The Cub Scout core value for the month of September is Cooperation. BSA has released a Cub Scout pack meeting plan called Hometown Heroes related to this core value. The Hometown Heroes meeting plan features ideas for the core value of cooperation – games, group activities, songs, and more to help kids learn to cooperate

For more ideas for use with this program theme, see my Hometown Heroes Cub Scout Theme page.

The core value of Cooperation should still be the focus for the month.  Here is how the BSA plan suggests tying together this theme with September’s core value of Cooperation :

Hometown heroes are those who see a need, bring others together to cooperate in achieving a common goal, and solve problems to keep us safe in our community by working together as a team. Firefighters, police officers, members of the military, and other leaders cooperate to make our lives better. Our founding fathers represented different colonies but joined together to create the United States of America. Our space program combined the efforts of the government, the military, and private business to explore our universe and provide innovative ideas for our daily lives.

Cub Scout Pack Meeting Plan for September: Hometown Heroes (Cooperation)

This Cub Scout pack meeting plan includes the following – all within a cooperation theme. See the meeting plan for details.

• Gathering activity – Who Am I?
• Opening ceremony – American Heroes Ceremony
• A prayer about cooperating
• Audience Participation – Hero Cheer, Hero fill in the blanks story, Fire Engine Cheer, Paul Bunyan Cheer
• Activity – Have a local hometown hero come in and speak (firefighter, police officer, member of military, volunteer, etc.)
• Tactile Copier Game
• Key to the City Advancement Ceremony
• A “Heroes” Cubmaster Minute
• A HEROES closing ceremony

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BSA offers supplemental pack program ideas for each month. One theme for the September core value of Cooperation is a Hometown Heroes theme. I’ll be adding some ideas related to the theme this month.

Here is what the  program helps say about this theme:

Hometown heroes are those who see a need, bring others together to cooperate in achieving a common goal, and solve problems to keep us safe in our community by working together as a team. Firefighters, police officers, members of the military, and other leaders cooperate to make our lives better. Our founding fathers represented different colonies but joined together to create the United States of America. Our space program combined the efforts of the government, the military, and private business to explore our universe and provide innovative ideas for our daily lives.

So this theme will revolve around the ideas of leadership, service, and cooperation. Several of the Cub Scout achievements and electives fit in with this theme.

Achievements Related to Hometown Heroes

Tiger Cub Scouts

• Achievement 2: Where I Live - – Go See It Activity: Visit a police station or a fire station. Ask someone who works there how he or she helps people in your community.
• Tiger Elective 8 – Your Religious Leaders: Invite a religious leader from your place of worship to your home or to your den meeting. (Talk about the things religious leaders and churches can do to solve problems in communities.)
• Tiger Elective 10 – Helping Hands: Along with your adult partner, help an elderly or shut-in person with a chore.
• Tiger Elective 11 – Helping the Needy: Help collect food, clothing or toys for needy families with your den or pack.  (Talk about how even young people can make a difference in a community.)
• Tiger Elective 49 – Your Government: Visit a government office such as the mayor’s office, the state capitol building, or a courthouse. (Learn about how citizens can improve communities by working with local government.)

Wolf Cub Scouts

Wolf Achievement 4 – Know Your Home and Community:

• Talk with your family members. Agree on the household jobs you will be responsible for. Make a list of your jobs and mark off when you have finished them. Do this for one month.
• Visit an important place in your community, such as a historic or government location. Explain why it is important.

• There is an older boy who hangs around Jason’s school. He tries to give drugs to the children. What would you do if you were Jason?
• Justin is new to your school. He has braces on his legs and walks with a limp. Some of the kids at school tease him. They want you to tease him, too. What would you do?
• Sam is home alone. He looks out the window and sees a man trying to break into a neighbor’s back door. What would you do if you were Sam?
• Mr. Palmer is blind. He has a guide dog. One day as he is crossing the street, some kids whistle and call to the dog. They want you and your friends to call the dog, too. What would you do?
• Some kids who go to Bob’s school want him to steal candy and gum from a store, which they can share later. Bob knows this is wrong, but he wants to be popular with these kids. What would you do if you were Bob?

Bear Cub Scouts

Bear Achievement 3 – What Makes America Special?

