bears Archives - Cub Scout Pack 279

Matt Weitzel installs Michael Fedor as Cubmaster

As Your New Cubmaster

By Michael Fedor | March 22, 2019

Last night it was an honor to be installed as the new Cubmaster of Cub Scout Pack 279. The list of leaders who have proceeded me in this role over the 52 year history of our Pack. Each Cubmaster has brought their own personality, ideas, and priorities to the job of Cubmaster. As parents, I want you to know what you can expect from my service to the pack.

1 – Make It Fun

The number one goal of Cub Scout programming is to make each outing, den meeting, and pack gathering fun and enjoyable for the scouts. They are our number one priority and they remain my number one priority. We are going to continue our rich tradition of lighthearted skits, themes, and laughter that make being part of Pack 279 so enjoyable. If the kids have fun as a scout, we’ll keep them coming back month after month, year after year. After all, our goal is to create lifelong learners and scouters.

2 – Encourage Us to Get Outdoors More

As a suburban township pack, we can sometimes get stuck in the rut of classroom style gatherings indoors. The cool, wet Central Pennsylvania weather of late that has spanned October to April has not made the job of getting us outdoors more often any easier. However, we are not about to give up. We are going to take on one major conservation project a year as a Pack to help push us into the outdoors more and I am going to encourage our Dens to hike locally and meet outdoors rather than inside the church recreational hall anytime weather permits.

3 – Lean In and Listen

A great teacher listens more than he or she speaks. As you might know, I have been a lifelong educator with experience teaching every age group from kindergarten through adulthood. I am here to listen to our scouts and our parents for opportunities to make our programming better or keep wonderful traditions and programming alive. My phone and email are open to you, but so am I for any one-on-one conversation you want to have about your scout’s experience in our Pack.

4 – Stay Committed to the Well Run Machine

The Cubmasters who have come before me have developed a robust system of tools to keep communication flowing in our Pack. No parent should ever have to guess what programming opportunities are coming up next for their scout. We will keep using Scoutbook, Timetosignup.com/pack279 and our monthly Pack announcements slides to ensure parents have all the information they need get their scouts active and involved in activities to earn rank, learn, and have fun.

5 – Parent Partnership

I am supremely proud that every leader in our Pack is a parent of a current scout. This ensures we stay focused on the kids. I also know that a pack of our size (back down to 73 for now with the bridging of 12 AOL awardees, but surely we’ll be up into the 80s again this fall) cannot succeed without the time, talents, and energy of a robust corps of parents who are involved and giving of themselves to make our programs wonderful. I encourage you to join me in this journey. Attend Parent Planning Meetings once a month (We meet the Monday before the Pack Meeting at St. James generally). Volunteer for the Quartermaster Corps to help with cooking, supplies, and set up. Become a Popcorn Sale team member to ensure that fundraiser is as successful as we need it to be each year. Suggest to us other ways you can help make Cub Scout Pack 279 a fun and exciting experience for K-5 students for the years ahead.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve our youth and your family. I am looking forward to fun that will create lifelong memories together.

Family Scouting Off to a Roaring Start

By Michael Fedor | March 19, 2018

We had a feeling Family Scouting was going to be a big hit in Cub Scout Pack 279 here in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County. Gee, we were right.

We had six girls in grades kindergarten through fourth grade sign up immediately to join Cub Scout Pack 279. These girls got to work right to way after their induction into the Cub Scout Pack on Thursday, March 15. We are happy and proud to report two have already completed their Bobcat Badges (3 days might be a new record!).

Female scouts join the pack — A female scout receives her Webelos neckerchief at a ceremony on March 15, 2018. Cub Scout Pack 279 was among the first to open its program to girls in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.

The female scouts got right to work with their very first Den meetings on Sunday, March 18. By Sunday, the ranks of female cub scouts grew to 8 in our pack, and two more picked up information on how to join. We could easily finish the Scout Year with 10-15% of our total Cub Scout membership as female scouts.

We know the success of the Family Scouting program relies heavily on the experience of our pioneer girls. We are actively seeking feedback from them and their parents on how to do this right. We are also funneling that feedback up to the District and Council levels so that more Packs in the area may learn from our experiences.

If you have a girl in the Cumberland Valley School District (or surrounding area) who wants to challenge herself to have more fun, meet new friends, and learn new skills in conservation, citizenship, science, and so much more, visit our Join Our Pack and FAQ pages to learn more on how to sign her up. Females who join for the rest of the school year will have their membership fee of $100 waived by our Pack.

