Podcast: Ravenna’s Young Marines see a decline in numbers, no help from nonprofit funding
Rob Pownall has been the unit commander for the last 17 years in Ravenna, Ohio but he’s been a part of it since the very beginning.
“I had a best friend of mine, we were running around together and his dad was a former Marine,” Pownall said. “And we were 14 and, we were just running around with, there’s really nothing to do for us in Ravenna so he said he’s going to start his own program. He was going to try to find something like junior ROTC, or something for us.”
Pownall continued, “Well he actually called headquarters Marine Corp in Washington D.C., got ahold of someone and they said yes the Marine Corp has a youth program called he Young Marines and here’s a contact phone number. So he called, got everything together to start up a unit and he actually ran it for the first 10 years. So I was, me and my buddy and about 40 other kids were part of the first platoon for the, it was the Ravenna Young Marines at that time and then later on, about 10 years down the road, 12 years down the road, we changed it to the Chesty Puller Young Marines.”
As the Chesty Puller Young Marines, they accept boys and girls ages eight through the completion of high school and they do a various number of activities.
“We teach them how to march or how to drill, maintenance of their uniform, there’s uniform inspections. History of the Young Marines program, not a whole lot of history about the Marine Corp. Then there’s physical fitness, there’s leadership, customs courtesies, things of that nature,” Pownall said.
Despite being in Ravenna for nearly 28 years the program is seeing a decline in numbers.
Executive Officer, Gary Pfau, has an idea why.
“Currently we’ve got, I’d say about, 22 Young Marines,” Pfau said. “That’s down from the usual 45 to 50 that we typically have. So it really it comes down to discipline. Parents can’t get them away from the video games and, to me, that’s the problem. We can give them the discipline, but only if they come.”
With numbers declining, it gets harder to fund. Despite being a national nonprofit, a representative from the national Young Marines says that it actually does little to help the individual units.
Instead, it’s on them to do their own fundraising. Still, Pownall remains hopeful.
“Well we’ve been around this long, we’re going to keep after it. We don’t plan on quitting anytime soon or dissolving,” Pownall said. “We’re trying to increase our efforts to get out in the public more and see if we can get some more kids who are interested and keep them going.”
