Webelos II Den 10's Old News
At the campout we enjoyed the Night hike, scavenger hunt, and other pack activities. THANKS TO ALL OF THE ORGANIZERS. At den time, we tried out our fancy new rope-making machine to convert some simple twine into a length of sturdy multi-strand rope. (Paul Boinay was studying the contraption, so I'm sure he has a deluxe version on the drawing board.) We also performed cleanup activities several times as part of our Leave No Trace Award and we'll be looking for and admiring everybody's Leave-To-Trace posters at the pack meeting tonight.
While the Bears and other scouts spent much of their free time playing soccer, we also broke out the water pistols for a free-for-all water battle with the Bears and anyone else who stopped by to join us. Note that the pistols used were somewhat smaller than the Super Soakers than Mr. O'Keefe brought to camp a couple of years ago.
Lastly, I'm proud to announce that all of our Bears have made rank and are looking forward to graduating to Webelos next month.
By the way, whatever that was on the ground during the campfire that Mr. Bobby ate, I'll confirm that it did SMELL a bit like ...
In the past few weeks, we learned all about the safety, care, and proper use of pocket knives, and I’m pleased to announce that all of the Bears will be awarded their Whittling Chip this month. The Bears were also a major player at the Adopt-a-Spot last month, with more participating than any other den. Good job Bears.
ancient skills of knot making. We of course started out with the square knot and
proceeded to sample a variety of other knots, including the overhand, slip knot,
bowline, clove hitch, sheep bend, double half hitch (why don't the just call it a whole
hitch?), and the all important bowline. Once we mastered the art of making some good
sturdy knots, we tried a couple of "magic" tricks for making knots disappear. And we
must all thank Jeremy for having his birthday on a Cub Scout night, so we could all
share his delicious cake. Two weeks later we worked on our investigating skills. We leaned how we can help the police by accurately reporting a crime. We mixed up some plaster to make casts of our footprints in the sand, and we compared these footprints with those that we made in aluminum foil. Most importantly, our leader learned that Plaster of Paris works best with a consistency of pancake batter, not with the consistency of a Frosty. Nick supplied some snacks for the evening with some bags of delicious homemade popcorn. Based on the richness of flavor, I suspect that it was made the old fashioned way - on the stove! What's coming up? We will be visiting the Chesapeake Police next Monday and hope to have a newspaper plant and TV station visit coming up soon.
And we all had fun at the campout. During the hike we spotted several deer tracks. The Bears made some trail mix for our hike and it sure did taste good! I also noticed that most of the walking sticks were decorated with snakes or other beady creatures from that morning's crafts. Congratulations to Anthony Brooks for catching the biggest fish of the day during the fishing activity. (Check out the photo at http://www.pack320.com/photos/2004OctCampout/image012.htm.) The field day games were a lot of fun, and while waiting for the games to start, the Bears had some time for a session of rolling-down-the-hill.
At that night's campfire, we had two skits prepared, and it was a good thing too because one of them was the same as the Wolves' skit! (Are those rabbit tracks? Bear tracks? ) The next morning, a little bit of rain didn't slow us down. While the parents were scrambling to pack everything up, the scouts were busing playing King-of-the-Stump.
By the way, has anyone seen Lois Lane?
- Tom Nimitz
The
Bears would like to welcome our new member, Jeremy Stewart, to our den.
We know you're going to have a fun time. Did you smell those cookies
a couple of weeks ago? The Bears were having a great time cooking up
a batch in the kitchen. We hope you all had a chance to sample the results.
We are off to a slow start this year because of all of the special events,
but it's time to dive in on the Bear Badge requirements. I hope to have most
of the Bear badges earned by February or March. Some requirements we'll complete
during den meetings, some during campouts or other outings, while others
will need to be completed at home.
I'd like to again thank Shawn O'Keefe and Doug Hasket for all the work they put in over the past year as assistant den leaders. Doug has now left town and Shawn is now pulling double duty as Pack Committee chair. We could use some extra help, so if any parents, grandparents, or other family members would like to step up and assume a role as an assistant, we sure could use the help. Thanks.