We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

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Tree Rescuer Program Launches on Jan 19th

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Learn how to spot and report trees that are being killed by invasive non-native vines. Help educate your community and save our trees. Participation in the Tree Rescuer project will meet the requirement for conservation hours and several BSA conservation awards. Register today here.

Would you like to help save more of our native trees? Most of our neighbors have no idea that the invasive vines on their trees may eventually kill them and potentially make the trees hazardous. You can help your community by walking around to spot these trees and to drop off a brochure to alert the landowners. This is an excellent conservation project for Cubs and Scouts BSA as well as their families.

Join our region-wide program of community volunteers to help save our native trees from invasive non-native vines! This is a public education program to inspire others to control invasive vines.

During this NCAC Tree Rescuer session you will learn:
-How to survey your community for trees at risk
-How to recognize invasive (versus harmless native) vines
-What resources are available to help you work with your community

Besides the numerous environmental benefits of saving native trees from invasive vines, scouts can also earn conservation hours and units can earn several BSA conservation awards such as Conservation Good Turn , World Conservation Award  and Keep America Beautiful Hometown USA Award.

Troop 162 Scout Restores “Unrepairable” Benches

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From the moment he joined Cub Scouts, Colton M. of Troop 162, Arlington, VA, knew that he wished to be an Eagle Scout. To him, that meant “Someone who lives by the Scout oath and law, is a leader, good at helping people, and making sure things happen on time and well. Someone who you can depend upon.” When he crossed the bridge into Scouts BSA, he moved quickly to make it a reality. In two years, he made it to Life and now, at just 13, has completed his Eagle Project.

For his Eagle Project, Colton worked with Westover Baptist Church after he noticed their preschool playground was greatly in need of restoration. The playground’s picnic tables and lawn bench were in a state of disrepair, to the point that the Church’s local pastor feared that the picnic tables would need to be replaced in their entirety, and the lawn bench (the pastor’s favorite) would need to be thrown out. Working with his fellow Scouts, Colton was able to refurbish two of the picnic tables and build four more from scratch, perhaps most importantly, the Scout was able to save the lawn bench. Seeing Colton’s success in saving something he had thought unsalvageable, the pastor was “flabbergasted” and inspired to dedicate a sermon to the project and the restoration.

Throughout the process, Colton employed the leadership and time management skills Scouting had instilled in him. Though initially, he was, in his own words “overbearing,” Colton soon realized that a leader didn’t need to be everywhere and command everyone. This allowed him to step back and delegate tasks. Spacing out activities created ample time for both breaks and improvisation, so that when the Scout faced difficulties like an unexpected break in the wood of the lawn bench, they had the capacity to manage a solution.

Colton is now looking at high school options and hopes to find a school that offers a robust 3D-modeling program and a strong STEM field specialization, especially in engineering. For now, he spends his time working with his own 3D printer and in his father’s woodshop, where he creates all manner of projects, “turning what’s in my head into real life in just a few hours.”

To all Scouts looking to be Eagles, Colton advises, “take a deep breath and plan everything. Don’t rush into it. Make sure everything is planned out properly. Check over every detail, think about every detail, and make sure everything will come out right. Then when you are executing what you planned, everything will come out nicely, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time.”                     

 

Welding and Composite Materials

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On April 23 and May 21, 2022, Building Momentum in Alexandria, VA will host Welding and Composite Materials merit badge sessions, packed with hands-on experiences. Each merit badge class is a half-day session. Scouts BSA (and friends, same age friends are invited to join too!) may elect to only attend one class, or both classes.

All of the classes balance instruction with hands-on shop time so the youth can gain practical experience with Welding and Composite Materials. In order to maximize their workshop experience and project time, youth are asked to come prepared with a few pre-requisites.

Welding Pre-requisites

  • Requirements: 1a-b
    o We recommend that scouts earn the First Aid MB in advance, but at a minimum, please come prepared to demonstrate first aid knowledge as it requires to Welding MB requirements 1a-b.
  • Requirement: 5a
    o One of the processes that scouts research should be MIG welding.

Composite Materials Pre-requisites

  • Requirement: 1a-c

For more detail about the event, please visit the event page and register here: https://scoutingevent.com/082-buildMoSTEM

 

Building Momentum is a problem-solving organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. Their Innovation Academy empowers youth and adults in 21st Century technology, to become a creative problem solver, and work in a hands-on environment! NCAC is thrilled to introduce our scouting merit badges with BuildMo!

