What is Cub Scouting?

In Cub Scouting you'll have lots of fun, adventure and activities with your den and pack. But there's more to it than that. Being a Cub Scout means you are a member of a worldwide youth movement that stands for certain values and beliefs. Cub Scouting is more than something to do. It's all about the boy you are and the person you will become.

The Purposes of Cub Scouting

Since 1930, the Boy Scouts of America has helped younger boys through Cub Scouting. It is a year-round family program designed for boys who are in the first grade through fifth grade (or 7, 8, 9, and 10 years of age).

The 10 purposes of Cub Scouting are:

1. Character Development
2. Spiritual Growth
3. Good Citizenship
4. Sportsmanship and Fitness
5. Family Understanding
6. Respectful Relationships
7. Personal Achievement
8. Friendly Service
9. Fun and Adventure
10. Preparation for Boy Scouts

Apart from the fun and excitement of Cub Scout activities, the Cub Scout Promise, the Law of the Pack, and the Cub Scout sign, handshake, motto, and salute all teach good citizenship and contribute to a boy's sense of belonging.

Cub Scout Promise

I, (name), promise to do my best
To do my duty to God and my country,
To help other people, and
To obey the Law of the Pack.

Cub Scout Motto

Do Your Best.

Tiger Cub Motto

Search, Discover, Share.

Law of the Pack

The Cub Scout follows Akela.
The Cub Scout helps the pack go.
The pack helps the Cub Scout grow.
The Cub Scout gives goodwill.

Just as the parts of the Cub Scout Promise have a meaning, each part of the Law of the Pack has a meaning.

The Cub Scout follows Akela

Akela means "good leader." To a Cub Scout, Akela may be a parent, a teacher, a religious leader, a Cub Scout leader, or another guide. A Cub Scout should choose a good leader to follow.

The Cub Scout helps the pack go

Your pack needs you to be a good member. A good member goes to all meetings, follows the leaders, and pitches in to make the pack better. Being a good member of the pack means doing your share, and sometimes a little more, to help the pack.

The pack helps the Cub Scout grow

With the leaders and Cub Scouts all working together, the pack helps you grow into a better person. You will learn new things and new skills. You'll learn the right way to do the right things. And along the way, you will help others.

The Cub Scout gives goodwill

Doing good things for others doesn't just make them happy. It also gives them the desire (or the "will") to do good things for others in turn. In this way, the good things you do for others make ripples that pass the goodwill from person to person. The spirit of helpfulness and good cheer spreads from you to others in your neighborhood.

  Membership 

Cub Scouting members join a Cub Scout pack and are assigned to a den, usually a neighborhood group of six to eight boys. Tiger Cubs (first-graders), Wolf Cub Scouts (second-graders), Bear Cub Scouts (third-graders), and Webelos Scouts (fourth- and fifth-graders) meet weekly. Parents, leaders, and organizations work together to achieve the purposes of Cub Scouting. 

Once a month, all of the dens and family members gather for a pack meeting under the direction of a Cubmaster and pack committee. The committee includes parents of boys in the pack and members of the chartered organization.

Many of the activities happen right in the den and pack. The most important are the weekly den meetings and the monthly pack meetings.

Cub Scouts Earn Awards

While you're having fun, you'll also be earning badges and awards. You'll work on projects with your parents or other adults in your family, and all of you will feel good about the things you accomplish. When you have earned a badge, you and an adult member of your family take part in a ceremony. The badge is given to the adult, and he or she then gives it to you in front of the whole pack. This is a way of saying "thank you" to your family for their help in earning your award.

When you earn an award in Cub Scouting, you learn new skills. You also get to use your new skills and your new knowledge in projects and demonstrations. You show what you know. People get to see what you've learned as a Cub Scout.

How much does Cub Scouts cost?

There is $40 registration fee to join scouts which includes a subscription to Boy's Life Magazine. There also are den dues.  Some dens will collect these dues at each meeting, and others will collect them once a month.  The den dues vary from about $1.00 on up to about $4.00 a week.  Each den leader sets his or her own dues depending on the number of boys in the den, and the skills and activities they have planned.

There is also the cost of the handbook, and uniform.  The handbook costs $4-$7.  A Cub Scout shirt is about $23, the necessary patches cost about $10, the neckerchief is about $5, the neckerchief slide is around $2, and the hat is about $12. The shirt, patches and neckerchief slide usually do not need to be purchased more than once. We also recommend buying a brag vest for your scout, so he can display all the patches he's earned.

Fundraising:  We must fund-raise in order to keep costs down.  As a pack we try to come up with some creative fundraising activities.  Some examples are car washes, raffles, selling cookie dough etc.  Fundraising will offset the cost of the annual re-charter fee, awards, and pack activities.