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Month: May, 2011

Days 72-79: Faith

15 May, 2011 (22:19) | 100 Days of Scouting, Den, Family, Scouts | By: Arlen

I’ve mentioned that we started the God and Me program with the pastor of our church. During days 72-79 of the 100 Days of Scouting we had our 3rd and 4th meetings with the pastor. While the program is open to anyone, this go around we had two Cub Scouts in the class, both in 2nd grade.




The whole process has been a lot of fun, with some great activities to show the scouts what it means to have faith. An added benefit was the chance to spend an hour every week with the pastor, getting to know him as a person rather than the guy who stands up front and talks a lot on Sunday morning. If you read this Mark, I just want to say I don’t think you talk a lot, but you might from an 8 year old’s perspective, OK?

**Whistles and looks around…**

Waits for the lightning strike…

OK.





I know that most religions have their own programs for the religious awards, and most of those have programs for the different ages. The God and Me program is the 1st through 3rd Grade program that is managed by PRAY Publishing. This was well tailored to this age, and I look forward to doing it again next year with my daughter. I am going to try and offer the different levels of the God and Country program within our church whenever there is interest. The different groups are:

  • God and Me (1-3 Grade)
  • God and Family (4-5 grade)
  • God and Church (6-8 Grade)
  • God and Life (9-12 Grade)


There is also a God and Service Award for adults, but it is not a class you work through as much as an award to recognize service to youth both within and outside of the church.

In our pack, which isn’t chartered by a specific religious organization, there is a wide range of faiths represented. I know we have Protestant and Catholic scouts, Jewish and Hindu scouts, some that don’t have a home church, and a few I doubt have ever been inside a church. Every rank in Cub Scouts has a faith component, and recognizing those that have earned their religious award provides another opportunity to point out to all the scouts and parents that part of the character building is looking around and looking within to help build and strengthen their faith, no matter where that faith lies.

I think our pack could do a better job teaching the faith part of the program, and I would like to see us celebrate the differences (dare I say diversity?) that make us a great organization.

Comments: 3

Days 69-71: Cub Scouts Outside

5 May, 2011 (23:44) | 100 Days of Scouting, Den, Pack, Pack Meetings, Scouts | By: Arlen

Campfires are always a great hit with Cub Scouts. What’s not to love? You combine the outdoors with singing songs, performing skits and being loud and having a good time. Also, don’t underestimate the power of the fire. It doesn’t take much to take a 7 year old back to his caveman roots.





For April we had our pack meeting outside. A local park has a great fire pit surrounded by a low wall and a grassy hill. We had an indoor backup plan (the school cafeteria) if the weather didnt’ work out, but thankfully didn’t need it. The weather was a gamble, as any Colorado resident can tell you, but in the end we prevailed.





For the audience, the background was three Native American Totem Poles, built in the traditions of the Pacific Northwest.






The totem poles became the basis for the campfire program. As the night progressed we talked about totem poles and how they tell stories, and how Cub Scouts has its own story. So naturally we built our own totem pole throughout the evening!

While we built up our totem, we stopped at each level to talk about animal totems and some of the characteristics associated with the animals:

  • Bobcat: Curiosity and Learning
  • Tiger: Energy and Unpredictability
  • Wolf: Loyalty and Teamwork
  • Bear: Independence and Power
  • Webelos: Leadership and Being an Example
  • Arrow of Light: Talked about the meaning of the 7 rays






As the Pack’s totem was built up step by step we stopped along the way to award rank badges to the dens.





Spread out between the advancement ceremonies were skits and songs by the different dens. Some were elaborate, others simple, but everyone had a great time on “stage”! Our two Assistant Cubmasters did run-ons through the evening, providing the bridge between skits or awards.





As the awards were finished, the songs sung and the last of the skits were performed, the fire was burning down. This is the point where the campfire took a more serious turn and we started talking about the traditions of scouting.

One tradition we talked about was the use of campfire ashes to connect the current campfire to those that have gone before. The idea is that you bring ashes from previous campfires and add them in. Then after the campfire is out you collect up some ashes to take to the next one. At the end of my Wood Badge course we were given some of the ashes from our campfire, along with a sheet that gave an abbreviated history of the campfires connected to them. I say abbreviated, because the complete history is 25 pages long! The ashes I added to the fire that night had connections back through training courses, National and World Jamborees, and even a trip to the moon in 1971.

Those ashes had connections all the way back to a campfire at Brownsea Island in 1907.

After I added the ashes to the campfire, I explained how we would collect some up after the fire was put out. I talked about how we would add those ashes to the campfire at our fall camping trip and collect them up again, and how we had a new tradition in our pack to connect us all the way back to scouting’s beginning. I told the Webelos that when they crossed over to Boy Scouts next February we would be sending them with a small container of ashes, so they would forever be connected to their time in our pack no matter where they go after they leave us.





After the talk about the campfire ash tradition, I reminded all the scouts that they are part of a larger movement, bigger than their den, our pack, or even the BSA. They are scouts like boys and young men around the world, all working to better the world around us. Then after a moment we taught them Scout Vespers, sang through it, and everyone was encouraged to quietly go home.

Campfires are a magical place. I hope it was true for the youngest Tiger through the oldest Webelos, because it was certainly true for the Cubmaster.

Comments: 7

Day 68: The Scout Show

4 May, 2011 (21:19) | 100 Days of Scouting, Scouts | By: Arlen

This was the day of the Denver Area Council’s Scout Show. It was a lot of fun! For me it was a marathon scouting day from getting the booth supplies down to the show at 9 until packing up and taking it all home from 4:30-5.





The show was at the National Western Stock Show complex, with a large interior space for booths, an outdoor area for troop cooking demonstrations, and an arena for pioneering projects.

This was the first time I had attended the scout show, but it didn’t disappoint. The best endorsement of the day was the fact that my 8 year old son spent the entire day there, from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM and did not complain about being bored even once. It was a blast with tons of things to do!





Packs had a lot of different activities, Pinewood Derby Races, leaf blower hovercrafts, different belt loop stations, and the ever-popular archery and BB gun shooting ranges. Troops had canoe tug-o-wars, skill stations, dutch oven cooking, and pioneering towers and bridges. Crews and Posts had equipment from their organizations and displays for their specialties. Add to this the district and council camps and activities and the scout-friendly businesses, and you have more than 250 booths and activities to really showcase what scouting is all about.

Comments: 3

Days 63-67: Skits and Recovery

4 May, 2011 (20:11) | 100 Days of Scouting, Den, Scouts | By: Arlen

So after the second weekend of Wood Badge, I was in need of recovery. Time spent with the family, some time processing the experience, and a little bit more sleep.




We spent a den meeting working on the skit the boys in my son’s Wolf den were going to perform at the next week’s pack meeting. They decided to do the Airplane Disaster skit.





I dug a couple of big cardboard boxes out of the basement, and before too long the boys had props for their skit!

This was also the week where I got started on my Wood Badge ticket items, specifically drafting a parents guide for the pack and figuring out a Den Chief program. This is the main reason I got further behind on the 100 Days of Scouting blog posts. When I found I had a few minutes, I was spending it on those two ticket items instead of blogging. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up and keep it going the next few weeks.

Comments: 5