Akela Chess Classic – Join the Tournament!

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Take on the fun and challenge of playing chess!

After a brief hiatus in 2020, the NCAC BSA Chess Tournaments are back.

The tournaments will be held on Feb 5 & 12, 2022 at the Marriott Scout Service Center in Bethesda, MD.

Brackets

The Feb 5th Akela Chess Classic is a five-round chess tournament open to all Cub Scouts from Lions through Arrow of Light and STEM Scouts in Junior Labs.  Tournament play is in two brackets: Lions/Tigers/Wolves and Bears/Webelos/Arrow of Light/Junior STEM.

The Feb 12th Akela Chess Classic is a five-round chess tournament open to all Scouts BSA, Venturers, STEM Scouts in Technology Labs, and Sea Scouts from age 10 to 20. Tournament play is in three brackets: age 10-12, age 13-15, and age 16 and up.

Registrations

Cub Scout Tournament on Feb 5, 2022: https://scoutingevent.com/082-ChessCubs

SBSA Tournament on Feb 12, 2022: https://scoutingevent.com/082-ChessClassic

Background

In this video, NCAC BSA Tournament Director Roger Claff talks about the origin of the tournament in a broadcast with BSA’s Scouting Magazine! Life Scout KL also shares his tips for a game of chess – be sure to check it out!

Prior to the pandemic, the Chess tournament has been held at Trinity Church in Herndon, VA and at the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston, VA. Photos are from February 2020, pre-pandemic tournament. This year’s tournament will look different – following county guidelines, participants will be wearing masks.

To see more STEM events check out the NCAC STEM page.

Five PACK 1280 Scouts Complete NOVA WILD! Award

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Congratulations to the five Pack 1280 Scouts who participated in the NOVA WILD! program in Fall 2021.

The Scouts kicked off their NOVA WILD! experience with a boat tour around Clopper Lake where they observed local wildlife and talked with a ranger. Next they learned about weather forecasting, food webs, and native vs. invasive species and shared what they learned during virtual check-in meetings.

The program closed with an in-person gathering where Scouts shared their final reports with the NOVA counselor and played a spirited game of EcoFlux.

Troop 1444 Scout Teaches Elderly Church Members Computer Skills

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Life Scout Hazael M. of Troop 1444 noticed a sudden drop in attendance at his church following the shift from physical meetings to virtual during the pandemic; concerned, he resolved to find out why. Hazael emailed a survey to all regular attendees; what he found was that many members of his church, especially the seniors to which it typically catered, felt uncomfortable with the new technology and didn’t know how to use programs like Zoom to access the sermons. Hazael decided to use his Eagle Project to address this problem and rallied both his church and volunteers to help seniors develop technological literacy. 

Hazael recognized that many older parishioners lacked the necessary digital devices and sought help from his community, successfully obtaining two computers to donate to seniors in need. Hazael then organized educational events in conjunction with his church; these were held on Zoom to encourage people in their first steps with the program. This training also allowed people to call into the Zoom Room via phone if they still felt uncomfortable with the application. Hazael created online presentations demonstrating to seniors the do’s and don’ts of Zoom, online communication, and several other key digital programs, and set up breakout rooms where helpers could walk seniors through the technology. 

When Hazael learned one particular active and outgoing member of his church couldn’t attend the sessions due to extreme visual impairments that prevented him from using Zoom rooms or even seeing his computer screen, the Scout took a more hands-on approach. Hazael brought one of the donated computers to the parishioner’s house and worked with him personally to activate the accessibility features on his computer and walk him through the digital processes.

Hazael’s project was well-received by the church members; as he recalls, “The best part was, after the training, when they left the breakout room they’d come to me. They’d say “Thank you Hazael” or “This was really helpful.” They said I should share it with other churches and do it in other places where I could. It felt really great to be appreciated.”

Wanting to further maximize his project’s impact, Hazael used his project to promote the community’s ongoing vaccination efforts: as seniors were walked through the process of online communications, volunteers would also assist them in registering to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, finding locations with open availability and guiding them through the process of signing up. 

To all Scouts thinking about their path to Eagle Scout, Hazael offers this advice: “Make sure you’re really determined and upfront in what you want to do and how you want to do it. If you’re not the most confident in what you want to do, or interested in, you won’t really have the motivation to carry through. You don’t want to stop halfway through and change your ideas.”