Cub Scout Pack 375 December 2019 Newsletter |
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Pack 375 continues to be as active as ever! Thanks to great leaders, parents and especially Scouts, we are able to keep up a great program making lasting memories for all of our members. Be prepared, there is A LOT of information in this December 2019 Newsletter! Please take the time to read through it all though. Much of the information is time-sensitive, and all of it should help your family navigate the adventure of Scouting. What does a grumpy sheep say at Christmas? |
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It's finally here! The Pack 375 Spirit Shop is open for business with a large selection of apparel with our new logo design. The store is open now and will close on Monday December 30th so that orders will be ready to distribute at our January Pack Meeting. This is a hard cut off - no late orders will be accepted for this round of orders. The store may be opened back up later in the year however. |
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Shirts & Hoodies T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts and hoodies are available in Safety Orange and Navy Blue. Safety orange should be worn for outings and outdoor activities, such as camp-outs, hikes, summer camp, etc. The traditional Navy Blue was requested as a more subtle option for times when it is less important for Scouts to be immediately visible and to wear under Class A uniforms. With that said, any of the shirt options in the Pack 375 Spirit Shop are acceptable whenever a Class B shirt is needed. Hats Pack 375 hats are being made available as an alternative to the official BSA hats that are specific to single rank / grade. These Pack 375 hats can be worn as part of the Class A uniforms and are not specific to a single rank. Imprints Shirts and hoodies shown with a white imprint will be silk-screened. Polo shirts, fleece jackets and hats shown with a color logo will be embroidered. Payments & Logistics The store is being managed for us by Collegiate Pride, who is also producing and fulfilling our orders. Payments will be made direct to Collegiate Pride by credit card. If you would like to use money in your Family Fundraising account to pay for any items in the Spirit Store, you will need to pay for the items up front and submit for reimbursement. A new form is being created and will be shared at the Pack Meeting. Orders will be picked up by the Pack, sorted and distributed at the January Pack Meeting. Help Needed! I am looking for a "Spirit Store Coordinator." This would be a fairly low time commitment position. The coordinator would be responsible for receiving & checking the order from Collegiate Pride and then sorting it to distribute to families. Please contact me if you are interested. |
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Meeting Space One of the challenges that we face as a large Pack is having enough room for our meetings, both the large group space for Pack Meetings and small group space for Den Meetings. Regardless of where we meet, we are guests and therefore must remember that "A Scout is Courteous." Unfortunately, there have been some concerns about our use of some of our meeting spaces. Good Shepherd Church When using the church, we are assigned specific rooms for out meetings. For Pack Meetings it is the Parish Hall. For Den Meetings it is generally a classroom. We must keep our group in whatever room we are assigned for a particular meeting. This includes EVERYONE attending, including siblings. At no time may any of our Scouts or siblings play or run around in the church lobby area or in the hallway outside of the classrooms. Siblings may not use another classroom during Den Meetings, even if the room appears to be vacant. Also, as strange as this sounds, the stuffed animals in the lobby area are not to be played with. Please help us keep good relations with the church by ensuring that we are being respectful of their building and the other visitors. Gray's United Methodist Church Before leaving, pleas ensure that all lights are shut off, the heat is turned down and all water is shut off. Be aware that some of the bathroom faucets do not shut off easily and may need to be really torqued to get them completely shut off. All Meeting Spaces Remember, whenever we meet as a group, we are representing Boy Scouts of America and Cub Scouts. Please take that responsiblity seriously. |
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December Pack Meeting Wednesday, December 18th @ 6:30 PM We will follow a similar format to the November Pack Meeting, however instead of craft activities, we have some other exciting things planned. Here are some of the highlights to expect: - We will have a visit from a VIP in red & white who will distribute gifts to each of the scouts. Ho! Ho! Ho!
- Songs (of course)
- The theme for this year's Pinewood Derby will be announced.
- A special reading of "Camping in the Woods on Christmas Eve," a Scout's take on The Night Before Christmas.
- Popcorn prizes will be distributed
- Pies will be thrown at the Cubmaster!
