Pack 89 Notes - October 17, 2017

Post date: Oct 21, 2017 4:18:2 PM

Pack 89 Families,

Well what a great weekend. Great turnout for Beech Grove’s mulching and an awesome Family Camp. Okay, the so the weather was this odd misty drizzle the left you feeling like you were living in a cloud, but, I have to say you all were undeterred and came out in force! Great Camp Fire program, and I look forward to a pickpocket rematch with Mr. Gizara! If you thought you were going to get a break, not this weekend—let’s look at what is coming up.

1) Driver Days Parade! (21 October) THIS SATURDAY! We will leave Beech Grove at 9:00 a.m. to walk to the staging area. That means that all attending scouts should be in the Beech Grove parking lot in their best Class As by no later than 8:45 a.m. Park at Driver Elementary across the street.

2) Pack Show & Sell #7! (21 October) NEW INFO! No one is signed up for the 11-2:30 p.m. shift. We have 3 scouts signed up for the 2:30-6:00 p.m. shift. E-mail me if you want to participate, first come, first serve.

3) Webelos Scout Skills Campout! (Oct 21-22) A great weekend for the Webelos to work on their transition to Boy Scouts. You should be ready to go and have your tent buddies selected. Can’t wait to see what the Webelos Is come up with for their Patrol name. The Webelos will assemble right after the Driver Days Parade and head out to Izaak Walton Park, 480 Kings Fork Road, Suffolk, VA (near King's Fork Middle School). Attached is an example camping checklist to help you organize.

4) NASA Langley Research Center’s Centennial! (21 Oct) THIS WEEKEND!!! If you have not heard, NASA Langley is celebrating its 100^th anniversary. As explained by our former Pack Committee Chair and resident NASA enthusiast, Mr. MacDonald, “NASA LaRC is the oldest and arguably most innovative among NASA’s many installations and as part of celebrating its centennial, it is hosting an open house. This is a BIG DEAL. The last one was five years ago and, unlike most of the local military bases, unless you have a specific reason and credentials to get on LaRC, you don’t get on LaRC. Best of all, IT’S FREE. So if you’re a fan of the Hampton Air and Space Center, think the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is cool, or know about the amazing Udvar-Hazy Center, this would be right up your alley. The Wright Brothers invented flight; NASA LaRC crafted it.” See links.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/100/100-years-of-crafting-flight

https://www.nasa.gov/langley/100/innovation-at-100

https://www.nasa.gov/langley/100/events

5) Pack Show & Sell #8! (22 October) Our last show and sell of the season, make it count! We have no one signed up for the 9-12 shift. The rest of the day is full. Please e-mail me if you want to participate.

6) Pack Halloween Party! (Oct 24 at 6:30 pm) GLEBE CHURCH! We move over to our other “home” at Glebe Church (4400 Nansemond Pkwy, Suffolk, VA 23435) just due to the size of this party. This is a whole family event, wear your favorite costume, but nothing too scary please. Each Den will have a game station set up (parent’s don’t leave your Den leaders hanging) and the prizes are treats you bring. Every family should bring a bag of Halloween candy/prizes for their den’s game. We’ll take care of the donuts on a string – our most hilarious event. We also hold a costume contest with a huge variety of classifications. Have an older kid too cool for Halloween? They can help judge the kids’ costumes. As a side note, generally leave the props at home. While we leaders certainly love the shooting sports, running around with cap guns in a church is sometimes not well received. We’ve also had a boy bring a real sword – there are common sense safety concerns too. Otherwise, this is just a fun night.

7) Halloween! (31 October) – Yeah, we are not even going to try to compete with this – no meeting. Enjoy Trick or Treating!

8) Final Popcorn Order Date! (31 Oct) This is the absolute deadline to turn in your individual orders for popcorn and peanut sales! Note that this is Halloween night and we are not meeting, which means that the last meeting to turn in orders is Oct. 24. After that you must get your orders and payments to Nickie on your own. If you have a sheet ready, you can turn it in sooner (which will make things easier for our Popcorn Kernal) but you cannot turn it in later!

9) Raingutter Regatta! (7 Nov at 6:30) GLEB CHURCH! Wow, it’s that time already! Get your Bos’n whistle out and prep your lungs to power your sailboats down the gutters at Glebe. The rules for building them and the race is attached here in case you want to get a jump on things. Don’t over-engineer this. Build the boats the way the rules say and you scout will be fine. Don’t design catamarans or add masts or a rubber band motor. KISS. Keep it Simple Scout. Some very cool but “illegal” designs – which means do not buy these:

Sold a few boats this week, $5 per boat, but next week at the Halloween Party is your last chance to get a boat—don’t forget your $5!

10) God and Country Program! (5 November) As explained by Mr. Willis, this is a Bible-based program in which the youth study a passage of Scripture and do a number of activities related to that passage. There are four levels to the program, suitable for school age children from 1st through 12th grade. These programs are built around a workbook style of learning, following step-by-step lessons published by PRAY (Program for Religious Activities for Youth). In these books, you can find activities that involve study, prayer, service projects, and a time of sharing religious values between a child and a parent or mentor. Flyer attached. Registration deadline for the class is Friday, October 27th.

11) Recharter! (Nov) NEW INFO! The Pack is chartered through Beech Grove United Methodist Church. That charter must be renewed each year. BSA also uses that opportunity to do collect their fees and do a basic census of the program nationally. The paperwork is fairly comprehensive and takes a little time. I will be taking registration fees and settling accounts, please make a point to see me at a meeting. If you are new to us and have not turned your paperwork, please get that to me as soon as possible. The dues and fees for next year are $83 without Boy’s Life and $95 with Boy’s Life. Please be prepared to pay by check to make things easily traceable and make the checks out to BSA Pack 89.