Old Home Pages

Just for the fun of it and to create a sense of where we've been, we've started including old home page content here. Don't take anything here as current.

October, 2006

Rain Gutter Regatta:
We even provided the rain!

On October 27, 2006, Pack 271 held its Rain Gutter Regatta . All had fun, even though the night was cold and raining.  (In the last three times we have had the regatta, it has always been cold and raining.)  Congratulations to all participants!

Supporting our soldiers

Two boys in the pack have fathers currently serving in Iraq . We will be collecting gifts for them and for the soldiers in their companies, to send to them for Christmas.  We will be collecting the food at the November pack meeting.

Things to bring: Books, CDs, magazines, games.  Food that will be able to stand 130 degree temperatures is good (beef jerkey, hard candy, powdered drimk mixes, microwave popcorn, etc.)  Please, NO chocolate, liquids, or anything else which melts.  It is HOT over there.

Scouting for Food

The pack also prepared bags for Scouting for Food, coming up in November.  In this fun event on two Saturdays, the Boy Scouts collect more than half of the food used by all the food banks and shelters in the area for the entire year.  Pack 271 will deliver bags on the first Saturday to every home in Whittier, asking people to share from what they have.  On the second Saturday, we'll collect it all and take it downtown for storage, from which it will be distributed across the area as needed.  The first day is Saturday, November 4th, and the second is Saturday, November 11.  Both days are fun, fast, and very helpful to the community.  See the Events page for more details. 

Billy Yank Trail Survivors 2006:
Here's to the Pack 271 Iron Men!

On July 15, 2006, six members of Pack 271 hiked the entire nine-mile Billy Yank trail at Gettysburg, including going through the entire guide book for the hike.  With an observed high of 87 degrees (that felt like about 100,) it was quite a walk.  We had talked about doing the hike as a bike hike, but the Park Service said no to that.  (It's just as well.  The ending walk, up Pickett's Charge, was quite dramatic, and would not have worked on bikes.)

The view from the observation tower, as we could look across to all the places we had walked that day, was much more meaningful for the walk we had taken.  I know that I will never look at that battlefield the same way again.

This is certainly the longest hike we've done in the four years I've been with the pack, and may be the longest foot hike in the history of the pack.  It is certainly beyond what Cub Scouts normally do.  For future hikes, we recommend splitting this into two or three hikes for Cub Scouts, going from Cyclorama to Little Round Top as one hike, and Little Round Top to the Observation Tower as a second hike, and the Tower back to the Cyclorama for a third hike.  For Bears and Webelos who want a real challenge, you can certainly do the nine miles, and it is quite an accomplishment.

This hike completes the longest portion of the prestigious Gettysburg Patch set.  Scouts who complete all five portions of the set also earn the Gettysburg Trail Medal.  For more information, click here for our Hikes page.

Pack Campout 2006:
Blazing Success!

What an awesome time! About 70 of us had the entire camp to ourselves. We had loads of fun with the campfires, the Dutch Oven Desserts, the hike, the volleyball, the canoeing, and the projects.

In addition to all the general fun just for ourselves, it was a weekend in good Scouting tradition, as we made the place better for those who come after us. We planted seven trees, cleaned up a lot of trash, and assisted a Venture Crew in cleaning parts of the large amphitheatre.

Did it get cold in May? Put it this way: At 4:15 AM Sunday, the water bottles left out had a skim of ice on them. Everyone slept well and had a great time, but some didn't want to get out of their sleeping bags in the morning. A big breakfast fire helped. (The ice means that it was below freezing, so those who were there Saturday night earned a special patch for camping out in freezing weather.)

The Dutch Oven Desserts were just incredible! Here are the recipes, in Acrobat format.

Big thanks are due to Donna Scherer for her work in planning this outstanding weekend.

Our 40th Year as a Pack

Pack 271 is celebrating its 40th continuous chartered year as a pack this year. Assistant Commissioner Jim Sundergill, who was actually a cub scout in our pack more than 40 years ago, when it was located in downtown Frederick and had a different number, came to present our pack with several awards we have earned, including the Quality Unit Award for last year. Due to the growth we have experienced this year, we are actually on-track to earn not only the Quality Unit Award, but the much more elusive Honor Unit Award again this year. We first earned it two years ago. Boys who have joined since then will have the opportunity to earn that very special patch this year, if we all work together.

Pinewood Derby 2006:
Great Fun!

