesTeens on Top members how to manipulate their videos on a computer,using programs such as Windows’ Vegas Movie Studio.

The five members of the 2007 crew are returning for 2008, butPowell said she wants at least 12 members. Five is the minimumrequired to operate a venturing crew.

Membership for Teens on Top is open to boys and girls age 14 to20. The five veteran members of Teens on Top will be on hand forMonday night’s meeting.

Further meetings will continue every Saturday at 10 a.m. atPolly’s Restaurant.

Parents or children interested in becoming a member of the crewcan contact the crew veterans via e-mail at teensontop@yahoo.com,or call the Powells at Polly’s Restaurant at 601-835-2268.

“We want more adults to come to the meeting and see what ourventuring crew is all about,” said Charles Powell, O FoundationCEO. “We want folks to know that Teens on Top does not take awayfrom any other activities a child might be involved in – it justadds to it.”