Family Scouting is Here: Pack 279 Ready to Welcome First Female Scouts

By Michael Fedor | February 23, 2018

To discuss Family Scouting, we first must know the history and how we got here today.

Cub Scout Pack 279 has a long tradition of encouraging scouting to be a family activity. We have always welcomed parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters to join us at outings, pack meetings, and den activities. Last fall the Boy Scouts of America announced a major change to our program. Beginning in 2018-2019 scouting year, the Cub Scouts would begin accepting females into the program in a policy change called “Family Scouting.”

Clearly girls and boys have their differences, but there is no question they deserve equal opportunities and treatment to become better students, stronger leaders, and healthier citizens. For many families, the BSA Cub Scout Program is the right program to encourage that growth.

This change to the BSA policy should not come as a shock as most of the world already enjoys co-ed scouting. In fact, even here in the USA, the BSA has programs like Venturing and Stem Scouting that are co-ed programs.

This spring, the New Birth of Freedom Council asked for at least one Pack from each school district to step forward and offer “early adoption” of Family Scouting. So many girls and families had heard about the change, they were eager to join. It speaks to the quality of the scouting program for sure.

The leadership of our sponsor organization – St. James Church – and Pack 279 and Troop 276 sat down last month to talk about what it means to be leaders. St James Church feels strongly that we seize this opportunity to lead and show other Packs in the area what leadership around Family Scouting looks like.

Early adoption would mean offering Cub Scouts to girls in grades k-4 for the remainder of this school year. Then in the fall, the Cub Scout program would be opened to K-5 to boys and girls.

The National BSA organization has said that Scout Troops for grades 6-12 will need to be single gender Troops. This is in full recognition of the developmental and emotional differences between young women and young men, but the Scouts of America and our Council are encouraging at least one sponsoring organizations in each school district to consider supporting at least one male and one female troop.

St James Church, Boy Scouts Troop 276 and Cub Scout Pack 279 are going to work hand-in-hand to help stand up an all-female Troop as a partner to our Pack and Troop in time for bridging in 2019. This will ensure any females from the CV school district have a BSA Troop to join and continue their scouting adventure in grades 6 and beyond in the 2019-20 school year.

So here is the news tonight.

IF you are a girl in grades kindergarten through fourth grade, and IF you like adventure, and IF you want to work hard while having fun, and IF you want to be a Cub Scout in Pack 279, you MAY pick up your youth application, complete it and join our pack tonight!
Young ladies joining anytime in the next three weeks will have their first official Pack meeting in uniform on Thursday, March 15 when we bridge the Arrow of Light den into the Boy Scouts. Your first den meetings will be that following Sunday.
You will wear the same uniforms as the boys, earn the same adventure loops, beads, and ranks. You will learn from the same leaders and have as much fun (or more) as the boys already in the Pack.
And IF you are a girl and join before the end of the school year, there is no charge to join. That’s right, free membership. We do not want the cost to be a barrier, especially when we hope to learn as much from you in the next few months as you will the program.

All girls will have membership in a special Den of female scouts in addition to your work in the den of your grade level. That female den will be mentored and lead by our female Tiger leader Serena Fedor. Serena will be working closely with Assistant Cubmaster Michael Fedor and Cubmaster Matt Weitzel and the parents of our first female scouts to ensure everyone has a great experience.

In fact, whether we planned it or not, every Den in Pack 279 has a female leader helping to plan and run the program today. This ensures our commitment to Youth Protection will be ready for Family Scouting day 1. It also ensures the changes we need to make as a pack to welcome female scouts will be front and center at every level of the Pack.

To the leaders of our Pack, thank you for your thoughtful consideration about Family Scouting. Thank you for your commitment to stand the program up early. Thank you for the work you will do in the days and weeks ahead to ensure our first female scouts have fun and feel safe and welcome.

And to the boys already in the Pack, let’s remember that a scout is helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind. We need your help as young leaders in our pack to make sure every young lady that joins us is treated as you would want to be treated.

As we speak, Camp Tuckahoe and others in the area are being renovated to provide equal facilities for female scouts. That means Cub Camp and Webelos Resident Camp this June are open to all scouts – male and female – in our Pack.

Blue & Gold Dinner with Surprises

By Michael Fedor | February 22, 2018

Everyone knows that Cubmaster Weitzel loves to include surprises into the Blue & Gold Banquet, right?

