Three years ago, Cub Scout Pack 63, Aquia District, Stafford was looking for a way to offer an activity that the Scouts and families could do together and that would fit into their summer calendars. They decided on geocaching because the Scouts would learn a valuable skill while the entire family could participate in an outdoor adventure. It’s often hard to find a date when everyone can attend a summer Pack function, so we offer geocaching in addition to traditional summer activities like resident camps for Cubs and Webelos, Potomac Nationals Scout Night, etc. Our Scouts have gone geocaching locally and while traveling on summer vacations.
Lorraine Lince, the Packs Lion Leader had kept up with a fellow Wood Badge staff member and this spring realized the staffer and his family were currently living in Warsaw Poland. Lorrain discovered Dmitri, their son, was in the Lone Scout program and had no Pack to interact with in Poland. Since geocaching is done world-wide, she thought this would be a great way to help Dmitri stay connected to a Pack and provide a fun Scouting activity for his family as well. With NCAC’s permission, Pack 63 offered him the chance to participate with us to earn the National Summertime Award remotely. He and his family were thrilled to join in and are having a great time with it!
So far, he has found geocaches at Żelazowa Wola (the birthplace of Frederic Chopin), in Warsaw, Poland and a special cache in Gdańsk, Poland placed in honor of Alf Liczmański, an early Polish Scout and later a Scoutmaster. Dimitri is doing the same as all other Pack 63 families do: for each cache he and his family finds they post to the Pack’s Facebook page for everyone to see. It has been a great learning experience for both the Cubs here in the United States and for Dmitri in Poland. At the end of the summer, we will send him a special Pack 63 Geocaching Participation Certificate and certify that he has earned the National Summertime Award.