An amazing amount of sportsmanship, craftsmanship, and healthy competition was on display Saturday (January 28, 2006) for the Pack 271 Pinewood Derby. Congratulations to the 36 winners who participated, and achieved their goal of having fun! We had a great time, and the system ran nearly perfectly. The race was run in record time, finishing in less than an hour, allowing each car to race four times.

The race was also CLOSE. Congratulations to Ryan Mitchell with the fastest overall time, but Patrick Ochs, who came in second, had the fastest individual race, and missed a tie by 15 ten thousandths of a second -- that's one and one half micro-seconds!

We will be posting all the awards and thanks to all who participated in putting the derby together this year. To download a spreadsheet with the official race results, click here.

To see a page of Pinewood Derby patterns and car pictures gleaned from the web, CLICK HERE. (Lots of pictures are on the page, so have a little patience.)

Historical Stuff: The 2006 Pinewood Derby was held in the Life Activities Center of Brookhill United Methodist Church on Saturday, January 28th, 2006. The race started at 9:05 A.M., with the 36 cubs racing four times each, and finished at 10:00 A.M. In the first race, the boys came up in heats of four at a time, mostly by den, starting with the Tigers. In each subsequent race, the heats were shuffled around, but each car raced once on each of the four lanes, and the times were averaged for overall ranking.

Caroling at Local Nursing Home

On Sunday, December 4, 2005 we will be singing at Citizens Nursing Home (on Rosemont, across from Fort Detrick.) In addition to caroling around the home, we will be giving out the ornaments we have been making the last couple of pack meetings.

Scouting for Food a Success

In one fun event stretched over two weekends, the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts gathered over half of the food used by local food banks for the entire year. On Saturday, November 5th, 2005, we distributed bags to all the homes in Whittier. The following Saturday, we collected the bags of food. Each year, the Cubs in Pack 271 collect over a ton of food. Last year, we collected three truckloads of food for feeding the hungry in Frederick.

Space Derby Outrageous Fun!

Our Space Derby in October (2005) was a ton of fun! We'd never done one before, so it was a learning experience, but it looked as though everyone had a great time. All Cubs who participated will receive patches for the event.

Campfire Fun at September Pack Meeting (2005)

Congratulations to the new cubs and families joining Pack 271! Our Join Scouting Night pack meeting and campfire was a lot of fun. In addition to learning about all the activities planned for this Fall, some singing (working on your gorilla imitations, boys?), and some games during the setup time, we had a visit around the campfire from "Professor Flint", who shared some very interesting theories about light ... um, I mean, dark. (Ask your son to explain it.)

Most pack meetings will contain one or two organized games, lots of awards to hand out, and a short program of interest to both boys and parents. Please make plans to attend each of these fun and active events.

Fall 2005 Activities

Fall activities include hikes, service projects, the Space Derby (do you have your Space Derby racer yet?), going to Scouting Day at the Navy Football game, and lots of other things. (We are still getting all the announcements together, so keep checking back here and on the events page for the latest information.)

Congratulations to Advancing Cubs!

Congratulations to our boys who advanced at the pack meeting on May 20, 2005! Den 10 is now a Webelos II den, Den 11 is now a Webelos I den, Den 1 is now a Bear den, Den 2 is now a Wolf den, and our newest den forming is a Tiger Cub den, Den 4.

Congratulations also to Flint Wolfes, our new Cubmaster. Flint has served with distinction as our Assistant Cubmaster over the past year, and was very active in supporting pack and den activities before that.

For those considering a Cub Scout pack in the Frederick, Maryland, area, Pack 271 is chartered to draw from Whittier and Yellow Springs Elementary Schools, although boys are welcome from any school or area. We are a non-sectarian pack, which means that, while reverence is an important part of cub scouting, boys from all faiths are welcome.

Boys who join now can participate in summer activities with the pack, including participation in the Cub Summer Day Camp (registration closes very soon for that.) Boys in Kindergarten who join now as Tiger Cubs may still be able to get a space in the special evening camp for Tiger Cubs this summer on our district -- but again, time is running out (as of late May, 2005.)

Any Popcorn Still Out There?

In case there are any who have not yet turned in their Popcorn orders, the deadline for doing that is Sunday, October 25th. Contact Chris Atkins if you still need to get them to him.

Merry Christmas from Pack 271!

Directions

From U.S. 15 in Frederick, take Rosemont Avenue NorthWest (away from town) until you get to the four-way stop sign (about five miles.)

At the stop sign, you will see Brookhill United Methodist Church ahead of you on the left.

Turn left and then right into the parking lot. The fellowship hall is around the back.

For more information, call Cubmaster Flint Wolfes at 301-620-0999.