Pack 278 in the Francis Scott Key District hosted a World of Scouting Pack Meeting on March 15th. Each den chose a country and learned more about it. They researched information about the government, culture, religion, and history of the country they chose. They also learned about Scouting in the country. Dens found out about the names given to different ranks, the Scout Oath and Scout Law for that country, as well as the history of when scouting began and any significant events in their scouting history. The countries chosen were Scotland, Guatemala, Germany, Japan, Chile, and Brazil. A local Scout Troop, Troop 1998, also joined and researched Italy.
When choosing their countries several dens picked ones that had significance to their members. The den that chose Brazil has a scout whose family is from Brazil and the scout was actually in Brazil on the day of the meeting. The Wolf Den chose Guatemala, where one of the parents was a scout as a youth growing up. She was able to reach out to Guatemala and connected with Damaris Herrarte at the National Scout Association in Guatemala. Damaris is a Wolf Leader in Group #1 Saint Francis of Assisi, a Group that is turning 102 years old this year. Damaris joined the Pack meeting through a Zoom meeting where the Wolf parent served as an interpreter. The Cubs got to hear stories and ask questions about scouting in Guatemala. 
Silvina Etchegoyen, the Scout Master for Troop 1070G, also attended the meeting to share stories about being a scout in her home country of Argentina. She explained the connection between scouting and The Jungle Book in Argentina and showed the cubs some of the awards cub scouts earn there. Mike Parrish, the FSK Program Chair and member of the International Committee, set up a display of uniforms he has collected from various countries and shared stories with the scouts of places he has visited.
Cubs then spent the rest of the meeting looking at the displays created by the dens, reading about other countries, and sampling some of the food that was brought in. Through this meeting, the scouts got a small glimpse at how big the scouting community is. They found some similarities between the countries and some differences. The Pack Committee plans to make this an annual event for the Pack and hopes to inspire the Cubs to want to attend events like World Jamboree and meet scouts from the countries they have learned about.
