Part of being a Scout is doing a good turn. A good turn can be something as simple as taking out the trash, or something as intricate as Scouting fo Food. To celebrate our 100th year in Scouting, the National Service Project is Scouting for Change.

Scouting for Change is where Scouts collect quarters, and deposit them into a bank account for Scouts. These quarters will help build a School in Africa. Why Africa? Well that is where Badin Powell (the founder of Scouting) is buried.

Make sure you attend our December Pack Meeting for more information

Today was Part II of Scouting for Food. We collected 146 bags of food, and 45 of our Scouts participated.

Scouting for Food is a Service Project where on November 7th the Scouts hung a bag on the doors of people in the neighborhood. The bag instructed the resident to fill it up with food and put it on the doorstep next week so the Scouts could pick it up.

Sometimes, the Scouts don’t know why we are doing this. Today, I had a Scout that was complaining about Scouting for Food taking so long. Scouting for Food is something dear to my heart. I grew up very poor, and a lot of times we ate, was when we got food from the Food Bank. I heard this Scout complaining and I took him to the side. I told him: “Do you know how many people you helped today?” He said no he didn’t. He said he wanted to go home and play. I asked him: “Have you ever been hungry?” He said yes. I asked him: “What did you do about that hunger?” He said he would tell his mom and she would give him food. I asked: “What if there was no food to give?” He looked at me like I was crazy. I told him that some children do not have any food. I told him that we were fortunate because we did have food. I told him that because he spent 2 hours today, a lot of people could eat. He thought about this for a minute. He looked up at me and said: “Mr. Smalley, we have really helped a lot of people today haven’t we?” This made me feel good.

For the 3rd year in a row, Pack 922 is a Quality Unit. I am proud, because before Belsis and I took over, we were never a Quality Unit. The Pack has been around since 2001.

To become a Quality Unit you must reach certain goals. The Council asks that you retain 50% of your Scouts. We retained 75%. The Council asks that you advance 60% of your Scouts. We advanced 95%. The Council asks that you have 60% of your unit participate in your outdoor program. We had 75%.

I am so happy that we exceeded each goal.

We have a total of 102 Scouts registered in our Pack. Of those, about 75 show up. So we have 75 active Scouts. We are busting at the seams.

Last year we served 35 boys. Of those 35 from last year, 25 came back. We added the additional from School Nights. It has been chaotic, but we have managed it so far.

When I took over the pack in 2007, we had five returning Scouts. We added an additional 15 Scouts that year. We lost some Scouts, and then added 24 the following year. This year, we added 25 from Citrus, 17 from Clarcona, and 23 from Frangus. That is a lot of Scouts. How did we get so big?

Normally we only recruit from Citrus Elementary. However, we were asked to take on Clarcona this year because the Pack that handled them was defunct. So we added Clarcona. After we did the School nights for both Citrus and Clarcona, we had a Parent Orientation for them. Everything was going well, and then I got a phone call from our District Executive. Turns out the Pack that handled Frangus Elementary was defunct, so he asked us to take them on. We did. That is how we got so big.

At a Committee Meeting over the summer we talked about getting bigger. The Committee said that two years ago we were begging people to join, so anyone that wants to join is welcome. That is why we took on so many Scouts.

The good thing is every Den has at least two leaders. Some have as many as four. So we are managing it well.

This explains why we are busting at the seams. I know things seem chaotic, but we are working on them.

Can you believe that it is already November? Here is what is coming up this month

Scouting for Food

One in Five people in Central Florida are going to bed hungry tonight. With the Economic Times getting worse, this number is expected to go up. Scouting for Food is the largest two day food drive in the US. On November 7th, Scouts will place a bag on the doors of people in their neighborhood. The bag contains instructions telling the homeowner to fill the bag up with non perishable food and place it on the doorstep the following week. On November 14th, the Scouts will go back to the neighborhoods and pick up the bags full of food. Our Pack will be participating in this event. We will meet at Ocoee Oaks Church at 10:00am on November 7th. We will split up into groups and tackle a neighborhood. On November 14th we will meet again at Ocoee Oaks Church at 10:00am and go back to the neighborhoods to pick up the food. Once the food is collected, we will meet back at the church and gather the Scouts together to take a picture of what we collected. We will then drop the food off at the Distribution Center. This should only take about two hours out of your day. We will have donuts and juice for all that participate. Please be in Class A Uniform for this event.

