New Newsletter:

I mailed new newsletters out Saturday morning, but I am including the text of the newsletter here in case you don't get it:

Old business:

Back in February, on the 14th, we represented ourselves well at Scout Sunday at the United Methodist Church in Metropolis. Dozens of scouts and their parents were in attendance, and we couldn’t have asked for a better group to show our appreciation to our sponsor organization.

Next, Leslie Bates awarded the Arrow of Light to five scouts at this year’s Blue and Gold Banquet, on February 27th. We had over 130 people in attendance to enjoy a wonderful barbecue buffet, and to witness a beautiful ceremony in which Caleb Ashley, Patrick Harville, Doug Bates, Braden Stamme, and Zachary Walquist bridged over from Cub Scouts and became the newest members of Boy Scout Troop 101.

The next weekend, they acquitted themselves well at their first boy scout event, a weekend campout at Dixon Springs.
-----------------------------------

New business:

March Pack Meeting: March 23rd, 7 pm, United Methodist Church basement. We will hand out any awards or advancements earned by the boys.
------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 6th, 7 pm: Kite building workshop. All members of the Pack and their parents are asked to come to the kite building workshop in preparation for the Pack’s Kite Flying Contest. When we make a kite, we do it the old-fashioned way! No store bought kites! We will instruct the scouts on how to make their own kites. Right now the Den leaders are discussing with their scouts the different kinds of materials from which you can make a kite. Seriously, paper bags, trash bags, old newspaper, sticks, dowel rods, even visqueen and pvc pipe, any of these materials can make a kite. Oh, don’t forget string, and rags for a tail! So, it shouldn’t cost very much (if anything) to get materials for a great kite. Please bring the materials you will use for your kite with you. We will have some building materials there as well. Go to http://www.int.gu.edu.au/~anthony/kites/ for many different kite plans.
--------------------------------------

Friday and Saturday, April 9th and/or 10th: Scout-a-rama at Stewart Nelson Park in Paducah. This is not a mandatory event, but would be a lot of fun if you want your scout to take part in a wide variety of events, and have the chance to earn some awards that require special training, like the archery and BB gun beltloops. Please contact your den leader or me for more information.
---------------------------------------

Saturday, April 24th, 10 AM, Trout Pond Shelter, Massac Park: Pack Meeting, Kite Flying Contest, and grilling out! You supply the kite, and we supply the food. After the contest, we will gather over at the pavillion nearest to Trout Pond for lunch. During lunch, we will give out awards for each Den’s flyers, and award a grand prize for the overall Best Flyer.

In the event of rain, we will postpone the contest until 1 pm the next day, Sunday, April 25th.
---------------------------------------

Saturday, May 22nd, 10 AM, Trout Pond Shelter, Massac Park: Pack Meeting, Space Derby, and grilling out! This will be our last official regular pack meeting of this scouting year. At this meeting, we will hold our Space Derby, in which boys build rubber band powered rockets and race them for fun and prizes! After our pack meeting, we will grill out and announce our schedule of summer events.
--------------------------------------

During the summer, we don’t have regular den meetings, but once a month, we gather together to have a special event. In June, we will have our Cubmobile Race, which is a soapbox derby race in which the boys race cars downhill over on 9th street between Girard and Catherine streets. In July, we will have a Supertrip, in which scouts and parents will travel together to a unique destination in our area. In years past, we have went to Mammoth Cave, Land Between the Lakes, and the St. Louis Zoo. Then, in August, we will have our end of summer pool party at the Metropolis Pool and also hold our rain gutter regatta.

I hope to see you at all the upcoming events!