2013 Pinewood Derby Results

The Pack 151 / 468 Pinewood Derby Lineup
The Pack 151 / 468 Pinewood Derby Lineup

Congratulations to everyone who raced at our Pinewood Derby, and many thanks to everyone who helped make this event happen so flawlessly.

More information to come as I have time to put it together.

Here is the raw data from the race software:

Veteran’s Park Graduation Ceremony

Broomall’s Veterans Park on Lawrence Road provided a majestic backdrop as ten area Cub Scouts graduated the program and ceremonially crossed over into Boy Scout Troop 151. Cubmaster Chris Pilko bid each Scout family a fond farewell as Scoutmaster Mike Maguire and Senior Patrol Leader John Fino welcomed them to the Troop. David Bryan, an executive from Cradle of Liberty Council, was on-hand to congratulate the boys who made the transition.

The Scouts who crossed over were Andrew Christensen, Evan Gerstenkorn, Michael Harrington, Ryan Naughton, Nicholas Pastris, John Pecorari, Ryan Riddell, Luke Vanderslice, and Matthew Walter. All attend schools in the Marple-Newtown school district. Most of the scouts earned their Arrow of Light badge, the highest rank in Cub Scouting.

Both Cub Scout Pack 151 and Boy Scout Troop 151 are chartered to Marple Presbyterian church in Broomall, PA. The Cub Scout Pack is a family program open to boys in first through fifth grades. It meets at 7pm on Monday nights during the school year. The Boy Scout troop is for boys 11 to 18 years old. The Troop meets at 7:30pm on Wednesday nights year round.

Scouting offers a safe environment for boys to have fun while they develop their character, learn to be good citizens and stay physically fit. Pack and Troop 151 hold activities like camping trips, group trips to sporting events like the Phillies and the Harlem Globetrotters, service projects and the very popular Pinewood Derby™ where scouts build and race cars made from a block of wood.

For more information about Cub Scout Pack 151 visit www.cubpack151.org. For Boy Scout Troop 151 visit www.troop151bsa.org. Both the Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop welcome new members.

Could another Jerry Sandusky be in our Pack?

I was indirectly asked if another Jerry Sandusky could be part of our Pack at Monday’s meeting. It is a valid point, and I want to address it.

It is unfortunate, but youth organizations, like Scouting, are a magnet for people who prey on children. Scouting had its own Penn State style public disgrace in the early 1990s. After decades of trying to deal with the problem in a way that respected the abuser’s privacy, Scouting took a turn for the better and implemented their Youth Protection program. The Washington Times called it one of the best sex abuse education programs in the country.

You are a key part of this program. At the front of every boy’s handbook is a parent’s guide to help you have an age-appropriate discussion with your son about what is and isn’t appropriate. It empowers him to recognize and stop any potential abuse at the earliest stage and to not be afraid to tell someone they trust about what happened to him.

Reviewing this information with your son is a requirement for their Bobcat badge. However, if you haven’t reviewed this information with him in a while, it is a good idea to take a few minutes and go over it with him now. Part of Cub Scouting’s mission is to strengthen the bonds in a family. Should your son ever be approached by a Jerry Sandusky, make sure that he knows that you are the person he can talk to openly and honestly.

For myself and the other registered leaders, it is drilled into our heads that safety of the boys is our top priority. Before anyone can register as a leader with the Cradle of Liberty Council, they must consent to a criminal background check, provide character references and complete the BSA’s Youth Protection Training program. This goes beyond the national requirements of the BSA. To make sure Youth Protection Training is current, every leader must retake it every other year.

I will not go into the full program here, but the BSA’s site has an overview of the program. If you are more interested, you can create an account at myscouting.org and take Youth Protection Training yourself. It takes about 40 minutes start to finish. The BSA encourages everyone involved to take Youth Protection Training to understand the background behind the rules that are in place, and to be actively involved in the boys’ safety.