• Write or tell what makes America special to you.
• With the help of your family or den leader, find out about two famous Americans. Tell the things they did or are doing to improve our way of life.

Webelos

Citizen Activity Badge

• Know the names of the President and Vice-President of the United States, elected Governor of your state and the head of your local government.
• Explain the rights and duties of a citizen of the United States. Explain what a citizen should do to save our natural resources.
• With your Webelos den or your family, visit a community leader. Learn about the duties of the job or office and tell what you have learned.
• Write a short story of not less than 50 words about a former U.S. president or some other great American. Give a report on this to your Webelos den.
• Tell about another boy you think is a good citizen. Tell what he does that makes you think he is a good citizen.
• List the names of three people you think are good citizens. (They can be from any country.) Tell why you chose each of them.
• Name three organizations, not churches or other religious organizations, in your area that help people. Tell something about what one of these organizations does.

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BSA provides a set of Tiger den meeting plans for Cub Scout den leaders. This is a review of the 13th den meeting plan in the series. This den meeting covers four Tiger Cub Scout electives:

• Tiger Elective 27 – Emergency!
• Tiger Elective 26 – Phone Manners
• Tiger Elective 12 – A Friendly Greeting
• Tiger Elective 15 – Our Colorful World

You can download the complete meeting plan from the BSA website: Printable copy of BSA Tiger Den Meeting Plan 13

BSA Tiger Den Meeting Plan 13 – Phone Manners, Emergency!, Our Colorful World, and A Friendly Greeting

Preparation and Before the Meeting

For preparation, you just need to have your meeting space and your supplies ready to go. This is a pretty simple meeting and not much is required.

Gathering

Check my gathering activities page for some appropriate activities for your gathering time. Or play a simple game.

Opening

The Pledge of Allegiance is always an appropriate opening for Tiger Cub Scouts.

Business

Keep business to a minimum. Tigers will get restless if you do too much of it.

Activities

First work on elective 27:

Talk to your adult partner about what to do if these things happened.

• The adult who is caring for you becomes ill.
• You are alone with someone who makes you feel uncomfortable.

Closing

Say a prayer for the people you will be giving the cards to. You could end with the Cub Scout promise.

After the Meeting

Everyone should help you clean up. Remember to enlist some adult help for the next meeting. And make arrangements to get the cards they made delivered to the nursing home.

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BSA provides Cub Scout Pack meeting plans for each month’s core value. The core value for the month of March is Compassion. BSA has just released a Cub Scout pack meeting plan called Planting Seeds of Kindness. For more ideas for use with this theme, see my Planting Seeds of Kindness Program Theme for Cub Scouts page.

The core value of Compassion should still be the focus for the month.  Here is how the BSA plan suggests tying together this theme with March’s core value of Compassion.

Compassion means being kind and considerate of others. It is having patience and a generous heart. It is showing genuine concern by our thoughts, words, and deeds to people, animals, our environment, and our community. Cub Scouts can develop an understanding of the concept of kindness by understanding
how a tiny seed can grow into food that we eat or a flower for all to enjoy. By “planting” and “growing” small areas of kindness in our thoughts, words, and deed, we share the goodness in our hearts in hopes that those who experience it will then share kindness with others and keep it growing.

This meeting plan includes the following – all within a compassion theme. See the meeting plan for details.

• Gathering activities – Instructions for making seed packets or a book drive
• Opening ceremony – Compassion
• A prayer about caring
• Song – I Love That Word “Hello” (To the tune of Auld Lang Syne)
• Cheers – It’s a Snap Cheer and Good Turn Cheer
• Game – Getting Our Heads Together
• A Cub Scout Seedling recognition ceremony
• A Like an Acorn Arrow of Light ceremony
• A Compassion Cubmaster Minute
• A Cub Scout Garden of Thoughts closing ceremony

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As many of you know, the old Quality Awards have been replaced by the Journey to Excellence program. The Journey to Excellence Service Project initiative is part of this program.

“Scouting’s Journey to Excellence” is the BSA’s new council performance recognition program designed to encourage and reward success and measure the performance of our units, districts, and councils. It is replacing the Centennial Quality Awards Program as a means of encouraging excellence in providing a quality program at all levels of the BSA.

