I'm Unit Commander Sara Owen and I'm very excited to have you join our program!
Once you review this information, feel free to send me a text or email and I'll give you a call to answer all your questions.
I typically make phone calls on my way home from work after 5:00 pm during the week or in the evenings during the weekend.
(386) 479-5165
In the meantime, please continue the application process by creating an account at: https://youngmarines.org/login.
We are the Volusia Young Marines, located in Volusia County, Florida and are proud to be a part of our nation’s premiere, award-winning program for boys and girls between the ages of eight and eighteen.
The Young Marines strengthens the lives of America's youth by teaching the importance of self-confidence, academic achievement, honoring our veterans, good citizenship, community service, and living a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.
The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members. The program focuses on character building and leadership and promotes a lifestyle that is conducive to being productive members of society. The Young Marines is the premier youth organization in its Drug Demand Reduction efforts.
The Young Marines is open to all youth ages 8 through the completion of high school.
The only membership requirement is that the youth must be in good standing at school.
Since the Young Marines' humble beginnings, in 1959, with one unit and handful of boys, the organization has grown respectively with units throughout the country and overseas.
Upon joining a local Young Marine unit, youth undergo a 26-hour orientation program, generally spread out over several meetings. This orientation is called Recruit Training. The youth learn general subjects such as history, customs and courtesies, close order drill, physical fitness, and military rank structure.
After graduating from Young Marine Recruit Training, the youth have the opportunity to learn even more new skills, earn rank, wear the Young Marine uniform and work toward ribbon awards. Young Marines earn ribbons for achievement in areas such as leadership, community service, swimming, academic excellence, first aid and drug resistance education.
Volusia Young Marines were chartered March 1st, 2022.
Our unit started with 2 Adult Volunteers and 3 Young Marines transferred from the Orlando Devil Dogs and 2 Young Marines transferred from a recently closed unit, Space Coast Young Marines.
Our first Recruit class graduated October 2022 with 9 Recruits and have had multiple Recruit classes since. We currently have 16 Young Marines with ages that range from 8-15, boys and girls, and 12 Registered Adult Volunteers.
In 2023, Volusia Young Marines was awarded Florida Regiment Unit of the Year. The Florida Regiment consists of 19 units throughout the State of Florida.
In 2025, our Unit Commander Sara Owen was awarded Division Adult Volunteer of the Year. The Division consists of all units throughout the States of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
We meet at the VFW Post 3282 in Port Orange.
5810 S Williamson Blvd, Port Orange, FL 32128
Our meetings are on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of every month, year round, at the VFW Post 3282, unless otherwise noted, from 8:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. We fish in the pond out front from 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 a.m. if you want to arrive early.
Our drill meetings are from 8:00am - 2:00pm.
Although days change to some degree depending on what we have going on, a typical drill meeting at the VFW looks like this:
7:30am - XO will bring fishing poles to fish in the pond in the front of the VFW for those that show up early and want to fish.
8:00am - Morning formation. We say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the National Anthem, say the Young Marine Obligation, Young Marine Creed, and Young Marine General Orders, then fall out for Physical Training (PT).
8:15am - We begin PT. We do a variety of different things. Twice a year the Young Marines complete the Physical Fitness Test (PFT), which is a requirement by Headquarters Young Marines. This test includes curl-ups, pull-ups or flexed arm hang, shuttle run, sit and reach, and a 1-mile run. The day we are not doing the PFT we will find some other way to get everyone moving and heart rates up. We may play a game like relay tic-tac-toe, do an exercise work out video, or do station PT.
9:00am - Young Marines change over from PT gear to Camouflage Uniforms and everyone has the morning snack.
9:15am - DDR Training begins. Headquarters Young Marines requires all Young Marines to receive 3 hours of Drug Demand Reduction Training (DDR) every quarter. To accommodate this requirement, we give 1 hour of DDR instruction at every drill meeting. We do different activities revolving around the Gateway Drugs, such as DDR Bingo, DDR Jeopardy, we may discuss a recent news article, or do skits practicing how to say "no" when confronted with peer pressure.
10:15am - We get up and move around. We may do a bit of drill practice (marching) or if there are Young Marines that need to do their speech or get sign-offs we may do that. It's basically an open 30 minutes.
10:45am - Character Does Matter begins. We discuss a Character Strength at every drill meeting from the Travis Manion Foundation's Character Does Matter curriculum. We have a discussion and then do a fun activity that revolves around the discussed character strength. Examples of character strengths we discuss are Fairness, Leadership, Humor, Hope, and Teamwork. There are 24 total, so we discuss a different one every meeting.
11:30am - Break and Afternoon Snack.
11:45am - We will take this time to either do knowledge games such as Jeopardy, or team building games, or sign-offs for those Young Marines ready to get sign-offs in their guidebooks.
- 12:30pm - On the 4th Saturday only, we do awards and promotions if we have any to present.
12:45pm - Clean up, put the room back they way we found it, and muster outside.
1:00pm - Drill (or March) outside.
- On the 4th Saturday only, I have a parents meeting while the Young Marines are outside drilling with the other Adult Volunteers.
2:00pm - Final Formation. We discuss how the day went and upcoming events.
Volusia Young Marines does a variety of activities and events throughout Volusia County.