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Den Updates We had great feedback regarding the change in format for our Pack Meetings last month, especially removing the Den Updates from the meetings. So, we are continuing the practice of including the updates here in the newsletter. Thank you to all of the Den Leaders for providing these descriptions! |
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Den 8 - Girl Lions Lion Den 8 Has been busy working toward our requirements and a few electives. In December we finished up the requirements for King of the Jungle and did a fun service project of making Christmas Cards (additional picture at the top of the newsletter) for Elmcroft Residents . The girls are working hard to memorize the Scout Oath and Scout Law. |
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Den 9 - Boy Lions Lion Den 9 completed our Build It Up, Knock It Down Adventure in December. We practiced building the tallest structures we could using different materials that offered different building challenges: boxes of different sizes, thin toilet paper rolls and cups of various sizes that were larger at the top and smaller at the bottom. As much fun as it was to build the structures, the boys had even more fun knocking them down! We talked about how people can be built up too through kindness and confidence but also broken down when we are mean to each other or hurtful. Then we concluded our meeting but helping to build up our fellow Scouts by offering words of kindness and encouragement to each other. |
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Den 7 - Tigers The Tigers are excited to welcome the newest member of our Den, Frankie! This month we started working on our Stories in Shapes elective with several art projects including hand painting wood disks to make ornaments. We also created our Six Essentials pack to start on Tigers in the Wild adventure. |
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Dens 5 & 6 - Boy & Girl Wolfs Wolf Den 5 and 6 prepared and presented a special indoor "campfire" program at their December den meeting to complete the requirements for the Howling at the Moon adventure. This adventure involves learning about different ways to communicate and gives scouts an opportunity to become comfortable speaking in front of others. Our scouts worked in groups to learn a song and a skit and then performed for the rest of the den. Many also took part in telling the "Story of the Lone Wolf". We learned that a good campfire program includes an opening, songs, cheers and stunts, skits, a story, and a closing. We had fun and look forward to a future event where we can share what we learned with our pack around a real campfire! |
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Den 3 - Park Forest Bears Park Forest Bears started working on the Bear Claws belt loop. They scouts learned about 3 different kinds of knives and the safety of using a knife. The boys also learned the Pocketknife Pledge. Now the boys are ready to create 2 carvings from a bar of soap! We also practiced the flag ceremony as we are on flag duty for the December pack meeting. At the end of our meeting we spent some time going over some of the knots we have learned this year! Great job PF Bears! |
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Den 4 - Gray's Woods Bears This month the GWE Bears followed up their visit to the State College PD by working on the Forensics Adventure Loop with Miss Erica. We learned about forensics, solved 2 crimes, and lifted fingerprints! Special Thanks to Erica! |
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Den 2 - Webelos Den 2 doubled up on adventures this month. To complete Duty to God & You, Scouts talked with their parents about what doing their duty to God really means. They shared how they each help with religious services, and chose an additional action each day for a month to help them do their duty to God. Then, these Webelos dove into the past for Looking Back, Looking Forward. They created two scrapbook pages from research on the history of Scouting and our own Pack 375. They built two timelines (World War II and space exploration) to experience chronology, and then they took the first step into the future...they wrote letters for our time capsule project! In 30 years, Webelos Den 2 will meet at Grays United Methodist Church and dig up our time capsule. We're excited to see who comes back and who we bring with us! |
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Den 1 & 5 - Arrow of Light The Arrow of Light boys and girls have been busy this month! As some of the scouts are working on their Build It! Adventure, we recently had a tour of the new Grays Woods Church construction site (located at the corner of Meeks Lane and Grays Woods Blvd) thanks to Mike Snyder. The kids got to review building plans and safely toured the site, asking lots of questions along the way. They are also working on their Building a Better World Adventure, and were lucky enough to have Amber Concepcion, SCASD school board president, attend a recent den meeting. Mrs. Concepcion spoke with our group about being a community leader and about the roles of the school board and how it affects our students. With only two more months until they cross over to Scouts BSA, these Arrow of Light scouts are gearing up for the Klondike Derby in January and finishing up their Adventures! |
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God & Family class
Five Scouts from Pack 375 completed the six-week God & Family class at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on December 15. Each week they learned new ways to do their duty to God as they built pizzas...and then they celebrated with a pizza party at the end! Noah Zeljak, Adam Burns, Elizabeth Houser, and William Gartner are shown with two Scouts from Pack 66. Missing from the photo is Ollie Brumberg. |
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Finances We are finishing up our implementation of QuickBooks to manage our Pack's finances. Soon each family will be receiving a statement of their account from the start of our year in August. If you have a balance due on your account, a separate invoice will be sent to detail the amount due. Also, for those of you who participated in the Popcorn fundraiser, you will receive a credit memo indicating the amount of credit you received as a result of the fundraiser. If you have any questions regarding your statement or if you feel there is an error, please let us know right away. Note that only one parent e-mail per family could be imported when we set up the program. If you would like your information going to a second e-mail address, please let us know and we can add it manually. |
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Winter Camping January 17 - 19, 2020 - Seven Mountains Scout Camp By the time you are reading this, we will be 1 month from our annual Winter Camping outing at Seven Mountains Scout camp! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the event, we will be camping in a heated cabin with running water and fully equipped kitchens. Additional information about the weekend can be found here: https://www.cubscouts375.org/winter-camping Changes this year Please note the following changes: - As our Pack continues to grow, we need to be sure to have enough room for all of our Scouts. Since there is a limited amount of room (64 beds) in the cabin, initial overnight signups will be limited to registered Scouts and 1 parent per Scout. Starting January 1st sign-ups will be open to siblings and additional parents. Note that sign-ups for the Saturday Only options are not limited since beds are not needed for those individuals.
