Cub Scout Pack 997 plans activities for growing membership

Tigers, Bears and Wolves all in one room! It’s Cub Scout Pack 997, not the Phoenix Zoo, getting together for their weekly den meeting.

The 26 Cub Scouts who belong to Maricopa’s recently chartered Pack 997 meet in their “dens” two or three times each month to work on badge requirements. Den leaders, who guide their activities, supervise these groups of seven or eight boys.

Once a month the boys and their parents get together for a pack meeting under the direction of Cub Master Joe Bergen and his committee. As the Law of the Pack states, “The Cub Scout helps the pack go. The pack helps the Cub Scout grow.”

The dens meet Mondays at 6:30 p.m. at the Villages of Rancho El Dorado Community Center. The pack meeting will be held on September 26 in a location to be announced. Pack 997 is looking for a monthly meeting location that will accommodate 60 boys and their parents.

Mid-August’s “Round Up”, very well attended by both boys and their parents, added sixteen new Cub Scouts to the pack’s membership. Five boys each, who are first, second and third graders, became Tigers, Wolves and Bears. One Webelo, the transitional group to Boy Scouting, also joined the group.

Den Leader Matt Jamieson talks to parents, prospective and present Wolves.

Cub Scouting is a year round program that combines outdoor activities, sports and family fun while teaching honesty, good citizenship and respect. “As a pack we are planning at least two campouts this year, a Blue and Gold awards and recognition banquet, and, of course, the Pinewood Derby. A hiking and biking outing is also on the calendar of events,” explained the pack’s committee chair, Joanna Ferguson.

The Law of the Pack is serious business for Ethan Jamieson (left) and Bradley Ruminer.

The group is in the process of purchasing a popcorn machine to use as a fundraiser at local, community events. Naturally, Cub Scouts always gratefully accepts donations.

If your son, brother, nephew or grandson is age 7-10 and in the first through fifth grades, Cub Scouting can provide fun, friendship and a wide range of activities.

Bradley Ruminer shows that Cub Scouts have fun AND a sense of humor.

Ferguson added, “We accept new boys as members any time throughout the year.”

For information about Maricopa’s Pack 997, or with suggestions regarding a meeting site, contact Ferguson via email or by phone at (520) 568-7042. Additional information is available at www.JoinCubScouting.org.