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YES! YOUR PACK CAN STILL EARN THE NATIONAL SUMMERTIME PACK AWARD THIS YEAR!

By Northern Star Council | June 2, 2020

By Jamie Niss Dunn

Summertime pack programming during #Scouting@Home will require some creativity this year. Here are some ideas and opportunities for your Cub Scouts that will help them have a great summer and to earn the National Summertime Pack Award:

One way to approach summer events would be to plan events which could be done in small groups, since we can now gather in groups of 10 or fewer. A den or two small dens could meet together and hike or fish. Two hours later another den could arrive and repeat the event. Cubmasters, Assistant Cubmasters and committee members can be called on to provide the second adult necessary for two deep leadership. Events could be organized at parks, a school, or the grounds of your Chartered Organization. If you plan to hold events inside, make sure you can maintain social distancing and encourage mask wear.

Here is an example (in word format) of a passport you can use for your Pack

Examples of events which can be completed in groups of 10 or fewer include:

  • Small group hiking/ family hiking
  • Scavenger hunt
  • Spot the flat leader hunt – make “Flat Stanley” type models of your leaders and hide them for the Scouts to find
  • Park clean-up
  • Fishing
  • Vinegar/baking soda or water rocket launch
  • Bike ride
  • Bike rodeo
  • Stage the Bear Grin and Bear it carnival
  • Hold a Raingutter Regatta, splitting the dens into staggered groups
  • Hold a build-it day and make bird feeders, bird houses or bat houses.
  • Set up an obstacle course at a park, school, or your Chartered Organization. Schedule families at 45 minute or one-hour intervals. Sanitize equipment between uses.
  • Set up a frisbee golf course. Have families bring their own frisbees
  • Play giant marblesHold “drive-in” or “drive-through” events. Drive-through events can be staffed in shifts, so no more that 10 people are present at a time.
  • Drive-in movie
  • Drive-in skit night – the dens prepare skits and exit their cars to perform. Make sure you have a PA system.
  • Drive-through food drive
  • Drive-through lemonade stand fundraiserParticipate in Virtual/at home Scouting events
  • Attend a virtual camp from another council
  • Earn an Online Junior Ranger Award – https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/becoming-junior-ranger-online
  • Participate in a Summer Passport program. Customize a passport from one of these programs for your pack: https://www.samhoustonbsa.org/passports  or http://www.baltimorebsa.org/document/cub-scout-summer-passport/112352
  • If your Scouts haven’t done them yet, complete the program ideas on the Northern Star Scouting@Homepage: https://www.northernstar.org/scouting-from-home
  • Do one of the Thirty-Day Challenges from the National Council’s Scouting at Home page: https://www.scouting.org/scoutingathome/Here’s the link to the National Summertime Pack Award:  https://www.scouting.org/awards/awards-central/national-summertime/

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jamie Niss Dunn is the Cubmaster of Pack 512, in Blaine/Coon Rapids, and a Troop Committee Member with Troop 509, in Ham Lake. She is also a former Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner Three Rivers District, and currently serves of the Council Communications Committee.

Posted in - Cub Scout Activities, Activities (Scouts)
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