Should any one of our leaders witness or be told about an abuse of any kind, we are trained to first report it to the authorities (Delaware County Youth Services Emergency Hotline: 610-892-8400, Pennsylvania State Child Abuse Hotline: 800-932-0313 or 911), and then report it up our chain of command. Accused abusers are forbidden from attending any Scouting events until their name is cleared.

Leaders who are aware of an incident and do not report it are treated as complicit in the abuse. When they are discovered, they are suspended as leaders, banned from attending Scouting events, and may also be reported to the local authorities.

I am leading this Pack because I want my two boys to get all of the benefits of Cub Scouting. To enjoy those benefits, they need a safe and vibrant community of their peers where they can have fun while they learn and grow. Abuse of any kind will poison our community and cannot be tolerated.

So help keep our program free from a Jerry Sandusky. Review the BSA’s Youth Protection Guidelines for yourself. Go through the materials in your son’s handbook with him. It won’t be an easy conversation now, but he will thank you in the future. If he is ever approached by a Jerry Sandusky, he knows the warning signs to watch for, he has the confidence to say no, and he has the tools to keep that person from harming anyone else. He can thank you for that. As a convicted child abuser told the Washington Times,  “My message to parents is to care, truly care by being involved in all aspects of their children’s lives and people with my problem will never have an opportunity to abuse their children.”

Popcorn Update

Popcorn!The Popcorn ordering season is over! Our totals are now in: We sold over $4,000 in popcorn! While we missed our pack goal, we had 8 scouts exceed the $250 personal goal we set. Two scouts sold more than $600 and earned Zyclones!

Who are they? Who is going to throw a pie in my face? We’ll let you know at an upcoming meeting.

For those of you who took orders, pick-up will be next Saturday, November 12. We’re waiting for details from council on the pick-up times. Watch your email for details next week.

Don’t forget, you can continue to sell online and earn rewards throughout the year.

 

 

Free Money!

Do you work for a large company? Do you want the hours you spend volunteering to be turned into cash that Council can use to pay for upgrades to the camps, camperships to support low income scouts, and pay for the staff that supports us? Do you want council not to beg for Friends of Scouting donations at our Blue & Gold Banquet?

It’s not free, but if you’ve been helping this year and if your company has a Dollars for Doers program, you can make all this come true! More than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies have Dollars for Doers programs, including companies like Covanta, DuPont, IBM, Merck, and Siemens.

Take the attached document to your HR department and ask them how you can enroll. Hurry, because many programs close on December 1st.

Dollars for Doers overview (PDF)

Update – Week of 9/25:

Sean teaching the boys first aid?Hello Scouts and Parents!

Did you miss last week’s meeting where we wrapped some Boy Scouts in toilet paper and then covered ourselves in money?

Don’t miss out on this week’s meeting Monday 9/26 at 7pm in our normal location: Fellowship Hall at Marple Presbyterian Church. Bring a friend. Scouting is more fun the more people we have. If they sign up, You’ll get a recruiter patch to wear on your uniform!

This week will be a pack meeting. We will be doing:

  • Popcorn Training. One scout has already sold $150 worth of popcorn in just one afternoon. Several others are working hard to hit their $600 quota to get a Zyclone. Want to get a head start? Visit http://cubpack151.org/popcorn
  • Interest Survey. What do you want your boys to get out of Scouting? What do your boys want? Where do you want to go? What did you like last year? What didn’t you like? We’re listening! We’ll have separate surveys for Parents and Scouts and you can tell us what you think.
  • Meet your Den. Next week will be a den meeting. You will break off and work with your den leader to earn your rank. We’ll explain how this works tomorrow night.
We will have sign-ups for:
If you don’t have your membership information in yet, see the next section for more information.

Membership Forms

I don’t know about you, but given the chance, I will do everything online. If I can fill out a form using my computer and email it in, I will.

If you’re one of those people, here are all of the forms for this year. You can print these out and bring them to the next meeting, or just email these to us at info@cubpack151.org.

