This is part of a message a Cub Scouter sent to Scouts-L and how the California Gold Rush was done along with some other ideas.

I am currently the Cub Committee Chairman for Pack 96. Our Pack has been very successful over the last year, averaging 60-80 awards every month and we only have 20 boys!

Last pack meeting we did a fun activity. I made up a big sign out of newspaper end roll. Then cut the message into pieces like a puzzle. I rolled the papers up and put them inside of big balloons (12") and blew the balloons up. I just taped them around the room for decoration. For one of the activities, each scout picked a balloon and sat on it until it popped. Then they all had to work together to put the puzzle back together. You could have anything on the paper.

I used the idea from Baloo's Bugles some months ago that had "F_N, C_B, SCO_TS, AD_LTS, CAMPO_TS, etc and then told everyone that our Cub Scout Pack was nothing without "U". It worked out pretty well and I thought that the idea could be used for almost anything, Scouting or Cub Scouting.

Since the theme was "Hey Look Us Over", we got pictures of each boy when they were a baby, and had everyone try to match the pictures with the boys names. We also had one piece of trivia about each boy that others wouldn't know. It was very interesting and fun, but proved to be too hard for both Cubs and adults. We did learn about the boys, however.

For our upcoming Pack Meeting we are staying with the theme "California Gold Rush". The Den Master and I will be wearing hard hats with a Styrofoam cup taped on the front (like a light). We'll be donned in old overalls and flannel shirts. I am using 2X4's to build a frame around one of the doors, and then will drape paper or gunny sacks, etc to make it look like the entrance to a mine shaft. We'll have our lanterns (Coleman battery operated) and a 3 legged stool to sit on.

As we have the boys come up for their awards, they have to go into the darkened "mine shaft" which is an adjacent room to pan for their awards. Aluminum Pie plates will hold their awards. They'll come back out and hand their "gold" to the Cub Master and she'll present them.

Our treat for the night is going to be a "sack of gold" which includes Hershey's nuggets, Rolo's, Hershey's Almond Kisses and some Gold foil covered chocolate coins.

Shauna R