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Carl's Corner
Blue and Gold Banquet
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Pack 565 Families, We had another great turnout for our Blue and Gold Banquet! We had over 150 people there last night. Almost 60 of our boys were present. We filled up the beautifully decorated great hall of the Christian Life Center at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. The decorations and the food were spectacular. Many thanks to the kitchen staff and decorators and the many people who helped this event come off, including all who helped clean up afterwards. An especially enormous thanks to MarKay and Chris A. who spent the better part of 24 hours and quite a few more earlier in the week working to make sure we were all fed. The food was the best I’ve ever had at a Blue and Gold Banquet, and probably the best for many years before I came along. Of special note were our centerpieces that Chris A. created. Each table had three different Boy’s Life covers, and each cover featured different Pack 565 participants doing what boys love most. Todd has promised to load all the different covers on the Website. We saw some great skits and some other amazing and surprising things, including the magical stylings of Connie’s Den 3 under the direction of Maria P. Has everyone heard enough knock-knock jokes? If not, I can have the Webelos call once an hour with another one. (It’s a great fund raiser; PLEASE STOP!) Thanks to Scouts for entertaining us. I hope all of you got some great photos of your boy being honored. If not, I’ll be forwarding some of the photo sites later. See you soon! Carl |
Fall Family Camping Review
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Pack 565 Families, It was a wild and wooly Fall Family Camping weekend. Some of us wish we had more wool because it was quite cold both nights. Personally, I’d rather have it cold than hot, because you can always throw on more blankets. I think our Cubs would say we were assigned a perfect campground. It had everything a Scout would enjoy: We were right next to the lake, so we could fish anytime we wanted. We were right next to the woods, so we could have a “war” anytime we wanted. I’m not sure what the rules were to “war”, but it must have been a great game because anytime you were missing a boy, all you had to do was go over to the edge of the woods and call out a name and a minute later they’d come crashing out of the woods carrying their stave. I think it’s great that boys can still play a game where they make up their own rules. Too much of their time is spent playing organized activities. What’s a stave??? It is a manufactured hiking stick basically. It can be decorated with markers, beads, doo-dads, feathers, or other adornment. It is great for walking, hiking, mud poking, and “war” pretending. This FFC, all of our Scouts and participating siblings were issued staves. I want all Pack 565 parents to congratulate their Scouts. No stave had to be taken away because of unapproved uses! And nobody got hurt either! (We all had to take an oath that staves were not to be used to practice kung fu, simulate bayoneting, or torture little sisters, or the stave would be taken away and not returned until Sunday morning.) That is a significant achievement. We have two extra staves for those Scouts or participating siblings who never received one. Contact me for those. If you would like one just because they were cool or one to replace a lost one, contact Joe Murphey of Troop 797 at 770-354-3365 and ask him who the Cubmaster for Pack 797 is. They may still be available at $4 per stave. We did our usual 20-mile hike to the various day-time activities. We did BBs, ecology, first aid, Olympiad, and others. Nothing can wear out those Cub Scouts. This year, Pack 565 was in charge of the Saturday evening flag ceremony. The Webelos performed in front of about a thousand people and did an excellent demonstration of lowering the flags and folding them in the proper way. Mason F. was stellar as our sergeant. I think he is the first sergeant I’ve ever heard that could be heard by a thousand people. He was tall, straight, and formal. Dinner and all our meals were provided by our excellent chef staff of MarKay A., Ian B., and Becca B. Nothing would have happened without our numerous volunteers or our chief kitchen gopher, Chris A. The meals this campout were the best in my memory. Don’t even ask for the secret spaghetti recipe. The recipe is kept in a Gringotts vault, because if it fell into the wrong hands, dark forces could use it to control the entire tri-state area. The spaghetti is dangerously scrumpdillyicious. We had a bunch of first-time campers and I congratulate all of you who made it through your first camping experience. I’m sure you’ve learned a lot and have recorded many things that you will do differently next time. One of them might be, Don’t listen to Carl; he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We had rain Saturday afternoon and that always puts a damper on things, especially if your tent lets in water. I haven’t figured out the secret as to why that happens. Several campers were forced to pack up early Saturday evening because of wet sleeping bags. That’s always a downer. It was a downer because you might have missed the best skit ever presented at a Scouting event! During the usual campfire, Pack 565 presented “House On Fire”. We had a cast of dozens, all playing movie producers, stage hands, makeup artists, script prompters, camera and sound men, and actors. Our typical American family was excellent. The Mom looked a good deal like Daniel R., except with long black hair. Our fire department was first rate, despite what the director said. I am positive that we got the biggest laugh of the night, thanks to the thespian talents of our Pack. We were taped all weekend for a TV show. Start watching “Let’s Go Camping” on CSS Sports South to see when our episode will air. Here is the Website: http://www.letsgocampingtv.tv/ Sunday dawned cold, crisp, and clear. We packed up, policed the area, got one more fishing expedition in, and headed for home. Man, that shower was nice. I’ll see all of you next Spring for Spring Family Camping! Yours in Scouting, Carl |
Rocket Regatta a Rousing Success!
