According to the Boys Scouts of America website, the Cub Scout Promise says, “I 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.”
Pack 44 of Moorestown strives to do just that.
The Cub Scouts of Pack 44 are always doing some sort of event or community service, not only to better themselves, but also to help better others and their community.
Ken Keegan, a cubmaster of the Moorestown pack, described pack 44 as “a collection of fine, young boys who have an interest in helping the community and each other and having fun.”
Boys can enter can enter as early as the summer between kindergarten and first grade, but usually they start at first graders. There are five years and levels that the boys can go through. They start out as tigers, then wolves, then bears, then welebos 1, and finally weleblos 2. Then you cross over the bridge, called “bridging over,” to become a Boy Scout.
Pack 44 of Moorestown has been around for over 40 years and is well established in the community. They help out not just the First United Methodist Church in Moorestown that they hold their meetings at, but they help out other places in the Moorestown community too.
With the FUMC, they help clean up outside the church, volunteer in the church, paint hallways, plant trees and fix what they can. Outside of the church, they do clean up and flag replacements. They also said the Pledge of Allegiance for Memorial Day at the field. Pack 44 also does food drives, clean ups at other parks and outdoors training.
However, Cub Scouts isn’t all about volunteering, there are a lot of fun things the boys get to do too.
“We do a couple outdoor trips and over night events. We’ve done sleep overs at the Aquarium, University of Penn, and the Camden yards. There we’ve gone to a game, camped on field and got to watch a movie,” said Keegan.
They also have an upcoming event in November called Paul Bunyan Day where the pack competes against other packs in different competitions. Keegan said that two years ago some of the scouts took first place in three different events out of all of Burlington County.
For all of the things that they have done, the young Cub Scouts have been honored by the Burlington County Council for their continued participation and new enrollments a number of times. They hope to continue that tradition.
On Tuesday Sept. 23 the Cub Scouts held a recruiting event at SkyZone Trampoline where boys who were interested in the cub scouts could come out and learn more about the pack. Pack 44 bought an unlimited number of passes for an hour and a half of trampoline fun for anyone who was interested. Keegan said that about three or four boys were joining from the event.
“Come and observe, join events,” Keegan said. “We’re always open to people. You don’t have to join or be a member to see if it is a good fit.”
Keegan does caution though that parents of boys who wish to join need to be involved with some of their child’s Cub Scout activities.
“Although it is a kid’s organization, it involves family participation. You have to have an engaged adult who is willing to participate with their children,” Keegan said.
As a Cub Scout there are different accomplishments that the cubs have to achieve and in different situations. According to Keegan, sometimes it is with the pack, the den, which is the grade or age level that the cub is in, or the parents. Things that involve the parents are mostly things that can be done at home. An example being creating a home escape plan incase of fire.
Pack 44 has many events coming up, including some future meetings in October, Paul Bunyan day on Nov. 1, and presenting the colors for the color guard at a Sixers game. Keegan encouraged those who are interested to come to the next pack meeting on Oct. 16. It will be held at the FUMC from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
To learn more about the Cub Scouts, Pack 44, and their future events go to www.moorestown.com/community/scouts44/.
