Cub Scout Pack 141

Cub Scout Pack 141 was first chartered on May 1, 1973 for a highly active and spirited group of young boys who wanted to experience the joys of scouting. Since 1930, Scouting America (formally known as the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)) has helped younger boys through a program known as Cub Scouting. Scouting with aims to contribute to the development of your son in achieving his full physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual potentials as an individual, as responsible a citizen, and as a member of his local, national, and international communities. Scouting provides your son with an opportunity to try new things, provide service to others, build self-confidence, and reinforce ethical standards. Scouting will not only help when he is young but he will carry scouting with him in his adult life, improving relationships in his family and work life setting the standards, ethics, and values by which he lives. Scouting will help guide your son to be the example and become the leader instead of the being involved in poor life decisions. The mission of Scouting America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.

scout_oath Membership requires you to join a local Cub Scout Pack where you are assigned to a group of six to eight boys, called a “den.” A den consists of a group of boys, the same age, that come together and work on age appropriate adventures for status, rank, and recognition in the Pack. A den can be made up of Lions (kindergartners), Tigers (first-graders), Wolves (second-graders), Bears (third-graders), Webelos (fourth-graders) or Arrow Of Lights (fifth-graders) that hold meetings throughout the month.

A pack typically consists of dens, parents and family members, and volunteers coming together once a month under the direction of the Cubmaster. We are now adding the Frontier Girls program to the Cub Scout and Scouts BSA program to share the activities of the different groups and to recognized each scout for his or her achievements. Recognition is an important event to young boys and girls as well as young adults. Instead just having the normal Lions Tigers, Wolves, Bears, Webelos and AOLs, we will also have Penguins, Otters, Dolphins, Butterflies, Eagles, and Owls. And even though no one knows exactly what animal a Webelos or an AOL represents, we really do have a vast variety of animals coming together from the land, the sea, and the sky to form our Pack.

scout_law The Cub Scouting Advancement Program, which features Rank Advancements based on a series of Core or Required and Elective or Optional Adventures that gives the Scouts a sense of personal achievement as they earn badges, provides fun for the boys, and strengthens family bonds as adult family members work with their sons on advancement projects. Cub Scouting means doing. Everything in Cub Scouting is designed to have the boys doing different adventures to achieve the aims of Scouting, which includes citizenship training, character development, and personal fitness.

A Cub Scout Pack belongs to an organization with interests similar to those of Scouting America. This organization, which might be a church, school, community organization, or group of interested citizens, is chartered by the local Scouting America council to use the Scouting program. This chartered organization provides a suitable meeting place, adult leadership, supervision, and opportunities for a healthy Scouting life for the boys under its care. Each organization appoints one of its members as a chartered organization representative. The organization, through the Pack Committee, is responsible for providing leadership, the meeting place, and support materials for pack activities.

Cub Scout Pack 141 is a member in the New River District of the Blue Ridge Mountains Council, the local chapter of Scouting America. Our pack is sponsored by the Christiansburg Presbyterian Church located on Main Street in downtown Christiansburg. Even though you do not have to be a member of the church to join the Pack, the church does provides us with leadership, guidance, and a facility to hold our meetings and special events.

Our pack meetings are held the fourth Thursday of each month from September through May (except during the months of November and December when meetings are the third Thursday) starting at 7:00 p.m.. During the summer months (June through August), we have summer activities each month to keep the pack active. Each den has two meetings per month designed to help each scout advance. Since scouting is family oriented, parents are encouraged to attend all meetings. The meetings are not designed to be an hour of free baby sitting for your son. If you cannot attend a particular meeting with your son, we require you to escort him in and out of the meeting. This will promote safety and allow us the opportunity to pass on important information.

Though all positions in our pack are manned by volunteers, the Pack still operates on a budget. Popcorn sales, dues, and donations are our main sources of income. These funds are used to pay various expenses such as, but not limited to National Scout registration, Adult Leadership registration, Pinewood Derby kits, advancement patches, pins, and other awards, materials and supplies. Our charter expires in December. This is the time when our Pack registers with the National Council as members. All new scouts must pay fees directly to the National Council to register nationally when they join Scouting America. Existing scouts must renew their memberships directly to the National Council annually to remain members in good standing with Scouting America, our local council, and the Pack. The Pack will collect Pack dues, but there are no den dues collected. Any materials needed by the dens are furnished by the Den Leaders or by the Pack Treasury. Parents are asked to provide refreshments for the den and or Pack meetings on a rotating bases.

The benefit of any program can be measured by those who rise to its top. And for Scouting, the top is the rank of Eagle Scout, an accomplishment that caps years of work, progressive leadership responsibilities, civic awareness, community volunteerism, dozen of merit badges based on learning specialized skills and, in most cases, countless nights spent camping in forests and wilderness. It is a long and difficult road, but if a boy sticks with it and accomplishes his goal, the reward is great and is a rank that is awarded for life. If it is important for your son to learn new physical skills, to learn to get along with boys of his same age, to develop his mental process, to develop a conscience, and to develop personal independence, then Cub Scouting is the way to go. As you learn more about the joys of scouting, your son will experience growth working on these important developmental task by joining a Den. If you are interested in learning more about Scouting America, getting information about the Scouting program, and/or to find out why Scouting is for families like yours, go to Beascout.org or click on the image on the left to find a local Pack in your neighborhood and “Join the Fun.” If you are interested in joining our Pack, click here for more information on contacting us.

Blue Ridge Mountains Council

CUB SCOUT PACK 141