Family Camping 2011 - May 13-15

Our 2011 Family Camping trip is scheduled for the weekend of May 13 - 15.

 

Family camping is an outdoor experience that involves Cub Scouting program elements in overnight settings with two or more family members, including at least one BSA member of that family. Parents are responsible for the supervision of their children, and Youth Protection guidelines apply.

 

This year, we will be staying at the O'Leary Group Campground northeast of Flagstaff, very close to Sunset Crater National Monument. Thanks to Dave Cramer for handling the reservations again this year. There are 18 campsites available - to cover expenses we ask that each campsite make a $15 donation to the pack. If you are interested in attending with your scout and any other family members, sign up to reserve your space:

 

http://www.mysignup.com/618familycamping

Space is running out at R - C Summer Camp

If you have not already received confirmation of your R - C summer camp registration, please be aware that sessions 1, 2 and 3 are full. There is still availability at this time for session 4, and for family camp. Click here for more information.

Pinewood Derby Open Garage Today!

This is a reminder that we're having an open garage today (Saturday, March 5) at the Kuiper Residence, from 10 AM to 4 PM. All scouts from the pack are welcome at any time during the open garage.

The purpose of this open garage is to perform basic work on your pinewood derby cars, such as simple cuts and reaching weight. We'll have band saw, belt sander and drill press available, as well as lots of advice. Please work with your scout to have a plan in mind before you arrive, to expedite the work. Remember to bring your your scout and his derby car kit. Also bring any additional materials that you might need to work with like weights, glue, putty, etc. -- these are not provided by the pack or the Kuiper family. Address of the Kuiper Estate is 17848 N 52nd Place, Scottsdale, AZ 85254

Remember that car qualifications are Wednesday, March 9, 6 PM to 8 PM, and Friday, March 11, 7 PM to 8 PM. Derby Rules are available by clicking here.

Blue & Gold Thanks

I hope you all had as much fun last night at Blue & Gold as I did! Those were some great cakes. I'm incredibly proud to see how hard our boys have worked to earn their ranks.

 

All credit for the hard work that made last night such a success goes to Dona Whitney and her volunteer committee: Cristina Carlson, Blake Kite and the whole Kite family, Chetan & Veena Nayak, and Kelly Meyer. Also special thanks to Ed Junod for his hard work on the rocket-based award delivery system, to Amanda Cramer for managing the broad spectrum of awards and badges earned, to Scott Wiegand & Eric Szeto for the slide show, Melissa Wiegand for early setup help, to the Scorpion Patrol for showing up early to help out, to the Boy Scout volunteers from Troop 818 for all of their help, and to the Color Guard from the Veterans Pride Battalion of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

 

And as always, we couldn't make any of this happen without our volunteer leaders, and our parents.

 

Thanks, and I look forward to derby racing in 2 weeks!

 

Paul

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Our scouts have been busy over the past few months. Check out our Shutterfly web site at http://azpack618.shutterfly.com. We also have albums highlighted on the right-side of our web site.

If you have any photos you would like to have posted, contact Scott Wiegand or your den leader.

Pinewood Derby Date Changes

The date for our Pinewood Derby has changed to March 12, 2011. Paul sent an email to the pack with details about the change. Click here for a copy of the email.

See below for a link to the official rule and please do not hesitate to ask questions of your den leader, or to contact Paul directly.

Pack 618 Pinewood Derby Rules

We are also moving the dates for construction and qualification back one week.

Date	Time	Description
3/5/2011	TBA	Derby Car Building at the Kuiper Estate
3/9/2011	6:00PM - 8:00PM	Derby Car Qualification at the Kuiper Estate
3/11/2011	7:00PM - 8:00PM	Derby Car Qualification at the Kuiper Estate
3/12/2011	1:00PM	Pack 618 Pinewood Derby at Copper Canyon
3/19/2011	7:00AM	Four Peaks District Pinewood Derby

To find the Kuiper Estate:
17848 N 52nd Place
Click here for a map.

Blue and Gold - February 26

On Saturday, February 26, at 6:00 PM in the Copper Canyon multipurpose room, we will hold our annual Blue & Gold Banquet, a cub scout tradition since the 1930s. For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition, February is the month in which we celebrate the birthday of scouting, and the means by which we celebrate is the Blue & Gold Banquet. This year, we've chosen a military theme to honor America's service men and women. As the name implies, we'll be having dinner at this banquet -- pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, with macaroni & cheese, coleslaw, and drinks. There will also be vegetarian options as needed.

