Thursday, September 19, 2013

September Pack Meeting

Catch up with old friends tonight at Pack 722's first Pack meeting of the 2013-14 Scouting year.

See you at First Parish Church at 6:30pm.

Hear about all the exciting events we have planned.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Fall Round Up - Welcome Back!

Greetings everyone!

It's September and that means two things. Back to school and the return of Cub Scouting.
We welcome everyone to join us on Thursday, September 12 at our new home, the First Parish Congregational Church for our annual Fall Round Up. Come by to sign up and see what exciting events we have planned for the up-coming year.

Our first full Pack meeting of the year will be on Thursday, September 19 at First Parish.

The Popcorn Show & Sell is scheduled for Saturday, September 28 downtown. Be sure to check out the exciting new flavors being offered by Trails End.

Columbus Week we plan to hold our annual Fall camping trip at Sudden Pond.

In November we are also holding a rare Winter sleepover trip at the Higgins Armory in Worcester. The museum is scheduled to close on December 31, so this is out last chance to visit there.

Unless otherwise noted, all our Pack Meetings will be located on the dining room of the First Parish Church (same room where we held our Blue & Gold dinner).

Anyone looking at getting a new uniform, the Scout Shop in Woburn is holding a sale if you purchased a new uniform. More detail will be available at the Fall Round up.

Hope to see everyone there.
You Pack Committee

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Important Pack 722 Organizational Changes


A Cub Scout Pack does not operate independently, but rather as an extension of a host organization by way of a charter.  These host organizations can be churches, civic groups, schools, or whatnot.  In our case, the Boy Scouts of America have granted a charter to the Greenwood Union Church, which gives it permission to execute the Cub Scout program.  Our charter was originally granted in August, 1991 and it must be renewed annually.

Last fall, as we were wrapping up the charter renewal process for 2013, the church leadership informed us that they would not renew the charter for next year, 2014.  In response, our Pack Committee decided that we would find a new chartering organization in time to start up again in September, and if possible, even earlier than that.

Greenwood Union's decision to drop our charter was disappointing and surprising, but truthfully, a bit of a relief.  Thanks to you, our Pack has grown and is thriving -- we currently have 62 scouts -- and we have outgrown our meeting space. Parking, storage, and calendar conflicts with other organizations have also been recurring problems. The Pack Committee has discussed these issues repeatedly over the last few years but we have been unable to address them to our satisfaction.   So while we were surprised with the church's decision, we weren't completely troubled by it.  In fact, we viewed it as an opportunity to solve some long-standing problems.

In January, our Pack leadership reached out to several organizations in Wakefield to gauge their interest in chartering our Pack.  We were thrilled to be presented with some wonderful options, and after a long deliberation, unanimously chose the First Parish Congregational Church as our new home.

First Parish, the "stone church by the lake", has a long history of supporting Scouting in Wakefield, including chartering Boy Scout Troop 701 since 1926.  They also chartered a Cub Scout Pack until about 10 years ago.  First Parish has a wonderful facility with a great location and they really know what it takes to execute the Scouting program successfully. They will be a great partner for us.

While this is a big change for us organizationally, in practice, however, not much other than our meeting location will be affected.  We will still be known as Pack 722 and have our monthly Pack Meetings on Thursdays.  We are also looking forward to the opportunity to be more engaged with First Parish (for service projects and other community events) than we were with Greenwood Union.

Our first meeting at First Parish will be our Blue and Gold Banquet on Friday, May 17. We think that having our end-of-the-year celebration in our new home will be a perfect way to celebrate both the end of the year and a new beginning going forward.  More details on the Blue and Gold Banquet will be coming in a separate email.

If you have any questions regarding the transition, please contact your den leader or one of the Cubmasters, Ben, John, or Henry.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

February Pack Meeting

Servicemen from the National Guard, stationed at Camp Curtis Guild in Reading, visited our February Pack meeting. The soldiers demonstrated some of their gear while talking with the boys about the core values of Scouting. They are very close to those of our armed forces!

Click below for some great pictures courtesy of Webelos 2 Den Leader Bob Bry.



Pinewood Derby was a blast!

Everyone had a great time at the 2013 Pinewood Derby. Click below for a gallery of great shots courtesy of Webelos 2 Den Leader Bob Bry.



Pinewood Derby Pics

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Movie Night Rescheduled

Our Pizza and Movie Night has been rescheduled to Friday, March 22, 6:30 pm at the Greenwood Union Church.  

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Pinewood Derby!

Everyone had a blast at the 2013 Pinewood Derby.  Special thanks to Mr. Bardol, Mr. Bengtson, Mr. Schools and everyone that made our annual race so much fun.   We can't wait til next year!

Until then, take a look at some pictures from our day, courtesy of George Smith.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Movie Night Postponed

We're sorry, but the Movie Night scheduled for tonight, February 15, has been postponed due to a conflict at the church.   We'll let you know when the make-up date will be.

Our next Pack event, of course, is the Pinewood Derby. The weigh-in is Friday, March 1 and the races are on Saturday, March 2.  

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Cub Scouts Give Goodwill, MLK Day 2013

Our Scouts visited the Dutton Center, an adult/senior day-care facility, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  We sang some songs,  performed some of our favorite skits and played games with the seniors.  The smiles on their faces were priceless -- come to think of it, the boys were having a great time too.

Click on the photo below to see some pictures from our visit.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

December Pack Meeting Fun

Our December Pack Meeting had the boys making Christmas candy packets for the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry.  The Pantry and their clients are very appreciative of the boy's work.  Cub Scouts give goodwill!

Also, Cub Scouts that sell popcorn get to give their leaders and parents a pie in the face. Check out the photos!

Christmas Caroling

Our Cubs and their siblings and friends brought Christmas cheer to the residents at the Wakefield Care and Rehabilitation Center.  Actually, not just the residents were in the spirit after our visit!



Sunday, January 6, 2013

Tigers visit NECN Studios

Our Tiger Den visited the studios of New England Cable News and learned all about television production.   They even got to sit at the big desk!