- Please note the revised policy regarding Scouts attending without parents in the "Who Can Attend" section of the Winter Camping page.
- As always, we will follow BSA's Hazardous Weather Policies if Mother Nature throws extreme weather our way as she did last year. New this year, no refunds will be given if we determine that it is safe for the event to continue but a family or Scout chooses not to attend at the last minute. This is not meant to be harsh. We will buy food on Thursday and Friday, so once we have bought food for you, we need you to pay for it.
Signup & Payment Please sign up using the form below. Cost and attenance options are also explained on the signup page. Payment will be collected at the January Pack Meeting. If you would like to use money from your family's fundraising account, please e-mail <cubtreasurer375@gmail.com> to let us know. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C48A8AD2FA4F49-winter5 |
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Summer Camp Believe it or not, it is already time to be thinking about Summer Camp for your Scouts! We will have a summer camp presentation at one of our upcoming Pack Meetings, however for those of you who already know that your Scout will attend camp this summer, the Council has just announced discount for Scouts who pay in full before the end of the year. Here are the details we have: - From now until the end of the year if you register and pay for any Cub Scout Summer Camp programs you will pay the "Early Bird" price from last year! The price breakdown is below:
- Cub Day Camp - June 15-19, 2020 - $42 per day ($10 discount)
- Webelos Camp - July 19-23, 2020 - $290 for the week ($10 discount)
- To to take advantage of this end of the year coupon call the Scout office at 717-667-9236.
- Additional information can be found on the Council's website:
http://www.sevenmountainsscoutcamp.org/index.php/summer-camp/ In order to take advantage of this offer, you will need to register and pay directly with the Council. Unfortunately that means that those of you who want to use money from your family fundraising account will need to pay up front and then submit to the Pack for reimbursement. A reimbursement form will be made available soon. Note that this apply ONLY to those Scouts registering and paying before the end of the year to get the special pricing. Additional information will be provided in a separate newsletter for everyone registering on or after 1/1/20. |
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Tip of the Month Newsletter Archive Did you know that all of our past newsletters are available on our website? Many questions that you may have could be answered in one of the recent posts. Please keep this valuable source of information in mind whenever you have questions. https://www.cubscouts375.org/newsletters |
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Calendar Here is an updated list of Pack 375 meetings and events for the coming year. Information for Den meetings and events will be coming from your Den Leaders. |
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December - Wed, Dec 18, 6:30pm - Pack 375 - December Pack Meeting
January, 2020 - Wed, Jan 15, 6:30pm - January Pack Meeting
- Wed, Jan 15, following Pack Meeting- Committee Meeting
- Fri, Jan 17 - Sun, Jan 19 - Winter Camping - Seven Mountains Scout Camp
February - Sun, Feb 9, 9:00am - Scout Sunday - Gray's United Methodist Church
- Wed, Feb 19, 6:00pm - Blue & Gold Banquet & Crossover Ceremony
- TBD - Pack Activity
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March - Wed, Mar 18, 6:30pm - March Pack Meeting
- Wed, Mar 18, following Pack Meeting- Committee Meeting
- Friday, Mar 27 - Pinewood Derby set-up and weigh-in
- Saturday, Mar 28 - Pinewood Derby race
April - Wed, Apr 15, 6:30pm - April Pack Meeting
May - Wed, May 20, 6:30pm - Advancement Ceremony - Gray's United Methodist Church
June - Mon, Jun 15 - Fri, Jun 19 - Cub Scout Day Camp & Family Camp
July - Sun, July 19 - Thur, July 23 - Webelos Resident Camp
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Contact Information Cubmaster - Joe Zanghi cubscouts375@gmail.com (814) 862-9616 |
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