Tonight we continued the scout festivities that began this weekend with our annual blue and gold banquet. Thanks to superior delegation skills, several parents took care of the food and decorations so Bill was only responsible for the ceremonial aspects of the evening.
Bill runs a great meeting and tonight was no exception. We started just a few minutes after 6:30 pm and Bill discussed the upcoming changes in scouting. The National Scouting Powers That Be are redesigning the program so that scouting will be simpler, more purposeful, have better den advancement and will combine academics and sports with enhanced fun. (Scouting is touted as “fun with a purpose.”) Bill shared this information with the pack more as a commercial than an in-depth explanation but he did so emphasizing how much better it will be for the cub scouts.
He humorously described the bragging right that all of our current scouts will have—the ability to say, “Back in MY day, we did…” The parents seemed to chuckle the hardest. One key change is that cub scouts are going to adopt the Boy Scout Oath and Law so for the last time, the cub scouts recited the Cub Scout Promise.
Mason’s bear den is one of the largest and he is one of the tallest.
The Webelos are the smallest group
and the wolves and tigers were spread out around the room.
The Boy Scout Troop and Leaders recited the Scout Oath and Promise. Walker is just barely visible over the shoulder of the first leader of the left side.
Father Anthony, our new priest from India, came and blessed our food. He has such a gentle spirit.
While the dinner line was taking place, the representative from Friends of Scouting made the annual appeal speech.
Keeping things moving along, Bill asked the leaders of each den to present any advancements to their scouts while everyone was eating. It was a great use of time because families were able to listen while they ate and there was not a lot of dead time. First were the Tigers.
The Wolves made a flag with their handprints.
Mason’s den leader, Mr. Orange, has done a great job all year. He is one of the most brave and patient people, truly a boon to our den. Besides the cooking meeting, he brought in a bunch of hammers and nails for their Woodsmanship meeting. Each scout got to pound nails into the board seen above. Apparently, he had quite the assortment of hammers and each one got to be tested by the scouts.
At their Detective meeting, he brought in plaster and buckets. They mixed up the plaster, poured it into buckets and each scout stepped in to make an imprint of his shoe. Tonight each scout received his and Tommy is raising an example over his head.
Lastly, it was time to recognize the Webelos and especially the ONE who was crossing over. Joey is the last scout standing in the group that he started with. As a result, he spent his first Webelos year with Walker and the second with the current Webelos. He was a self-starter and took on quite a few of the requirements by himself.
He was recognized for completing the Arrow of Light, the highest achievement of Cub Scouting and Bill and his other two leaders facilitated the ceremony.
Each candle represents something and a band of color is applied to the scout’s face. Blue is for the spirit of Cub Scouting, giving good will and doing your best; White represents the Scout Law; Yellow stands for the Arrow of Light and Green represents the beginning of the path toward Eagle as a Boy Scout.
Then Bill presented him with his Arrow of Light and his mom pinned it on his uniform.
After he crossed over the bridge, he was met by the Boy Scouts.
They presented him with his new kerchief and epaulets and welcomed him to the troop with a handshake. Crossing over is one of my favorite rites of passage and no matter whose child it is, I get a little farklempt.
The evening concluded with a presentation by the Scout Master about the Troop’s activities. He showed a video taken at The Summit Boy Scout Camp this summer filmed with a GoPro camera. It was the coolest thing to watch a scout zip line at 60 mph for several minutes!
The whole banquet was concluded by 7:35 pm and we went on our merry way home.
Wow! It takes a lot to cross over alone! These things are much easier in groups. Thanks for sharing. Our B&G is in early March.
It takes a family! a den and a troop!