On Saturday, February 2nd, the National Capital Area Conservation Committee kicked-off the 2nd year of Milkweed for Monarchs, Inspiring Conservation in Scouts and Their Families. Hosted by George Washington University. Scouters and their families learned from national monarch expert, Pete Berthelson, about growing milkweed and providing habitat for monarchs and other pollinators. He taught about providing pollen and nectar throughout the entire year, options for growing milkweed and native flowers from seed, the importance of seed-soil contact, and our role in making a difference. The event drew 400 Scouters to GW and is sure to again inspire Scouts to action.
2019 Akela Chess Classic
On Saturday, February 2 and Saturday, February 9 scouts from all over the National Capital Area Council competed in the Council’s five-round chess tournament, the Akela Chess Classic. The February 2nd event, held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Herndon, VA, was the Scouts BSA tournament, open to all scouts in troops, crews and ships. Seventeen scouts competed in two brackets: age 10-12 and age 13 and up. In the younger-scout bracket, one scout took first-place honors, with one scout finishing second, and three scouts finishing third. In the older-scout bracket one scout took first-place honors, with three scouts finishing second and three scouts finishing third. The first-place winner in each bracket finished with a perfect 5-0 score.
The February 9th event, held at St. Raphael School in Rockville, MD, was the Cub Scout tournament, open to all scouts in Cub Scout packs. Twenty-seven scouts competed in two brackets: Lion/Tiger/Wolf and Bear/Webelos/Arrow of Light, with awards given for first, second, or third by rank. One Tiger took part, winning first place for his rank. There were one first-place, two second-place, and one third-place finishers in the Wolf rank. For the Bear rank, one scout finished first, one finished second, and two finished third. The Webelos rank had five first-place finishers, three second-place finishers, and one in third place. Rounding out the tournament were one first-place Arrow of Light scout, one in second place, and three in third place. The first-place Wolf and Bear each had a perfect 5-0 score.
Each round of the Akela Chess Classic is limited to one hour, with touch-move rules in effect; under these rules if a player touches a piece he is obligated to move it. All participating scouts must know, in advance of the tournament, the rules of chess and how to play. The 2019 Cub Scout tournament was the 14th annual tournament, and the 2019 Scouts BSA tournament was the 8th annual tournament.
A fun and exciting time was had by all participating scouts. All are looking forward to the Akela Chess Classic next year!
Your Baker Wants a License to Decorate; We Can Help with That!
Recognizing a Scout for attaining the rank of Eagle? Celebrating your pack’s Blue & Gold?
Whatever the occasion, submit your request for permission to use a commercial bakery for use of any Boy Scouts of America logos on a cake using the official licensing form.
Simply visit http://licensingbsa.org/trademarks/cake-request/ and fill out the requested info. Please note that it takes 2-3 business days to review requests and respond accordingly.
Warm Nights
My name is Zack Brandon, Troop 1283 Junior Assistant Scoutmaster and Patuxent Chapter Chief. On February 3rd, Super Bowl Sunday, our troop was gathered at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bowie, MD to assist them in an annual good turn: helping those less fortunate than us have a warm place to sleep at night.
Warm Nights is a program that many churches in our area participate in every year when the weather gets cold. Many men, women, and families rely on the program to get through the winter every year. They are cared for and sheltered for one week inside of the gym in the church, and are provided with a warm place to sleep at night, a large dinner, lunches, and toiletries.
Troop 1283 helps out every year by fixing lunches and preparing a large chili dinner for the guests. The twelve youth attendees collectively made four, large, delicious bowls of chili beforehand and brought it to serve. We arrived well before the guests did, and formed an assembly line to make their bagged lunches for the following days. After setting up tables, chairs, and tablecloths, we set up a television to stream the Super Bowl so that the guests could watch it while eating their dinner. Once all of the preparations were ready, the guests slowly started to arrive. Once they were all present, the Pastor of the church opened the meal with a prayer, and we began serving the guests their chili, salad, chips, drinks, and desserts. After serving around thirty guests, we went though the line ourselves and ate dinner with them. We were able to sit and cheer on the teams at the Super Bowl with them and talk to them about who they thought would win the game. Well-fed, we cleaned up the area and departed for home late that night. It was overall a magnificent experience, and I would recommend it to every Troop in our district!
