By Ed Pierce
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| Windham Cub Scouts Pack 805 gather following a pack building exercise this summer in which eight wooden benches were made by scouts that will be donated to various locations around town. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
For boys in kindergarten through fifth grade, joining the Cub
Scouts will open a world of adventure, make new friends, gain a sense of
confidence and is an opportunity to learn new skills in an environment designed
to help them succeed.
In Windham, Cub Scout Pack 805 is always welcoming new scouts
and new parents that hopefully turn into new pack volunteers. On Monday, Sept.
21, Pack 805 will conduct a registration night at Donnabeth Lippman Park at 6:30
p.m. and pack leaders are hoping for a great turnout of boys looking to take
the first step to become Cub Scouts.
“Scouting teaches kids positive character traits, helps foster relationships, and to be part of the community,” said Pack 805 Den Leader Casey Melanson. “It helps them take their best self, work on self-growth, and try new things. The scout motto is ‘Do Your Best’ and that’s what the kids learn.”
Melanson said that Cub Scout Pack 805 dens meet one night a
week for about an hour. The whole pack gets together once a month, usually for
a special meeting, like Trunk or Treat, a holiday party, or for the Blue and
Gold Banquet or other special events.
According to Melanson, Pack 805 currently has about 36 Cub
Scouts who work on several community projects each year.
“We have assisted in celebrating the grand opening of a retirement home, picking up trash after Summerfest, and we will usually host a toy drive for a family for Christmas,” Melanson said. “We also participate in Scouting for Food each November to collect needed goods for the Windham Food Pantry.”
Pack 805’s dues are $100 per scout for the year, half of which
is due at sign up and the other in December.
Of that $100, most of it covers national registrations, insurance, and
other
expenses. The rest stays with the pack
to help toward achievements by local members.
“During the year, the pack does fundraisers to help with the
cost of awards and to pay for some of our activities, like camping and
overnights at EVO,” Melanson said. “We do pizza sales, popcorn sales, and
bottle drives. Our last bottle drive
raised over $1.200/”
According to Melanson, Cub Scout uniforms consist of a shirt, a
rank neckerchief, and a rank slide. Pants and rank hats are optional. Scouts
are encouraged to have a belt (not necessarily a scout belt) to be able to
display their beltloop achievements.
“There is also a handbook for each rank that the scout will
need to be able to learn, perform, and complete each achievement,” Melanson
said. “Prices for these items start at
around $6 and go up from there. There is a Scout Shop right in South Portland
by the Jetport that carries everything that a budding scout would need.”
She said that Cub Scout activities emphasize having fun and
learning useful life skills.
“Cub Scouts can do anything they put their minds to. We have
gone winter camping, hiking, ice fishing, and built lean-tos in the winter
woods,” Melanson said. “We also have our annual Pinewood Derby where the boys
design and build their own cars and then compete against one another. As a pack we have had beach outings,
cookouts, movie nights, and EVO Rock Gym overnights.”
Serving as Pack 805’s Den Leader, Melanson said that she became
involved with the Cub Scouts when her son joined as a Tiger in first grade. He’s
now in fifth grade and part of the Arrow of Light Den, which is second-year Weblos,
the highest rank of Cub Scouts. He will be crossing over to Boy Scouts at the
end of this year, she said.
“I was just a scout mom, but soon became part of and then
Chair for the Fundraising Committee. I
am also now the Den leader for this year’s second-graders, the Wolves,”
Melanson said.
Joining the Cub Scouts is almost a rite of passage for boys in
Windham.
“Our pack is a great group of scouts and parents. We care about each other, push each other,
and just all around have fun,” she said. “We want our scouts to learn what is
means to be part of something important, what is means to help their community,
make new friends, build relationships, and most importantly grow as a young
man.”
Over the summer, members of Cub Scout Pack 805 worked on
completing their achievements so that the scouts could move up in rank.
These included First Aid, safety, teamwork, nutrition, and other
topics, Melanson said.
“We did have a few Zoom meetings when possible just to stay in
touch with our scouts,” she said. “And the scouts worked on completing a different
outdoor activity each month in order to earn their National Summertime Pack
Awards.”
For Pack 805’s registration night on Monday evening, the
registration table will be staffed through 7:30 p.m.
“We have asked that only one parent comes to complete
paperwork, to make sure that we can social distance appropriately,” Melanson
said. “If someone has a new potential scout who is interested, they may come
with the parent. We are asking that masks be worn also. If someone is
interested in joining but is unable to make the registration event, they can
reach out to us through Facebook or email.
For more information about Cub Scout Pack 805, visit their
“Pack 805 Windham Maine” Facebook page or send an email to scoutpack805me@gmail.com <