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Pack 565 Families,
Those were some spectacular rockets, weren’t they?!! I think some of them made it to the stratosphere. Some were in danger of reaching shuttle orbit and needing tracking telemetry. We will be using telescopes this weekend to try and track our highest flyers. We also had some rockets that did some very funny things. Many were aerobatic. Some did corkscrews. Some did end-over-ends. Some lost parts on the way up and the way down. We had an award category for these rockets. We called it the Acrobat award. We also had some awards for style. These boys came up with some clever looking rockets using them minimal supplies that were provided. Next year we promise more duct tape! The winners were…………………drum roll please…………….. Acrobat Patrick S. AJ M. Carter S. Style Dylan F. Weston B. Highest Flyers
2nd – Soloman W. Tied for first – Soorian P. Tied for first – Davis M. What’s great about our winners is that we had some from our new Scouts, our old Scouts, and our siblings. The boys were very excited and jumping out of their shoes over the results of the contraptions they were able to build. See the attached picture. We want to give Mr. Todd a huge thanks for his engineering design skills, ingenuity, craftsmanship, maintenance, and launch management. We’ll see everyone on Tuesday, September 29th for our next Pack meeting. Check with your Den Leaders to see when your next Den meetings are scheduled. See you, Carl  |
Fishing Derby
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Pack 565 Families, We had our Pack 565 fishing derby yesterday. We had a great turnout; in fact, the entire fishing derby was comprised of our Cubs and families. I’m not sure where the City of Marietta was, but our Pack sure had a good time AND we were not arrested for poaching. Almost everyone caught a fish. Those that didn’t, caught a turtle or at least a big stick. Nicholas A., our Pro fisherman, caught the largest fish. It was over 14 feet long (maybe I got the units wrong) and as you can see from the photos below, it caused quite a stir amongst the other fisher-people. The fish weren’t quite biting like last year when it was overcast, but they were still out there. Two of our brand new Tigers, Patrick S. and Andrew K., caught the most fish. One caught 7 and the other one caught 9 (I forget which). The best part was that no one got snagged by a hook and no first aid had to be administered. At the end of the morning, the yellow tee shirts weighed a little more from the mud, worm guts, and pond slime, but that was the mark of a GREAT TIME! We’ll see you at our next event, the Pack 565 Pool Party Roundup. It will be on Friday evening at 5:00 PM on August 7 (the weekend before school starts) at the Princeton Mill pool (where it was last year). More details to come. We’ll see you there! Carl |
Marietta National Cemetery Flag Placement
Pack 565 Families,
Quite a few of our Cub Scouts joined other Marietta area Packs and Troops for the Memorial Weekend flag placement ceremony at Marietta National Cemetery this morning. Todd took some awesome photos. See attached. If you would like a full size picture, send an email to Todd at webmaster@pack565ga.org. We watched a nice (short) presentation that included some rifle shots and taps. It's amazing how quickly Scouts can place over 18,000 flags in just about a half-hour. After we finished our flags, we had donuts and coffee back at the cars and we were all out of there by 10:00 AM. Watch the evening news tonight on WBS. You won't necessarily see our Pack, but I bet Adelaide White's Girl Scout troop will be on TV. See you at our next summer function! Carl |
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Pack 565 2009 Memorial Flag Placing Ceremony(s).jpg
Pack Graduation
... The boys had a good time playing volleyball, soccer, and just running around before the meeting. We also had a three tons of hot dogs and brats to eat, cooked up by our grillmeisters, Todd and Joe. After graduation, some advancements, and some leader awards, we shed the Class A uniforms and played tug of war with about 30 people on each end of the rope. Then it was time for the much anticipated WATER BOMBS! After a good soaking (including of a couple leaders), we cleaned up and headed home. I will keep you informed of our Summer activities. Also look for more information about how parents can help out the Pack. Many hands make light work. Stay in touch! Carl |
"Jurassic Park" Pack Meeting
Well, we had our DINOSAUR Pack Meeting last night. I hope not too many of our Scouts were eaten by the live velociraptor that somehow got out of its cage towards the end of the meeting. If you lost a Scout, let me know and we’ll replace him with an equal or better substitute – possibly a girl scout or a Pomeranian. In addition to a really tough uniform inspection (the toughest one in recorded Pack 565 history), the boys did several dinosaur-related activities. Many of our Scouts made excellent dinosaur facsimiles out of the bones provided (packing peanuts and toothpicks). Then they played the DNA matrix game (dinosaur bingo). Then they practiced Jurassic paleontology by identifying dinosaurs just by feeling them in a bag. If you still have your answer sheet, here are the answers: 1: C (Stegosaurus) 2: G (Velociraptor) 3: A (Dimetrodon) 4: D (Triceratops) 5: F (Parasaurolophus) 6: I (Tyrannosaurus Rex) 7: B (Ankylosaurus) 8: E (Dilophosaurus) 9: H (Apatosaurus) A really special thanks to our expert dinosaur paleontologist, Addison B., from Pack 473 (the Green Machine). See you next time for our end-of-year Pack Graduation Bash at East Cobb Park on May 19th. Carl |
NASCAR Race!