The one form we can’t give you is the BSA Application. This still needs to be filled out on the paper form. If you were a member of Pack 151 last year and are renewing, you DO NOT have to fill out this form again. Only scouts who are new to Pack 151 need to fill in an application form. If you are transferring from another pack, contact your old Cubmaster for your son’s BSA ID number to ensure we get access to your son’s full record.

Here are the forms we need from you:

Dues are $75 for the year payable at the meeting by check or cash. If you hate writing checks or handling cash, you can now pay by credit card. Our processor charges us 3.5%, which we need to pass along to you, making the credit card fee $77.65.

Buy Scout Dues 2011-12

The Pack 151 Scouting Year is On!

Thanks to everyone who came out for last night’s first meeting and open house. It was great seeing all the returning faces and meeting all the new people who came. Thanks especially to our mummy volunteers during game time.

If you missed last night’s meeting, or you want to see more about it, I’ve attached the two presentations at the end of this post.

Don’t forget to bring your friends. The more people we have, the more we can do. If a Scout brings a friend and they sign up, they will get two recruiter patches.

Don’t forget about Popcorn. We’d like to see every scout sell $250 in popcorn. That’s about 13 bags. See our popcorn page for the details on ways to sell.

Next Week:

Next week we will be back in Fellowship Hall. Our agenda is:

  • Interest / Feedback survey. (There will be separate ones for parents and scouts)
  • Popcorn Training!
  • Meet your den.

New Scouts:

If this is your first year in Scouting, no matter what year you are in, your sons need to earn their Bobcat badge first. If you want to get them off to a good start, download and print our Bobcat Study Sheet (pdf). It gives most of the requirements on one page, to help them memorize these requirements.

Presentations:

[powerpoint cubpack151.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Welcome-Back.ppt 480 360]

Presentation Given to Everyone

[powerpoint http://cubpack151.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Pack-151-Parents-Presentation.ppt 480 360]

Presentation Given to Just Parents:

Links From Presentations:

Welcome Back!

We hope you had a safe and restful summer, but here it is, Cub Scout season again!

We are kicking this year off next Monday, September 19 with our fall open house. If you know a friend who is interested in joining, bring them along!

For this Monday only there is a catered event in our regular meeting place, so we’ll be meeting in Memorial Hall at the front of the church. We will have signs on Monday night.

What do we have planned so far? Lots, including:

  • Popcorn sale- Fall 2011
  • Sugartown Strawberries Hayride/Campfire – Oct 2011
  • Cub-a-ree @ Camp Hart – Oct 2011
  • Halloween Party – Oct 2011
  • Constitution Day Trip -Nov 2011
  • Scouting for food – Nov 2011
  • Xmas Tree Sale – Dec 2011
  • Holiday Bowling Party – Dec 2011
  • Devon Cabin Camping – Mar 2012
  • Blue and Gold Banquet – Mar 2012
  • Pinewood Derby – Mar 2012
  • Phillies Night – Spring 2012
  • Sixers Game – When the lockout ends…
  • More…

Free Scout Carnival!

For those of you who are interested, Council is holding a free carnival this Saturday from 10:30-1:30 pm at the Firestone Service Center near Valley Forge Park.

There is more information and registration for the event on Council’s website.

Bring a bathing suit and last year’s Pinewood Derby car. They say there will be more than $1000 in prizes.

New Scout Year on June 1

Cub Scout Ranks
Cub Scout Ranks

According to the BSA, the new Scouting Year begins on June 1.

If you have completed any requirements, electives, arrow points or activity badges, please email them to Chris Pilko so we can record them.

As of June 1, everyone advances:

  • Tigers are now Wolves
  • Wolves are now Bears
  • Bears are now Webelos I
  • Webelos I are now Webelos II
  • Webelos II should now be registered with a scout troop.

You can begin working towards your new rank requirements.

If you need to know the next set of requirements, you can find them online at CubSource.org.