All Scouting units are encouraged to carryout meaningful service projects as part of this initiative. I think that every BSA unit should be carrying out multiple service projects over the course of a year.

Once your unit completes a service project, you can go to the Journey to Excellence Service Project website and report your hours. This site will keep track of all of the service projects your unit has done and provides your local council a record of your service projects.

The Unit Tips for Success page provides some excellent advice for planning and carrying out service projects. There are lots of service project ideas available there and practical considerations for carrying them out. It also has a great section at the bottom called Ideas for Everyday Kindness and Good Turns. These are not really service projects, but ways to “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

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BSA is starting to provide supplemental themes based Pack meeting plans for each month’s core value. The March Cub Scout theme features the core value of Compassion.  I have heard through the grapevine that the first supplemental plan for this core value will be “Planting Seeds of Kindness”.  For more ideas for use with this theme, see my Planting Seeds of Kindness Theme for Cub Scouts page.

Here is what the old program helps said about this theme:

Let’s spread Seeds of Kindness in the form of multiple small service projects. Helping others encourages compassion and gives boys the opportunity to see the bounty produced by spreading many small seeds of kindness. The boys can discover that just as the large, strong oak tree came from the small acorn, big things can happen from spreading small seeds of kindness and charity. Conduct a food drive or collect coats and gloves for those in need; report your hours to Good Turn for America. Work on the Citizenship belt loop and pin.

The Citizenship Belt Loop and Pin is specifically mentioned, but this theme also brings to mind some other Cub Scout achievements and electives:

• Tiger Elective 9 – A New Friend
• Help a new boy or girl get to know other people.
• Tiger Elective 10 – Helping Hands
• Along with your adult partner, help an elderly or shut-in person with a chore.
• Tiger Elective 11 – Helping the Needy
• Help collect food, clothing or toys for needy families with your den or pack.
• Tiger Elective 12 – A Friendly Greeting
• Make at least two cards or decorations and take them to a hospital or long-term care facility.
• Wolf Achievement 12 – Making Choices
• Requirement 12d. Justin is new to your school. He has braces on his legs and walks with a limp. Some of the kids at school tease him. They want you to tease him, too. What would you do?
• Requirement 12i. Mr. Palmer is blind. He has a guide dog. One day as he is crossing the street, some kids whistle and call to the dog. They want you and your friends to call the dog, too. What would you do?
• Bear Achievement 24 – Be a Leader
• Requirement 24f. Complete the Character Connection for Compassion.
• Know. Tell why, as a leader, it is important to show kindness and concern for other people. List ways leaders show they care about the thoughts and feelings of others.
• Commit. Tell why a good leader must consider the ideas, abilities, and feelings of others. Tell why it might be hard for a leader to protect another person’s well-being. Tell ways you can be kind and compassionate.
• Practice. While you complete the requirements for this achievement, find ways to be kind and considerate of others.
• Webelos Citizen Activity Badge
• Requirement 8. As a Webelos Scout, earn the Cub Scout Academics belt loop for Citizenship. At a Webelos den meeting, talk about the service project Good Turn that you did.
• Requirement 17. Name three organizations, not churches or other religious organizations, in your area that help people. Tell something about what one of these organizations does.

To add additional crafts and activities to this theme, incorporate some projects which tap in the “seed” idea.

• Tiger Elective 30 – Plant a Seed
• Plant a seed, pit, or greens from something you have eaten.
• Wolf Elective 15 – Grow Something
• Elective 15a Plant and raise a box garden.
• Elective 15b. Plant and raise a flower bed.
• Elective 15c. Grow a plant indoors.
• Elective 15d. Plant and raise vegetables.
• Bear Elective 12 – Nature Crafts
• Elective 12e. Collect eight kinds of plant seeds and label them.
• Naturalist Activity Badge
• Requirement 3. Set up an aquarium or terrarium. Keep it for at least a month. Share your experience with your Webelos den by showing them photos or drawings of your project, or having them visit to see your project.

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Our troop was asked to help set up for a blood drive at our church this past weekend. The only hitch – it had to be set up by 7:30 AM! Getting Scouts to arrive that early can be difficult. It’s not necessarily the boys who are the hold up either. Many of the parents don’t enjoy getting up that early to drive them up there. Their solution –  spend the night.

