ADVANCEMENT CEREMONIES

Let the Compass Guide You

Heart of America Council

PROPS: You will need a prop compass made of heavy cardboard. Place it in front on the advancement table.

CUBMASTER: We look to the compass for our guide just as the Pilgrims used a compass to cross the Atlantic. To the East, we find a Cub ready his Bobcat Badge. Will (name) and his parents come forward, (Present award) He brings his eagerness like the dawn of a new day.

To the South is the Wolf with his spirit of adventure. Will (name) and his parents come forward. (Present awards)

To the West is a Bear hunting on the trail of Scouting. (Present awards)

To the North is the Webelos about to realize his boyhood dreams, alive with Scout action. Will (name) and his parents come forward. (Present awards)

Let the compass guide all of you on your trails and may you all carry into your adult life the ideals of Scouting.

The Pilgrims Have Landed

Viking Council

PROPS:    Cardboard Mayflower, Plymouth Rock out of cardboard or paper mache', one small rock for each boy, Indian costume for Cubmaster, Pilgrim costume for Cubmaster's assistant.

PILGRIM:  (enters rowing a cardboard Mayflower) I've been rowing for four month now. Hope I find land or a place to rest soon! Wait, what's that? Could it be? Yes, It Is! Land ho! Think I'll park by that big rock. (Gets out by Plymouth Rock) This looks like a nice place. Wonder if anyone lives here?

INDIAN:  (enters) Howdy Pilgrim (John Wayne style). Welcome to the new world: Come on over to my tepee and we'll play some video games.

PILGRIM:  Maybe later. Right now I'm starving. What do your have to eat?

INDIAN:  We have corn bread, corn on the cob, corn flakes, corn meal, popcorn, corn oil, corn chex, corn nuts, corn pone, and corn curls.

PILGRIM:  You forgot to mention corny jokes!

INDIAN:  Ha, ha! That's very punny, Pilgrim. Say, as long as you're here, how about joining us for our Thanksgiving feast?

PILGRIM:  Thanksgiving, what's that?

INDIAN:  That's when all the tribes get together and talk turkey. We give special thanks for everything we have and that this skit won't last much longer.

PILGRIM:  Sounds like fun.

INDIAN:  Before we eat, there are several young braves that we are honoring. Will you help me?

PILGRIM: Sure, what have they done - broke the Nintendo record or won the tribal rap-singing contest?

INDIAN:  They've done much more than that. They've eaten an entire Thanksgiving dinner without taking a nap afterwards. But even more impressive, they've earned the ranks of Bobcat, Wolf, and Bear.

PILGRIM:  Wow! I'd like to meet these braves and their parents. Who are they?

INDIAN:  Will the following braves and their parents, please come forward. (Reads names)

PILGRIM:  What did they do to earn these honors?

Make it up from here… At this point you work in all your usual Pack rituals for awards – explain the badges, present to parents, move markers along the trail. 

Turkey Days Advancement Ceremony

Viking Council

Needed: A large turkey with a feather for each award to be presented (or one feather for each Cub receiving an award). Awards are placed on the feathers prior to the Pack Meeting. Feathers can be made out of poster board.  The turkey can be made from a box, with wiggle eyes, poster board cut out for head, wings, and feathers. And a little imagination in painting the box. 

Cubmaster: This is a special time of the year. We have a lot to be thankful for: Our families and friends, our homes and schools.  We should be especially thankful for this land we live in.  Tonight we have our Thanksgiving turkey with us, but it's not ready for the oven yet. We still need to pluck it, and this is how we will do it:

I will call the name of a Cub Scout that has earned an award. He will go get his parents and they will come up to the turkey and pluck out the feather with their son's name on it. At that time they will present the award to their son. Once you have received your award, please stand to my left and remain there until all the names have been called and all the feathers plucked. Call names of boys until all have come forward. Then perform other Pack rituals for award presentation.  Webelos Leader can also use the turkey to present Webelos awards if desired.

Congratulations on your hard work. Our turkey is now plucked and ready for the oven. It will ensure us all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Dinner

SCC Council

Setting:  A table set with Thanksgiving items; a bag of corn kernels

Cubmaster:   Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we are remembering the founders of our country and the native American Indians.  The pilgrims came to this country for religious freedom, and when they got here, they found new friends.  The sharing that occurred between these two different peoples was something to behold.  We have all shared things in much the same way.

Would the following boys please come forward?  (List those earning Wolf badges.)  You boys have shared with each other the gift of working together in your dens and homes.  For this, we give you your awards and a kernel of corn, as the Indians gave to the pilgrims.

Would the following boys please come forward?  (List those earning Bear badges.)  You have worked hard, and work was one of the things most respected by the pilgrims and Indians alike.  The pilgrims even had a rule that if persons did not work, they would not eat.  For your work, we give you your award along with a kernel of corn, just as the Indians gave the pilgrims.

Webelos Leader:     Would the following Webelos please come forward?  (List names.) You boys have been working for a long time and have learned many new skills working with metal, wood and leather.  These are the same skills that the pilgrims had to learn to survive and help build this great country we live in today.  We give you your awards and a kernel of corn to remember this special time of the year.

Early Colonists Days

Heart of America Council

Personnel: Cubmaster, Cub Scouts, Advancing Cub Scouts

Equipment: Stage curtains, Props for pioneers, Badges, certificates, pins

CM: American Pioneers have been men with curious minds, strong purpose, courage, determination, stick-to-itiveness and a proud, fierce loyalty. Through every hardship they have refused to give up.

Our purpose is to remind Ourselves of how our country grew out of a wilderness into a great world power. Let us quickly take a brief look at some of the men who helped build it.

MILES STANDISH came with the Pilgrims seeking religious freedom and learned to live with the Indians. After the first year's harvest they celebrated Thanksgiving together.

Other great men followed. PATRICK HENRY, who said "Give me Liberty or give me death;" DANIEL BOONE opened up the trail west through the Cumberland Gap; THOMAS EDISON invented the electric light; ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL gave us the telephone.

As we entered the 20th century, HENRY FORD produced a successful motorcar. ORVILLE and WILBUR WRIGHT launched our first airplane.

For you, Cub Scouts, the United States is still a land of expanding opportunity and tonight we have the following boys who have had the determination, stick­-to-itiveness and loyalty to follow the trail of (Wolf), (Bear) and complete the achievements of (their/his) badges. Will (names) and their parents please come forward?

Now we have boys with strong purpose and curious minds who have completed the requirements for their Webelos badge. Will the following boys and their parents please come forward? Will the Pack stand with me and salute these fine Cub Scouts who have had the courage and loyalty as the Pioneers of our past years to advance. Congratulations!