ANAHEIM : Scouts Plan Brazil Trip for Holidays

When members of Boy Scout Troop 1561 leave next month for their big camp-out, they will be staying in a hotel.

But don’t think the 80 Scouts and 40 adults who will make the trip have gotten soft.

The hotel is a two-hour boat ride up Brazil’s Amazon River into the rain forest, and it’s not built on the ground but in the trees.

“There are no telephones, no televisions and our neighbors will be wild monkeys and toucans,” said Scout Joey Whitaker, a 13-year-old Ball Junior High School student.

The four-day stay in the Amazon will start off the troop’s four-week trip to Brazil, which will include a Christmas stay with Scout families in Rio de Janeiro and a nine-day stay at a 14,000-Scout jamboree, South America’s largest.

Fifty-one countries from around the world will be represented.

Scoutmaster John Turanitza said he was visiting Brazil on business about two years ago when a Scouting official there told him about the upcoming jamboree.

“They said they wanted to invite Scouts from all over the world to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s journey and to also help their bid for the 1998 World Jamboree,” Turanitza said.

“So the troop decided it wanted to go. We are going to have the largest contingent from the United States.”

Among the Scouts in Troop 1561 are two Brazilian boys, Rafael Koakowski, 15, and Renato DeAntrade, 14, who recently moved to this country.

Koakowski said that in Brazil Scouts spend more time learning crafts, such as furniture making, while here more emphasis is given to outdoor skills such as camping.

He also said that Troop 1561 does more community service projects, such as visiting convalescent homes, than his Brazilian troop did.

In preparation for the trip, the troop has designed its own scarves--red, white and blue on one side, Brazil’s green, yellow and blue on the other.

They have also made wooden clasps for the scarves and had commemorative patches made.

The troop has also been studying Portuguese, Brazil’s primary language, and studying the country’s culture and history.

In addition to its other preparations, the troop has been raising money to pay for the trip.

The troop has raised about $30,000 during the past two years, devoting almost every weekend to at least one fund-raising activity.

However, the troop is still about $12,000 short of its goal and is for the first time seeking donations for the project.

Potential donors can call Turanitza at (714) 535-3758 or (714) 491-2710.

“Up until now, not one penny has come from donations,” said Frances Whitaker, Joey’s mother. “They have earned every cent. But now it’s getting a little too close.”

The troop leaves for its trip Dec. 13 and is scheduled to return Jan. 8.