This year is no different. This week Mr. Weitzel and Mr. Fedor prepared more than 88 bags of awards, achievements, and special recognitions for the Scouts of this Pack. It is so exciting to see so many of you excelling in your Dens!

Don’t forget to dress in your “Class A” – also known as your Field Uniform – on Friday for dinner. Have a parent or guardian make sure your uniform is clean, pressed, and looking extra sharp. We are going to take photos as Dens and as a full Pack! It will be our largest group photo yet.

Our ceremony will begin at 6:00 pm, so arrive in time to sign in, pick a seat with your family, and visit with your friends. We will begin with the presentation of the Colors and a blessing. Then dinner begins! Awards and recognitions to follow.

And we have an extra special announcement coming on Friday that will surely change Cub Scout Pack 279 for the better for years to come. So bring your listening ears, your singing voices, and your appetite. We are going to have a bucket of fun on Friday night, Scouts!

Fast Cars and Family Fun at Pinewood Derby 2018

By Michael Fedor | February 8, 2018

The Pinewood Derby is a longstanding tradition in just about every Cub Scout Pack you find. Most Dad’s in our own Pack 279 who were scouts themselves have fond memories of working in their own cars, and some still even have them stashed away in the family archives.

On February 3, 208, Pack 279 had a bucket of fun as six dens competed in Den centric heats. Five dens then sent their top three racers to the Pack finals (the Lions could not move on). It was a long but spirited day of competition. More than 150 fans cycled through St. James Church to see their favorite scouts compete.

For the first time, Pack 279 linked a community service project to the Pinewood Derby. We hosted the Central PA Blood Bank to host our first ever Community Blood Drive.

Assistant Cubmaster Fedor donates blood between Den races

Our very own Tiger Den leader and mother of two current scouts (and my wife) had her life saved in September by the gift of donated blood. We thought it would be a fitting tribute to her and to our Pack by ensuring we found a way to give back the very same gift that saved her life. Very soon we will know the final tally of how much blood we helped to secure for the Blood Bank. Stay tuned!

Now the moment you have all been waiting for: the results of the 2018 Pinewood Derby!

ARROW OF LIGHT
============
1) Luke T
2) Andrew Cl
3) Issac R
4) Brandon B

WEBELOS
============
1) Evan W
2) Ivan M
3) Ryan S
4) Connor B-S

BEAR
============
1) Ryan B
2) Alex G
3) Zachary D
4) Tobey S

WOLF
============
1) Aaron C
2) Alex M
3) Alex G
4) Aayush A

TIGER
============
1) Matthew C
2) Colin W
3) Grayson P
4) Beckett Z

LION
============
1) David M
2) Brayden H
3) Colin L
4) Jackson C

BUBBLE – Top-3 fastest times, that did not place above
============
1) Ryan M – AOL
2) Tristan B – Wolf
3) Jack R – AOL

PACK FINALS
============
1) Luke T
2) Evan W
3) Alex G
4) Andy C

Please contact the Cubmaster at cubscouts@pack279.us for a link to the complete den brackets. Congratulations to all!!

Welcome to the New Scouting Year

By Michael Fedor | September 13, 2017

First, the Bear Den mtgs will be held at St James Church for the 2017-2018 Scouting year. The mtgs will be held the 3rd Sunday of each month from 3:15pm to 5:15pm. The format for Den Mtgs will stay consistent from last year and at times the Bears will work in separate Dens during the Den Mtgs. Please mark your calendars for the change in venue and time the Bears will meet this year.

There are 6 Requirement/Belt Loops this year, plus one elective requirement/loop. The Cyber Chip is also required too.

I will outline the months we are going to work on the 6 requirements and leave 1 month open for the elective we decide on at a future date.

One very important change/note for this year. Each Scout and their Parents are going to be required to update Scout Book when a requirement has been completed, whether the requirement has been completed at the Den Mtg, the Pack Mtg, at Camp or at home. This will give Scouts the flexibility to complete tasks at home if they are unable to attend a Dn Mtg and for the Leaders to be able to track the completion of the activity prior to the Pack Mtg. This will also ensure that requirements are being properly tracked and completed, by all Scouts. We always want the Scouts to receive credit for their good work. So please don’t forget to perform this important task…because when I go to approve awards…it will be essential for the requirement and all the tasks of each requirement to be completed so the Scout earns their award.

September Den Mtg. Bear Claws. I will add the requirements for Scouts prior to and at the Sept Den Mtg later in this email.