Pack 565 Families, We had a wild time last night racing around the Eastminster oval. I’ll bet the boys thought it truly was a 500-mile race. We ran 40 laps and changed tires at least nine times. There weren’t too many boys that did over two laps at a time, but every boy got in their car several times. There was much shouting and scrambling during the pit stops. It was pretty funny. We learned a lot about teamwork. The competition was very tight with the Squirrel Patrol coming out victorious in the end. Bear Den 1 came in second. I forget who came in third, but every Den finished all 40 laps. What a test of stamina and willpower! We had a couple rollovers and scrapes last night; it’s NASCAR after all, but everyone is okay. We’ll make some modifications to the cars and the race for next year so that it will be safer and even more fun (just like NASCAR). See you! Carl |
Blue and Gold Banquet
Wow! What a turnout we had for our Blue and Gold Banquet! We had close to 200 people there on Saturday night. More incredibly, 68 of our boys were present! We filled up the great hall of the new Christian Life Center at Eastminster Presbyterian Church! Our veteran of seven years, Cindy M., says that was the largest Blue and Gold she’s ever witnessed.Many thanks to the many people who helped this event come off. Thanks to all who helped clean up and stack chairs afterwards. A big thank you to you kitchen volunteers before, during, and after. An especially enormous thanks to Joseph and Delitha C. who spent the better part of 24 hours working to make sure all were fed. (I really liked that spicy dipping sauce; what was that?) We saw some great skits and some other amazing and surprising things. Thanks, Scouts, for entertaining us. I hope all of you got some great photos of your boy being honored. If not, I’ll be forwarding some of the photo sites later. We’ll see all of you at the next big Pack event – our first annual inaugural NASCAR box race! It will be in the church parking lot on Tuesday, March 24th. We’ll all be in our yellow tee-shirts for that event. If any of you Dads out there have ever wanted to be a NASCAR track announcer, here is your chance. Email me back and we’ll put you behind a microphone announcing our 40-lap Cubmaster 500. (I think that’s in furlongs.) See you soon! Carl |
Pinewood Derby
Pack 565 Families,
Wow! That was really an exciting time we had on Saturday. I’ve never seen so many cool-looking cars as were lined up – ready to roll. Before I recap the day’s activities, I want to thank Don R. and Brian D. for helping Friday night at the impound. Many cars needed help getting their weight up or down to the magic 5 ounces. The Tigers got us off to a great start with a nice Flag ceremony. Then we swung right into racing with the Tigers and Wolves. Each boy and car raced three times, once in each of the three lanes. Besides the excitement of the cheering and racing, there was some excitement with the Tiger results for a minute or two, when the data was temporarily lost. We thought we’d have to rerun the Tiger cars all over again, but Todd (our fix-everything guy) found where the software put it, and we were okay after that. Then we awarded the fastest cars for Tigers, Wolves, and the siblings/adults. All the fastest times (in seconds) are listed beside the boys’ names. The bragging rights for Tigers belong to: Tigers 3rd Place (fastest) – Trey W.: 2.627 2nd Place (fastest) – Sean W.: 2.618 1st Place (fastest) – Joey M.: 2.583 The fastest wolves were: Wolves 3rd Place (fastest) – Noah W.: 2.580 2nd Place (fastest) – Price F.: 2.574 1st Place (fastest) – Angel M.: 2.573 The fastest siblings/adults were: Siblings/Adults 3rd Place (fastest) – Joshua W. 2.555 (Binky-Engineered) 2nd Place (fastest) – Kelly B.: 2.552 1st Place (fastest) – Joshua H.: 2.539 David W. then stepped in to make an appeal for Friends of Scouting. Here’s an update from yesterday’s results toward the FOS campaign: David says we’ve collected over $1,800 in pledges from Pack 565! That surpasses