We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Scouting At Home

Countdown to The Memorial Day Weekend Capital Camp-In!

by

It’s only a few days until we roll-out our sleeping bags, set up our tents, turn on our computers and kick-off a weekend of ACTIVITIES FOR SCOUTS OF ALL AGES – Cubs, Scouts BSA, Venturers, Sea Scouts, Adult Scouters and Parents!

The Capital Camp-In will have many of the same events as a regular campout – an opening and closing ceremony, a campfire lead by the Order of the Arrow, a Scouts Own religious service and FUN activities!

It will also have lotsa stuff you don’t get at a traditional campout, to include guest speakers and youth and adult instruction. And, you can share your at-home activities with others on Facebook!

Best of all its FREE and you don’t have to leave home! Some activities are self-guided and others are live on line. Participate all day Saturday and half of Sunday or for just in those events that interest you. All you need to do is sign up at the link provided for the particular event. It’s SIMPLE!

Find out more details and the full schedule on the Capital Camp-In website!

For updates please visit the Council’s Facebook page.

Don’t miss out! Join us at home and on line on May 23 and 24.

Brought to you by the NCAC Camping Centennial Committee.

Life Scout Jacob Mitchell Does a Good Turn

by

Life Scout Jacob Mitchell from Troop 176 out of Quantico donated blankets for pets at the Stafford county Animal Shelter, and also 40 pounds of food to the BSA no contact food drive for Stafford county. 3/4 of his food donations were his bake sale supplies intended for a future bake sale that was going to help pay for European Jamboree, but it has been postponed due to Covid-19.

Cub Scouts Award Local Chef “Hometown Hero” Award

by

Saturday, Pack 104’s Den 7 Webelos met online to discuss “What makes a Hero.” We discussed the characteristics of heroes and how the recent COVID-19 situation has brought to light “new” community heroes and how everyday people are stepping up to make their communities a better place. Children also designed their own super heroes, discussed Scout heroes (in their age range 9-10 yo) who have been in the news, and decided to award local chef David Guas, of Bayou Bakery a Hometown Hero award on behalf of the den.

When Arlington schools announced their closure, Chef Guas committed to providing free, healthy meals to the community through the end of the school year. Two weeks later, Chef closed his restaurant to focus solely on feeding the community. On May 18th, two representatives from the Den presented the award and certificate to Chef.

Four Pack 1500 Cub Scouts Earn the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova Award Electronically!

by

Four Wolf Cub Scouts in Pack 1500 spent the year working not only on regular advancements and standard NOVA awards, but also striving towards the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova Award. Already a tough award to achieve due to the level of effort required, these Wolf Scouts were on the verge of completing their supernova requirements when suddenly COVID-19 happened and everything was locked down.

Undeterred, the Scouts (and their fearless mentor) started doing meetings over google hangouts in order to discuss and complete the requirements. Eventually, each scout finished up the grind of the supernova requirements.

Each parent of these Scouts had originally been working hard with their Scouts and collecting everything the Scouts had worked on in a binder to mail to NCAC. After NCAC closed, however, physical submissions were impossible and instead they were starting to be accepted via email. The brave supernova mentor went and picked up each of the binders on the door steps of the scouts houses and brought them back to his house.

After getting the binders, the supernova mentor (it’s too late to go into first person at this point) solicited help from his wife, a teacher and a den leader, to help convert the binders of information into an electronic package for the NCAC STEM committee.

After a lot of scanning, collation, and formatting, each Scout’s binder was converted into a google document that included links to all of the required material, photos/videos of all the activities, and all scanned hand written artifacts that the Scouts had produced. Once it was all collected, the supernova mentor emailed it to the NCAC supernova address and waited.

After a period of time it was announced that the four Scouts had been awarded the Dr. Luis W. Alvarez Supernova Award and that the STEM committee had considered the digital applications exceptional! Truely, the Scouts hard work and determination exemplified the Scout motto, “Do your best.”

I would like to thank the parents for their support in helping their Scouts and my wife for supporting us all when we were all trapped inside.

As a bonus, I have created an example of our supernova submission with the PII removed (although a few photos of my son remain). You can find it here.

Congratulations to David Cohen, Olivia Cohen, Zander Collins, and Whit Stallings on their achievement!

Thank You Merit Badge at Home Counselors!

by

Shortly after our Council began #ScoutingAtHome a team of volunteers stepped up to form the program that has become the centerpiece of our online program – Merit Badges @Home. These leaders served as digital pioneers, teaching us through example how to offer high quality Scouting programs while practicing physical distancing.

Since the start of the program, nearly 1,000 Scouts have taken merit badge classes. They have earned 24 different badges in 59 classes taught by these amazing instructors:

  • Alexandra Galloway: Art
  • Alexis Owens: Law
  • Arden Dougan: Chemistry
  • Burt Wagner: Digital Technology
  • Carol Brown: Safety
  • Chris Marston: Pets, Genealogy
  • Cyndy Hogan: Citizenship in the World, Citizenship in the Nation
  • David Medvitz: Programming
  • Doug Goldring: Citizenship in the Nation, Hiking/Backpacking
  • Irwin Lazar: Citizenship in the Community
  • James Chaplin: Programming
  • Jim Sheeran: Citizenship in the Community
  • Joseph Bastian: Robotics
  • Kathryn Trolenberg: American Heritage, Music
  • Kevin Bills: Genealogy
  • Lola Arjona: Family Life
  • Marcie Calcagno: Pets
  • Mike Yearsley: Personal Management
  • Nina Hughes: American Culture, Genealogy, Reading, Communications
  • Richard Harrington: Animation, Photography, Moviemaking
  • Richard Morris: Public Health
  • Sara Holtz: Public Health
  • Scott Willey: Painting
  • Sri Sritharan: Programming
  • Susan Plano-Faber: Scholarship, Family Life, Hiking/Backpacking

Please join us in thanking these dedicated Scouters who have worked so hard to innovate these programs for our Scouts! Special thanks also go to the Council’s Advancement & Recognition Committee, Program Department and Marketing Committee for working out the details behind the scenes.

Got a Merit Badge you would like to teach online? Go here https://www.ncacbsa.org/merit-badges-at-home/ to get started.

 

Troop 58 Reminisces on Scout Adventures through Interactive Map

by

Founded in 2014, Troop 58 in Ashburn is an active Troop with monthly outdoor events that include camping, hiking, backpacking, canoeing, white-water rafting, climbing, and skiing. What does over five years of these adventures look like? Check out our cool interactive map on our website http://troop58ashburn.camp/resources/. Once there you’ll find all the Troop’s outings (78 of them) since early 2014, plotted on a Google map. Zoom in and explore for inspiration for your next outing!

Shout out to Troop 58’s youth Webmaster, Daniel H., for crafting this map so that we can reminisce about the adventures we’ve had as a Troop and look forward to what’s to come after restrictions, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are lifted. Later this year, Troop 58 will be adding Northern Minnesota and Canada to our interactive map when Scouts make their way to Northern Tier High Adventure for a whole new level of adventure!