Local Scout Hero – Cesar Casiano Awarded BSA National Award of Merit
Cesar Casiano Awarded BSA’s National Award of Merit at Troop 317 Court of
Honor
On Tuesday, December 18, 2018, Boy Scout Cesar Casiano of Troop 317 was presented with the Boy Scout National Award of Merit by Norm Carter, Unit Commissioner and Mr. Lance Deffenbaugh, former Cubmaster and mentor. It took place at Troop 317’s Court of Honor held at Stafford County Christian Church.
The following information is from Fire and Rescue crews that responded to the incident:
At 2034 hours on July 14, 2018 Engine 12 from the Berea station responded to a fire reported out at 201 Spring Park Ln in the Rappahannock Landing Subdivision. Upon arrival, Engine 12 discovered fire damage to the main structural member of a deck with no extension to the home.
Three neighborhood boys had been riding their bicycles in the subdivision when they noticed smoke coming from the back of the residence. They immediately sprang into action. The boys discovered the base of the deck on fire and saw a garden hose attached to the back of the house. Without hesitation, the boys grabbed the hose and extinguished the fire. They then alerted the homeowner of the incident who called 911.
Their quick action prevented the home from catching fire. The house in question was a townhouse connected to six other homes, so the boy’s actions contributed to saving several hundreds of thousands of dollars in property and possibly saving lives as well.
The homeowner had been cooking on his grill and believes that embers fell down to the base of his deck starting it on fire. The homeowner was unaware of the fire until he was alerted by the boys.
When asked about their decision to act, one of the boys, Cesar Casiano, replied: “I’m a Boy Scout, so we’re trained what to do.” The boys were commended for their actions and will each be put in for a civilian lifesaving award.
Good thing those Boy Scouts were there, well-trained and lived the motto to “Be Prepared!” Great examples for all other Scouts everywhere.
Pack 194’s Youngest Popcorn Kernel Does His Best
For the previous two years, Pack 194’s Liam Brougham, currently an Arrow of Light Scout, has been the Pack’s top seller and has helped his entire Pack raise funds for Scouting. Sure, he enjoyed the prizes, accolades, and delivering the ceremonial pie in the face to Pack adult leadership – twice! But the 2018 fundraising season was a little different. In fact, the Pack almost did not conduct a popcorn fundraising event because there were no adult volunteers to be the Popcorn Kernel. Liam overheard his Pack 194 Committee Chair explaining this so what did he do? He demonstrated great Scouting characteristics and said, “Can I be the Kernel?” Did he do it for the prizes? Absolutely not. Because Liam further said, “I’ll stop trying to be the top seller by myself and help out the whole Pack instead.” And help he did.
Of course, first the Pack had to discuss the idea with the District Executive explaining how a Scout wanted to be Kernel. It was a bit of a surprise as Cub Scouts don’t usually lead such a pivotal Pack role and coordinate, promote, and lead all Kindergarten through fifth grade Scouts AND all their parents. But while ensuring proper youth protection was maintained with emails and interaction with others, Liam was off to the races.
Liam attended Regional Kick-Off training, asked questions, helped assemble presentation material, and spoke at Pack meetings on what Pack 194 was going to do. He set up five Store Front Sales and even went to meet with the store manager in his Scout uniform to show respect and commitment to raising important funds for his Pack’s Scouting effort. Liam had help with the ordering system, but it was he who analyzed the sales in prior years and predicted what popcorn the Pack would need to order. He made the orders (several of them), helped inventory at pickups, helped set up Store Front Sales and have sales material and popcorn on hand, helped train new Scouts, collected the end of sale proceeds, kept account of which Scouts were credited with sales, ordered the entire Pack’s prizes at the end, and answered other questions and placed more orders for Take Orders from the Pack. He learned how spreadsheets work and how they can be used to calculate. He practiced his math skills and REALLY enjoyed counting all the money (a lot of it as it turns out). And finally, he learned how internet sales and transactions worked and even upgraded the Pack’s technology to allow touch and chip credit card payments.
So how did Pack 194 do with fundraising under the leadership of Popcorn Kernel Liam Brougham?
The Pack vastly exceeded expectations. The original 10% growth target was left in the dust. The end result was more than double last year’s sales: that’s over ten times more funds available for Pack 194 Scouting events in 2019.
The entire Pack 194 enjoyed the experience of a Cub Scout in charge and shared in the benefit of Popcorn Fundraising. And Liam’s reward? Adulation from his Pack (sure), learning great life skills in sales, communication, logistics, accounting, … (OK those all definitely happened), but the REAL REWARD… a ceremonial THANK YOU by way of a pie TO HIS FACE for a job so very very well done.