Popcorn Sales

We will have your popcorn that you ordered to you on November 10th. You may distribute this to your customers. So far we are doing great on Popcorn Sales and we have exceeded our goal. We will have the total figure and the winners of our contest at the November Pack Meeting

Pack Meeting

Our November Pack Meeting Theme is Thanksgiving. We will be asking the Scouts what they are thankful for.

No Meetings

We will not meet on November 24th.

Next Month’s Highlights

Santa visits Pack 922, Ronald McDonald Share a Meal, Camping

Three little words. I do not trust most people, that comes from living in this world, but I trust a Scout. If a Scout tells me something happened, then it happened. If a Scout tells me they didn’t do something, they didn’t do it. A Scout is trustworthy.

Well we are in full swing, and so far 2009 – 2010 is looking to be another great year. We have had our Popcorn Kickoff, School Nights, Parent Orientations, and our first Den Meeting is Tuesday.

I am looking forward to my first den meeting this year. It looks like most of my kids are coming back. We have a great meeting planned for them. They will be learning to cook at the campouts. They are going to provide a dessert to the Pack at our first campout in a few weeks.

Also, our Ocoee Oaks Church Launch Party is next weekend. I am so excited. I can’t wait to meet the congregation and eat some good food.

Our next events are Popcorn Show and Sells and the Pumpkin Patch. I am looking forward to the Pumpkin Patch. I think it will be fun, and we will be giving back to the Church.

So far I am really excited about this year!

Citrus School Night is tonight. The year starts at 7pm tonight. I am so excited to start this year off. Last year we recruited 24 Scouts from Citrus. Hopefully, we can recruit the same amount this year.

I am excited about meeting at Ocoee Oaks Church this year, and they are excited to have us. You should see the accomidations.

I am so excited, and can’t wait for 7pm to get here.

For those of you that don’t know, along with being Cubmaster, I am also the Webelos Den Leader. I enjoy being the Den Leader for Webelos. This year, we will not be splitting up the Webelos Den into Webelos I and Webelos II. I am a little nervous about that, but I have two great Assistant Den Leaders that will help me.

So in my free time over the summer, I plan my entire den year. That way, I am not scrambeling on a Sunday Night to figure out what I am going to do the next day. In Webelos the Scouts earn Activity Badges. I pick the required badges first, and get those out of the way. Then I pick badges that I think the kids will like to accomplish. A lot of the requirements for the Activity Badges are the same for some Belt Loops, so the Scouts earn a lot of Belt Loops too.

This year, the boys are going to have a lot of fun. We are going to earn so many Badges this year. I even came up with a syllabus for the parents, so they can follow along. I can’t wait to get the year started.

The School Year starts on Monday, so that means Cub Scouts is right around the corner. We will begin meetings the week of September 21st. We will begin with our Popcorn Kickoff. This year our goal is to sell $7,000.00 in popcorn. This should be an easy goal to obtain, as we sold $9,000.00 last year.

The Committee has planned an excellent year. We will be focused on outdoors programs, instead of field trips. We may have one field trip, and the rest of the popcorn money will be spent on Camping. We will, also, be camping in different places this year. We will only be going to La No Che once this year. The rest of the campouts will be at different places.

This year, we will be taking on a new school. In addition to recruiting from Citrus, we will be recruiting from Clarcona as well. I am looking forward to having an even bigger Pack than we did last year. The bigger the Pack, the more fun the year will be.

There are opportunities for you to get involved in our Pack. You can volunteer to be part of the Committee. The Committee runs the Pack. They come up with the Cub Scout Program for the year. They make decisions on how the Pack will run. The Committee meets every 4th week of the month for an hour. It really is a lot of fun.

If you want a more hands on approach, you can volunteer to be a Den Leader or Assistant Den Leader. Being a Den Leader is really a lot of fun. You work with the kids in your den and help them meet requirements for their badges. If you like kids, like I do, you will love being a Den Leader.

Being a volunteer, really doesn’t take that much time out of your day. I know as Cubmaster and a Den Leader, I probably spend about three hours a week on Cub Scout stuff. Some weeks it is much less. It is fun and very rewarding.

Well we hope to see you the week of the 21st. Be ready to have some fun this year. I know I am ready.