So the troop had a lock in in the gym the night before. Midnight basketball is always fun for boys that age. They also had the meeting rooms available, so they set up a TV and a Wii. There were also card games and board games. And plenty of snacks of course.

The next morning, they got up about 20 minutes before the blood drive people arrived. They grabbed a quick breakfast and were ready to go. The set up itself only took about an hour. They mostly needed the Scouts to unload the equipment from the truck.

So the blood drive was set up on time. The Scouts who needed service projects for advancement got them. And they had a lot of fun in the process.

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The Boy Scout Roundtable Planning Guide suggests a Public Service feature for January 2012. BSA provides the troop program feature guides as a resource for Boy Scout troops. A PLC can use these guides to plan a series of meetings and outings around a single theme. My post Troop Program Features for Meetings and Outings has  more information about these guides.

You can find the plans for the Public Service troop program feature in Volume 3  of Troop Program Features from BSA. The plans include four troop meeting plans and an outdoor program feature which includes a service project.

The focus in this program feature is citizenship and service. Younger Boy Scouts can work on flag etiquette, flag ceremonies, and their rights and duties as US Citizens.  Older Scouts could work on the Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, and Citizenship in the World merit badges. Scouts who already have those badges could expand their knowledge by working on  Public Health, American Cultures, or American Heritage merit badges.

While the troop program features are aimed at Boy Scouts, the ideas found in there might also be helpful to Cub Scouts and Venturers. These programs also incorporate citizenship and volunteer work, so the leadership could look at the Boy Scout program feature to get some ideas.

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With Order of the Arrow elections approaching in the coming months, I though I’d share this Scoutmaster minute about cheerful service.  It will help the troop remember what they should be basing their votes on and it should help current OA members remember the ideals they should be trying to live up to.

Scoutmaster Minute – Cheerful Service

Service is part of Scouting. Every Boy Scout must participate in service projects to advance in rank. But service goes beyond advancement requirements. It is part of the growing process. As you move from childhood to adulthood, you progress from only working for what you want to what is good for the community as a whole.

That is why so many good people spend so much time volunteering. Think of all of the adults who help out this troop. They give their time willingly to help you, even though they are busy. These Scouters don’t complain about the commitment. They are happy to spend their precious free time helping you, not because it benefits themselves, but because they know it is a good cause.  They demonstrate cheerful service every week at our meetings.

Next month you will elect new members into the Order of the Arrow. It is a great honor to be elected. When you are making your decision about who to vote for , consider that it is not a popularity contest. Remember, the Order of the Arrow is a “brotherhood of cheerful service”. So when you are voting, think about how the candidates have demonstrated their dedication to the ideals of Scouting. Are they willing to live by the Scout Law, not just when it benefits themselves, but for the good of everyone?

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After the recent tornadoes here, many of those who were affected commented on how many people came out and helped them clean up. Our Venture Crew went out on Sunday and helped clean up at two residences. And thought the things we were doing, like dragging branches to the street or picking up debris from the yard,  weren’t difficult, many hands coming together made a big difference to those who lived there.

So here is a Scoutmaster Minute which reminds us not to focus on the big insurmountable problem. Instead, just do what you can.

Scoutmaster Minute – Only One

I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.

This quote from Edward Everett Hale reminds us that we need to look at what we can achieve rather than getting distracted by all of the things we can’t do.

When we look around, there are many little things we can do to help our fellow man. Focus on those things instead of the big problems which seem impossible to solve. Who knows? Maybe if enough of us work on the things we can do, the things which seemed impossible may be within our reach.

So let’s finish up tonight with a similar thought from Mother Teresa:

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

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Boy Scouts are required to participate service projects for Second Class, Star, and Life.  Our troop encourages all Scouts to participate in service projects whether they need the hours or not.

The chartered organization is a great source of service projects. And it is a nice way for the troop to give back to the organization. We are chartered by a church, so our Scouts often do setup and cleanup for things like the big Fall Festival, fish fries, and blood drives.  Have your youth leadership check in with your chartered organization regularly and see if there is anything you can do for them.

Local food pantries and thrift stores are also always looking for help. Scouts can sort and stock items. After spring floods receded, troop members helped a local youth organization clean up their ball fields.