Cakes

As is tradition, part of this birthday celebration involves cake! Each scout is being asked to bake (or at least decorate) a cake, with parents' help of course. These cakes will be auctioned off during our banquet. If your talents do not include baking, buy a plain cake and help your scout to decorate it. If you haven't experienced this before, check online for ideas (like this) -- we've had some amazing cakes over the years, including a fire-breathing dragon, and a smoking volcano that my family took home last year. Remember our military theme, and have fun with this! The cakes will be auctioned using bid sheets setup next to each cake. While bidding is open, anyone may write down a higher bid than previous on any cake. All cakes start at $5, and bidding should progress in one dollar increments. As in past years, kids will be frantic to bid -- please have a limit in mind and advise your children about appropriate amounts (Paul took home $75 in cake last year...).

FOR SAFETY REASONS, PLEASE DO NOT USE NUTS IN OR ON YOUR CAKES.

Entertainment

We will have special guests to conduct our flag ceremony, the Color Guard from the Veterans Pride Battalion of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corp. In addition, the Tiger den is preparing a skit, and we've also heard rumors that the pack committee members might have something in mind... There will be no Chinese Auction or other raffle this year as you might have experienced in the past.

Honor Wall

In honor of our military, please bring pictures of any veterans or active service men or women in your family, that we can include in our honor wall that will be displayed during the banquet. If you have any military memorabilia that you're willing to share for display at this event, please contact our Volunteer Committee Chairperson, Dona Whitney.

Attendance

As with every pack meeting, entire families are welcome. This is a particularly special occasion, so please feel free to invite grandparents, aunts & uncles, and any friends and family members who'd like to see how scouting serves our sons. Your den leaders may have already asked for a headcount for pre-pay by February 18; kids under 16 eat free, and 16 and over are $10 each. Adult price at the door will be $12.

This is a great cub scout tradition that many of our pack's leaders recall from our own days as scouts. We hope you all can make it.

Scouting for Food Update

We just received an update from district about the success of Scouting for Food this year. The Four Peaks district collected 6380 lbs of food and $20 for Paradise Valley Emergency Food Bank and approximately 200 lbs for St. Mary’s.  This year, we had 9 units participating which is nearly double the number of last year.

Way to go scouts!

The results are in...

Scouting for Food was an amazing success. Our scouts collected food door-to-door in the 60th and Bell area. We collected over 2500 lbs of food for the Paradise Valley Emergency Food Bank and St. Mary’s. Thank you to everyone who helped coordinate the effort and especially to the scouts who gave up their Saturday to do their daily good turn.

Rocket Lauch is a Go for 1/22!

As of now, we are a GO for launch at Coyote Basin Park at noon!
 
Watch this web site for updates in the event of inclement weather.
 
As always, this is an event for the whole family. The pack will provide lunch (thanks to volunteers Ami Johanson & Dona Whitney) that includes subs, chips, water, lemonade, and dessert. If you want anything different for lunch for your family, please bring it. Also, please bring something to sit on, like chairs or blankets. We'll have a flag ceremony at noon, with lunch immediately following, and the Tigers eating first.

As soon as they are done with lunch, the Tigers can line up for rocket inspection and launch. We will continue to lunch & launch by den, from youngest to oldest. Once all scouts have had a chance to launch, any parents or siblings that have their own rockets to launch may do so, followed by any scouts that want to launch a second (or third, fourth, fifth...) time. The pack will provide each scout with one engine for their first launch; for additional launches, or to launch parents' and siblings' rockets, please provide your own engines (the pack may have extras, but there is no guarantee).

For scouts that have a long wait to launch, or between launches, we will be simultaneously holding a kickball game, with an opportunity for scouts to earn their kickball belt loop if they have not already done so.

Coyote Basin Park is located at 2730 E Beardsley Road, between Beardsley Road and the Loop 101, just east of Costco at 26th St. Click Here for a Map.

Please Note: Westbound Loop 101 will be closed this weekend from Tatum Blvd to 19th Avenue, so if you were planning to take the Loop 101 west and exit at Cave Creek (or anywhere west of Tatum), you'll need to come up with an alternate route.