last year’s total. We’re going to shoot for an even $2,000, though. Our Pack dues and popcorn money help support our Pack activities. The money from FOS will help run the District facilities, including the beautiful Bert Adams and Woodruff Scout reservations. Camping ranks right up there as one of the most fun and rewarding activities that we do in Cub Scouting. Our goal is to have every family in Pack 565 donate just a little something: $25, $10, or $5. Please contact David White if you haven’t pledged yet. Thank you! Then we rolled right into the style awards for all the ranks. This is one of my favorite parts of Pinewood. Some cars are built to be fast. Some cars are built to look cool. And some cars are both! Here are the style award results for each rank. Tigers 3rd Place (style) – Grant L. with the “Metallic Gold Speedster” 2nd Place (style) – Jack M. 1st Place (style) – Josh B. Wolves 3rd Place (style) – Price F. with the emergency vehicle and the blinking light! 2nd Place (style) – Joshua G. 1st Place (style) – Noah W. and his Ferrari Siblings/Adults 3rd Place (style) – Rachel L. and her Cinderella Car 2nd Place (style) – Caden M. and his Over-the-top Giant Spoiler (with attached car) 1st Place (style) – Kelly P. with the hot dog car! Go hot dog! Go hot dog! Bears 3rd Place (style) – Mason F. and his “Blue Dragster” 2nd Place (style) – Casey D. and his “Black Demon” 1st Place (style) – Caleb W. with the “Guitar Car” Webelo I’s 3rd Place (style) – Quinn P. and his “Green Beam of Steam” 2nd Place (style) – Matthew K. and the “Lego Man Bullet Skateboard” 1st Place (style) – Ethan M. and the “Googly-Eyed Yellow-jacket Stinger” Webelo II’s 3rd Place (style) – Joshua B. and his “Screaming Torch” 2nd Place (style) – Jeremy P. with his Lotus Chaparral 1st Place (style) – Jakob D. and the “Batman Nightrider” Then we awarded the grand all-Pack trophies for style and coolness. The overall style winners were: All-Pack 565 Style Trophies 3rd Place – Noah W. for the Ferrari 2nd Place – Ethan M. for the “Googly-Eyed Yellow-jacket Stinger” 1st Place – Caleb W., our grand prize winner for the “Guitar Car” That car had incredible detail. It had a body with a bridge, a neck, strings, and pegs. After the races, Caleb played “Stairway to Heaven” on it as the crowd headed to the parking lot (in a slightly higher key). Then we rolled right into racing again with our older boys. This is the first year we allowed the boys to be up close and personal with the track. This was very exciting for them. Next year, I think we’ll be putting some lines on the floors and enforcing 5-yard encroachment penalties, though. After the Bears and Webelos raced we awarded fastest time medals in those ranks. Bragging rights for Bears went to: Bears 3rd Place (fastest) – Aidan H.: 2.584 2nd Place (fastest) – Casey D.: 2.537 1st Place (fastest) – Sean A.: 2.537 The fastest time recorded for Casey Deloughy and Sean Appel’s car was a tie, down to the thousandth of a second, so we did a few tense runoffs between those cars to determine the ultimate winner. The fastest Webelo I’s were: Webelo I’s 3rd Place (fastest) – Matthew K.: 2.560 2nd Place (fastest) – Thomas K.: 2.538 1st Place (fastest) – Ada D.: 2.520 The fastest Webelo II’s were: Webelo II’s 3rd Place (fastest) – Francis V.s: 2.564 2nd Place (fastest) – Hank M.: 2.543 1st Place (fastest) – Jeremy P.: 2.538 Then we had the grand finale races. We raced the fastest three cars in each rank all over again. Each car raced three times, once in each lane again. The final results and bragging rights for the 2009 fastest cars in all of Pack 565 go to: FINALS 3rd Place (fastest) – Thomas . 2nd Place (fastest) – Jeremy P. 1st Place (fastest) – Ada D., our grand prize winner! Man! That’s a fast car (Mom)! That was it for the 2009 Pinewood Derby. Thanks to all the parents who helped set up, control kids, break down everything, and clean up. We’ll see you all next year at the 2010 Pinewood Derby! Carl |
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