Add the types of service projects your Scouts like to participate in to the comments below.

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The featured core value for Cub Scouts for the month of November is citizenship.  Our Pack will help encourage citizenship in our Cub Scouts by participating in the local Scouting for Food program this month.

This program has been going on since 1985 in our council. It provides three months of food for our local food pantries. On the second weekend in November, Scouts deliver bags to every house in the area. Then, the next weekend, the pick up the bags which have been filled with food and left out for them.

In our Pack, participation is mandatory. Cub Scouts are grouped as pairs or triples. With their parents, they arrange a time to deliver the bags on the first weekend and pick them up on the second weekend.  If we know a family is going to be out of town for one of the weekends, we put them in a triple group. Otherwise, they just need to arrange a time to get out despite all of the sports events and other activities.

The Boy Scout Troop and Venture Crew also get involved. On the second weekend, they run a food collection point at our church. The Cub Scouts bring the bags of food they collected. Then the Boy Scouts and Venturers sort it and box it up so it can be delivered to local food pantries.

Hopefully your Scouts will be participating in a Scouting for Food event or other service project this month also.  If they do, make sure they know that they can use this as one of the requirements for their Citizenship belt loop.

Citizenship Belt Loop and Pin Requirements

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Some of you may have Boy Scouts in your families who are in the process of becoming members of the Order of the Arrow. Just when you thought you were getting a grasp on Boy Scouts, they threw something new at you!

The Order of the Arrow is Scouting’s national honor society. OA members are dedicated to the ideal of “cheerful service”. They also encourage other Scouts to participate in camping events.

To be eligible, Scouts must be First Class rank or higher and have 15 days and nights of camping in the past two years. That must include one long term camp (summer camp), but you cannot count more than one long term camp when counting up nights. Members are elected by the members of their Troop – including those who are not OA members.

The induction ceremony is called the Ordeal.  This involves some service and looking inward.  Scouts must also sleep “apart from others”. For our group who were elected at camp this year, this caused some anxiety in the parents when their sons took off with just their ground cloths and sleeping bags, but I assured them that it is a perfectly safe experience. The Scouts were not dumped in the woods in a survival situation.

Order of the Arrow members generally do not give specifics about the ceremonies. This is not because there is anything outrageous going on, but because the experience is more meaningful if new members experience it without any expectations of what is going to happen. Parents who are concerned about what happens at the ceremonies can watch, but are asked to keep the experience to themselves so they don’t diminish it for other Scouts.

Adults can also become members. This is less as an honor and more to help the Scouts with the experience. I became a member of Shawnee Lodge #51 last year. So now, I go on the OA campouts and to events and provide adult leadership to our Scouts who are participating in the organization.

This is a very worthwhile society. If your sons are new members, encourage them to do more than just complete the Ordeal. They should stay involved and fully participate. For those who do, there are further honors, called Brotherhood and Vigil. My two older sons and my husband are all Brotherhood members.

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Thank you to all of those who have served or are serving our nation.

Yesterday we went out to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery and participated in the 61st annual Memorial Day Good Turn. Members of our Pack, Troop, and Crew and their families were there, along with thousands of  other area Scouts and family members. We had a solemn procession into the cemetary. Then there was a flag ceremony and a speaker from a local military base. A local bagpipe group played Taps and Amazing Grace.

Then we went to our assigned area and started decorating the graves of the men and women who have served our country. It is a beautiful thing to participate in. At each grave, we took a small flag and placed it in the ground in front of the head stone. The Scouts did their work quickly, but they were very respectful. It really seems to help them understand what Memorial Day is all about.

When they were finished, it was an impressive sight. The rows and rows of graves, each with a small American flag flying proudly in front of it. I know the families and friends who visit the cemetery today will appreciate their efforts.

I think this is what Scouting is all about. Sometimes we might be worn out after dealing with a bunch of rowdy boys at a den meeting. Or we might be frustrated with dealing with a troublesome parent. Or we might just be overwhelmed by all we have to get accomplished this week. It is all worth it to see  a thousands of Scouts and family members spend a few hours of their time to show their appreciation for those brave men and women who have protected our freedom, sometimes with their lives.

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