SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

75^th Cub Scout Anniversary Family Award

Kommissioner Karl

Featured here this month are the requirements for the Cub Scout 75^th Anniversary Family Award.  There are four awards.  Each is distinguished by its unique color pattern, boys are red bordered, families are yellow bordered, Leaders are blue bordered and the pack is silver bordered.  There is also a 75^th Anniversary Commemorative Patch available from the BSA with no requirements.  Each month we will be discussing specific activities you can do for each level of the award, so you are ready for the big 75!!

Our pack committee chair has taken the requirements for each of the awards and then added where appropriate pack activities that met the requirement.  That way families can  check off what they did and get inspired to do those other things needed to complete the award. CD

An in Depth Look at the…

75^th Anniversary Family Award

For Tigers, Cubs, Webelos Scouts & Family Members

Complete Requirement 1 and complete 5 other activities.

Participate in a pack, district, or council celebration commemorating the 75th Anniversary of Cub Scouting. (This could be a Blue and Gold Banquet.)

The preferred Blue and Gold theme this year is the 75^th Anniversary of Cub Scouting.  Begin thinking of things you can do to celebrate!  Perhaps you can have 1930’s games as a gathering activity, contact a local Scout collector or historian to see if you can display a collection of uniforms, pictures and books from the past 75 years of cub scouting, ask an older Scouter to come to your meeting a share a 10 minute story on what things were like when he was a cub scout

Invite another family to attend a 75th Anniversary event or activity to learn more about Cub Scouting and how to join.

Most Councils are planning a big celebration open to the whole family in 2005 to celebrate the 75^th Birthday of Cubbing.  If your does this, why not invite your best friend and his parents for the family weekend?  Or, host a special 75th Anniversary Pack meeting with games and crafts from the 1930s and have each boy invite a friend and at least one parent and their other kids.  Have a mini round up or Q & A session to discuss how Cubbing is a family affair and how to join.

Visit a business, landmark, or other site or structure in your community that is at least 75 years old. Talk to a representative about how the location has changed in the past 75 years.

Look around; probably there are many structures in your town over 75 years old.  You may be able to visit a local factory, (like the Timken Company or the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company in my area or the first Dupont plant near where Commissioner Dave lives.)  There are Historical Societies and old houses that are open to the public in most towns as well.  Check with your local historical society to see if there is a list of local landmark’s you can visit that may have changed since 1930.

As a family, make a list of household items that would not have existed 75 years ago. Discuss what might have been used instead and how life was different without these items.

·         Television – in the 30s families huddled around that radio and listened to stories like the Shadow.

·         Computers – took up huge rooms and a person could never afford one at home (or have the space to house it)

·         Cable – what no 24 hour cartoons?  How about no television just fuzzy broadcast signals on your radio.

·         SUV’s – most people drove cars and a few drove trucks.  There was no thought to putting the two together for a family.

·         Direct dial telephones – back in the good old days, you had to ask an operator to connect you to a city and then ask the operator in that city to connect you to the person you were looking for, if they had a telephone.

·         Commercial jet airlines – some commercial airlines existed, but most were on blimps like the Hindenburg. 

·         If you wanted to go somewhere you took the train or a passenger ship.

·         Battleships – were the pride of every Navy in the world.  They are gone now- the airplanes, long-range missiles and aircraft carriers made them obsolete.

·         Calculators – handheld calculators were never thought of – you did all your math by hand the long way.

·         Satellites – those things that link the whole world together.  The first did not go up until 1959.

·         Trips to the moon – only in storybooks.  It wasn’t until 1960 that we even thought about it, and not until 1969 that we made it there.

·         Space shuttle – We didn’t even know what rockets were in 1930, let alone a reusable rocket ship.

·         Super oil tankers – supply oil all over the world instead of pumping from the back yard or local oil company. 

·         Fax machines – replaced telegrams and telegraphs.  Now we can send papers over the phone lines.

·         Mini-cameras – flash powder cameras were a luxury, and big and bulky.  A pocket-sized camera that anyone could own was impossible in 1930.  People often had their pictures painted instead of photographed. VCR/DVD – the only movies you saw were 5 cents at the theatre, instead of at home on the big screen.

·         CDs – back in 1930, you played records made of brittle plastic on a wind up Victrola phonograph that would make the music play from a big bull horn shaped bell.  No stereo or head phones.

Bake a cake, pie, cookies, or other dessert using ingredients that would have been available 75 years ago. Decorate the dessert with a Cub Scout theme.

The hard part here, is that they made everything from scratch.  No cake mix, no heat and eat bread.  Most of the ingredients are the same, we just have everything pre-mixed and made.  How about making a cake from scratch.  Search the web for some recipes for pies, cookies or cakes.  You might try and make a loaf of bread from scratch too!  Have your Pack sponsor a Parent-Cub cake bake where all entries must met the 1930 requirement.

Start a family scrapbook or add to an existing one. Include photographs or memorabilia from at least six different Scouting activities.

Not too hard.  Scrapbooks and photo albums help satisfy requirements from Tigers to Webelos.  How about theming the book with an antique look – or – with your parents consent, have family photo taken with everyone dressed up in clothes that may have been worn in the 1930s.  Pick some of your favorite Cub pictures and make a special page just for your son.

Make a family time capsule with each family including items that represent what is important to each member of the family. Decide on a future date on which to open the capsule together.

We focused on time capsules back in August.  Make a family time capsule, and agree to open it on a day in the future, perhaps your high school graduation, or the day you get married.  Make sure everyone includes a note about what they think and feel about the world around them, written in their own handwriting.  If you need help making one, search for time capsules on the web.

As a family, read an article together from Boy’s Life magazine (accessible via the Internet at www.boyslife.org). Talk about how this article would have been different had it been written 75 years ago.

This is pretty easy, and easier if you subscribe to Boy’s Life at home.  Look for things that weren’t around 75 years ago, or things that we would have done differently.  See if you can find an old picture of someone doing the same activity.  Ask a grandparent to participate and share how they would have done the activity when they were your age.

Draw a family time line going back at least 75 years. Include significant dates such as birthdays, weddings, and when family members joined Scouting. Mark 1930 as the year Cub Scouting began.

This would be great as an entry in your family scrapbook project or as a poster for your sons room.  Show a family tree and all of your relatives that can be remembered back 75 years or longer.  For more information, you can look up genealogy on the web.

Find a picture or photograph of the Cub Scout uniform in 1930. Discuss how the uniform has changed. Have each family member draw a picture of what they think

the Cub Scout uniform might look like 75 years in the future.

District Award of Merit

Kommissioner Karl

The District Award of Merit is awarded by a District or Exploring Division to volunteer and professional adults for service to youth in the District or Division. Normally, the award is presented for service in excess of five years. Candidates for this award must be nominated (Self-nomination disqualifies the candidate).  Guidelines are:

A nominee must be a registered Scouter; rendered noteworthy service to youth in Scouting, outside of Scouting, or both (Note: This may consist of a single plan or decisions that contributed vitally to the lives of large numbers of youth or it may have affected a small group over an extended period of time, and should be beyond the expectations of that Scouting position.  The nominee's attitude toward and cooperation with the district, division, and/or council is to be taken into consideration as well.

Each district in the BSA sets their own calendar for when nominations are due and where the presentations are made.  So if you know someone deserving of this award, check with your Unit Commissioner to find out when and how to make a nomination.