October Den Mtg : Bear Necessities

November Den Mtg: Fur, Feathers and Ferns. One requirement is to visit a zoo or wildlife refuge. Zoo America is open on 11/12 the day of our Den Mtg. So we can decide as a group if we use that Den Mtg to go to Zoo America or a wildlife refuge. Some of the other requirements can be worked on by Scouts in Sept, Oct or Nov at home if they are unable to attend Den Mtgs, Fall Camp or Pack Hike on 9/23/17 at Kings Gap.

December: Fellowship and Duty to God

January: Grin and Bear It. I believe the January Pack Mtg is the Scout Carnival that is held during the Pack mtg. The Bears, the Leaders and the Bears Parents will run the event.

February: Paws for Action. This could also stretch into March. TBD

March and April: Elective Loop and Cyber Chip

May: Another fun event off site, like this past year.

We will have Den 1 and Den 2 again this year. I will assign each Scout a Den and Denner responsibilities after I hear from 2 Scouts that are still deciding if they are going to return and if we have any new Bears that sign up on Parent Night on 9/7/17.

We will replant our tree in late Sept or early Oct and even though it’s sad the first tree died…when we take down our tree…we will be completed a project during this Scouting year to carve the main trunk of that tree into a walking stick, that will always be a symbol of or Scouts and Parents doing our best and remembering our fallen friend. Each scout can sign the walking stick and maybe we can apply a coat of finish to it too. We will discuss more during brief Parents Mtg on cost of new tree (approx $10 from each Family) and a day to plant. Goods Tree Care are certified tree experts and I’m confident that their help this time will lead to success.

Safety will be a major theme this year. Scouts will be working with knives, hiking and some have already been using air guns and bow and arrows at summer camp. The Leaders will be asking that Parents take a very active role at Camps and at Mtgs to ensure the safety of th3 Scouts.

Please let your leaders know in advance of scheduling issues if your Scout cannot make a Den mtg, Pack Mtg or event that you have signed up for. This helps with planning and other tasks.

September Den Mtg Schedule:

305-315pm Sign in

315-325pm. Pledge, Star Spangled Banner, Scout Oath and Scout Law.

325-335pm Announcements

335pm – 4pm Requirement 1 and 2 of Bear Claws. All scouts will be together as a group for this.

4pm – 405pm Snack/Parents Mtg

405pm-450pm. Requirement # 3 of Bear Claws. Scouts will work in their respective Den with their Parents.

450pm to 515pm Game outside or inside. Depending on weather.

PLEASE read all the requirements of Bear Claws asap and have your Scout bring the items needed that are listed in Requirement # 3 of Bear Claws to the Den Mtg on 9/17, including his or your own pocetknife. The Den will have a first aid kit, but will not have supplies for the Scouts to complete Req #3.

As always….I understand this is a lot of information, but please read thru and retain this post for the year and don’t feel like you have to digest it all at once.

Please email me or the other Leaders, Mr. Rodrigo, Mr. Kunkle or Mrs McKee with questions, suggestions or concerns.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone at St James Church on 9/17.

Hooked on Scouting

By Michael Fedor | August 15, 2017

Do you have a boy in grades K-5 in Cumberland Valley, East Pennsboro, Mechanicsburg, West Shore, Camp Hill, or even the Carlisle School Districts of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania? Ever consider getting him hooked on scouting?

Are you looking for a program in the 2017-18 school year that will give him positive relationships with peers, exposure to strong role models, and opportunities to earn awards and recognition to build positive self esteem?

Are you looking for a fun activity you can do together on a weekly or monthly basis to get out of the house?

Are you looking to learn new skills as a parent and meet new friends and families from your area?

Does your boy love adventure and to try new things?

Does he have friends participating in scouts?

Did you or a spouse or partner participate in scouts when you were young?

Then scouting may be just the program you are looking for. Join us for a Parent Information and Sign up Night on Thursday, September 7, 2017. You will have an opportunity to meet the parents who lead the pack, ask questions about time commitments and cost, understand the diverse opportunities we offer throughout the program year (community service, hiking, camping, competitions, sports and games, family friendly events, field trips just to name a few).

Get Hooked

As a special incentive, every new scout who completes enrollment paperwork and is fully paid in dues by September 30 will receive a free rod and reel fishing combo courtesy of Bass Pro Shops and the New Birth of Freedom Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Help your son discover new abilities, make new friends, and explore new worlds. Build an Adventure with Cub Scouts.

Bear Den Notes

By Michael Fedor | July 28, 2017

Welcome to the Bear Den Blog. Stay tuned for news and updates from the Den Leadership here.

Category: bears