A little over two years ago Randolph Cub Scout Pack 208 was approaching its end. The previous Cubmaster moved up to Boy Scouts with her son which left nobody to run the Pack. Majority of the boys that made up the pack would be advancing within one year to Boy Scouts as well. This is when we signed Seth up to join Cub Scouts and on his registration form Nick offered to be the Den Leader. A month went by and we heard from nobody so I got a hold of the council and left a voicemail how Nick is looking forward to being a Den Leader and Seth was looking forward to getting started with scouting.
Then Nick received the call...
The Pack wasn't going to make it. Either Nick needed to step-up and become the Cubmaster and Seth's Den Leader or else Seth would need to join a neighboring communities Cub Scout Pack. There was no way Nick would let that happen. He had dedicated a lot of his childhood to Boy Scouts and becoming an Eagle Scout. He knew the value of what a child can take out of scouting.
Scouting helps youth develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills that influence their adult lives. Scouting provides youth with an opportunity to try new things, provide services to others, build self-confidence, and reinforce ethicsl standards. These opportunities not only help them when they are young, but carry forward into their adult lives, improving their relationships, their work lives, their family lives and the values by which they live. Scouting.Org did a study and found that 83% of men who were scouts agree that the values they leared in Scouting continue to be very important to them today.
Two years later our pack has more than doubled in size. We went from nine scouts last week to 25!! This is the largest recruitment we have seen. Typically it's been two, maybe three, boys at a time. Those who have dedicated their time and energy into keeping this Pack alive were so happy to see that what they were doing made a difference. 16 new scouts in just one month! Seth has been the lone scout on his den for a long time. Now he has another third grader joining him. With 16 new scouts, that also means more parents who would be willing to step-up also and help take the load off of Nick's shoulders.
This is exciting stuff! Maybe in three years Nick and I will bring Boy Scouts back to Randolph. It feels good to make a difference in this world, and that is what we're teaching these boys.
Nick is giving a presentation to the parents of potential recruits at Welcome Night.
Not a single child left without signing up.
Some parents even left to run home and get their checkbook for registreation.
Nice work guys! That's awesome!
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