Celebrating community, Scout style

The following brief was submitted by Chris Mills, Committee Chair of Pack 200 Cub Scouts, Camden. His account of Scout participation in Five Town CTC's 3rd annual Harvest Hoot festival expresses so well the power of volunteering, of organized clubs, and of community spirit---and is a shining example of how these three elements combine to promote healthy youth in our community.

Five Town CTC wishes to thank all the Cub and Boy Scouts, their parents, and everyone from the Scout community who came out to help with the Hoot! If your organization would like to join with Five Town CTC in promoting healthy youth, give us a call!

Shelley and Finn Mills enjoy the Hoot!

EXTRAORDINARY SCOUTING IN CAMDEN

Pack and Troop 200 were asked by Five Town Communities That Care to coordinate all the kids activities and games at a six-hour family festival (Harvest Hoot) at the Camden Snow Bowl on September 8. We set up paintball slingshot, a Pinewood Derby, a rain gutter regatta, a boat building station, face painting, a craft table, cub cars and three large pine stumps where kids could pound nails to their hearts' content.  Andrew Clement, Scoutmaster, was there with some of his Scouts. He had his trailer set up doing a Dutch oven cooking demo over a fire. The beef stew and chocolate cherry cake, both prepared in Dutch ovens, were gobbled up by anyone who walked by. The Boy Scouts worked hard pulling cub cars up the hill and sitting on the dunk tank ---- a volunteer activity they thoroughly enjoyed.

We had a total of 18 Scouts and 19 adults who volunteered.  All Scouts and Scout leaders were in uniform. It was a perfect opportunity to show the community-at-large what Scouting is all about. The feedback from Five Town CTC has been very positive. The event organizers were amazed at all the activities that we had going on and how well staffed we were. The organizers got a lot of feedback from people attending about how much fun the kids area was. Everything that we offered was free, which made a big impression on the parents.

Our Scouts had a blast both manning stations and participating. It goes to show you that volunteering can be fun and fulfilling.

We made a very good impression on many adults with Scout age children and probably will see some come to our first Pack meeting.

-----Wake and act each day with the understanding that your actions will be absorbed by your children...and your children will grow to be contributing adults to the level of your influence.