We participate in multiple parades throughout the year, such as the Daytona Beach 4th of July Parade, the DeLand Veterans Day Parade, and multiple Christmas Parades.
We participate in Red Ribbon Week in October and run a 5K DDR Dash every year in honor of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena and to support a drug-free lifestyle.
DDR (Drug Demand Reduction)
Our Color Guard presents the American Flag during ceremonies and events throughout the year and throughout the county, as organizations request.
We participate in Wreaths Across America by selling Wreaths to get placed on Veterans' graves during National Wreaths Across America Day every year in December.
We help when called upon, such as passing out new American Flags to the residents of Daytona Beach, volunteering at GLOCK events, volunteering at cleanups, etc.
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF ALL THE ACTIVITIES WE HAVE PARTICIAPTED IN
Volusia Young Marines does a variety of activities and events outside of our normal drills at the VFW.
We go on multiple encampments throughout the year, sleeping in tents for most of them. Sometimes we go alone as just our unit, while other times we go with multiple units. We have camped at Cracker Creek in Port Orange, Camp Blanding in Starke, FL (on the other side of Gainesville), and we have an overnight coming up sleeping on the Battle Ship USS Orleck in Jacksonville.
The Florida Regiment plans a trip to Parris Island every summer. This year the Young Marines are offered a trip to Washington D.C., an overnight on the USS Yorktown, and 4 nights at Parris Island, South Carolina, all in the same trip.
During the summer, we spend a drill at the YMCA and cover swim qualifications for all Young Marines. This qualification earns a swimming ribbon to wear on their uniform.
We have teamed up with Bullseye Virtual Shooting Range to give the Young Marines a Marksmanship Safety Course, which they attend shortly after Recruit Graduation. This qualification earns the Marksmanship ribbon to wear on their uniform and is also a requirement to volunteer at the GLOCK shooting events.
Volusia Fire and Rescue sends a volunteer to our unit multiple times throughout the year to give First Aid and CPR training to the Young Marines and Adult Volunteers.
We have a Young Marines Birthday Ball every year in October to celebrate the Young Marines Birthday.
During Red Ribbon Week in October, we attend multiple City Council meetings and receive a Red Ribbon Week Proclamation from the Mayor of that city.
We have a Christmas Party every year for the Young Marines normally at the bowling alley in South Daytona.
CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF ALL THE ACTIVITIES WE HAVE PARTICIAPTED IN
All Future Recruits must be completely registered online before they can participate in physical activity and before their parents/guardians can drop them off and leave. You can register HERE.
It is suggested that parents stay for the first meeting and check out the program before making the commitment to join us.
Registered Recruits should wear solid RED gym shorts (no logos or stripes, preferably without pockets) (EXAMPLE), WHITE "Hanes-type" T-shirt (EXAMPLE), white socks, and running sneakers. This uniform is considered "PT Gear".
During the winter months, Young Marines and Recruits should wear a basic GRAY sweatshirt and sweatpants (no logos or strips) on top of their PT gear.
The cost to join is:
$323 (age 12 and younger)
$363 (age 13 and older)
An initial deposit of $100 is required prior to the beginning of Recruit Training to cover the costs of initial materials. The remaining dues are due 2 months into Recruit training.
Your initial dues cover the following during Recruit Training:
- Recruit Membership Fee ($50)
- Cammie Cover (Hat) ($14)
- Recruit Guidebook ($3)
- Red Drawstring Bag ($4)
- 1" Binder ($5)
- Canteen ($5)
- Red DDR Bracelet
Your initial dues cover the following after Recruit Graduation:
- Basic Guidebook ($10)
- Cammie Blouse ($25 Youth / $45 Adult)
- Cammie Trousers ($25 Youth / $45 Adult)
- Black Jungle Boots ($45)
- Initial Ribbons and Ribbon Rack ($3)
- Red National T-Shirt ($8)
- Unit T-Shirts ($14)
- Web Belt and Blousing Bands ($16)
- Black Backpack ($20)
- Patches for Cammie Uniform ($16)
- Sewing Patches on Uniform ($50)
- Personal First Aid Kit ($10)
Annual registration fees of $50 are due to Headquarters Young Marines annually in September.
The following items are required and not issued by the unit:
For Uniforms:
- Khaki Pants or shorts (used for travel and some events)
- White Undershirts (EXAMPLE)
- Black or Green boot/crew socks (EXAMPLE)
- White PT Socks
- Red PT Shorts (Recruits) (EXAMPLE)
- Black PT Shorts (Young Marines) (EXAMPLE)
- Gray Sweatshirt (EXAMPLE)
- Gray Sweatpants (EXAMPLE)
- Boot Polish/Polishing Kit (EXAMPLE)
- Running Shoes
For Encampments:
- Green/Olive Drab Seabag (EXAMPLE)
- 3-legged Camp Stool (EXAMPLE)
- Flashlight
- Sleeping Bag
- Hygiene Kit
Please add the following emails to your address book so you don't miss important emails. Many of my emails end up in spam because they have multiple
Please follow us on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/VolusiaYoungMarines
Please follow us on our Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/volusiayoungmarines/
Once you join Young Marines, please join Groupme, as that is where I pass most important information: https://groupme.com/join_group/91008178/LNI7uGLI
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