Feeling Stuffed?

Did you gobble til you wobbled yesterday? Why not use today as an opportunity to work off some of that "stuffed" feeling and have fun in the process? Grab the family, your cell phones and head outside to geocache!

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has a great resource for those interested in this modern-day treasure hunt! People hide geocaches everywhere—from just down the street to the most remote wilderness areas. Many are hidden in your state parks.


What is Geocaching?
Geocaching is the hunt for any of more than 2 million geocaches worldwide hidden by folks like you. Each treasure hunt will take you to a fun, creative or beautiful place outdoors.


But what is a geocache?
Geo means earth and cache means hidden item. Geocaches range from very small (like a film canister) to large (such as a metal lunch box). Many are camouflaged, but they are not buried. Geocaches hold things like a log book to sign your name, tradable items for kids and adults, and more.


How do I find a geocache?
Use a GPS unit or smartphone app to find the coordinates (the exact location) of a geocache nearby. Then set out on your adventure, enjoying the sights along the way!


How can I play?
Visit Geocaching.com, or use a smartphone app to find caches where you are. Choose an easy cache for your first hunt. Caches have ratings on difficulty, size and terrain.
Download the coordinates to your GPS or use your smartphone, and head out to look for your treasure. It might take a few minutes to find the cache once you reach the destination!
Approach the cache safely. Some of the best hiding spots can also be homes for wildlife. Open the container, sign the log, and trade a family-friendly item with something in the cache.
Replace the container exactly as you found it. This keeps the game fun for the next geocacher.
Log your find on Geocaching.com and tell the world about your adventure! Collect a "smiley" face symbol for each geocache find you report.


What should I bring?
GPS or smartphone with coordinates
Pen or pencil
Water
Hat, hiking shoes and raingear, if needed
Sunscreen and insect repellent
Park or trail map
Inexpensive small items to trade for cache "swag"
A sense of adventure!

What else do I need to know?
Size: The size of each geocache is posted on Geocaching.com
Terrain: Each geocache has a terrain rating of one to five stars. (One star means the geocache is accessible by wheelchair. Five stars means you will need special equipment (boat, 4WD, etc.) to find the cache.)
Difficulty: Each geocache also has a difficulty rating of one to five stars, based on how hard it is to find. (One star means the cache can be found quickly. Five stars means the cache is hard to find or open.)
FTF: First to Find, or the first person to find a new geocache.
TFTC: Thanks for the cache, or a thanks to the original hider of the cache.
Ground Zero or GZ: A cache’s location.
TNLN: Took Nothing Left Nothing, meaning that the finder did not trade any swag.
SL: Signed Log
Muggles: Someone who is not geocaching. Avoid muggles while geocaching, so that they won’t vandalize or “muggle” the caches.
Geocoin, Travelbug or Pathtag: These items have identification numbers. They can be shared with friends and tracked as they are carried from one cache to the next.

Be sure to Leave No Trace of your visit!

Stay on trails for as long as you can.
Leave what you find, including flowers, rocks and artifacts.
Consider others. Don't park in campsites; keep voices low.
Take your trash. Help keep our spaces beautiful.
Respect wildlife; you are in their backyard!

Happy Thanksgiving

As families come together near and far to celebrate with food and fellowship while counting their many blessings, we would like to take this opportunity, too, to wish our Pack 1910 family a Happy Thanksgiving.

The first Thanksgiving was a celebration of the culmination of a successful partnership and harvest between different groups of people and was a further testimony that people of all creeds can live in harmony.

So, this Thanksgiving, we give thanks to children of all beliefs who have joined into the brotherhood of Scouting for the purpose of the greater good. We are united in a common purpose to be a different breed of person... the leaders of the future.

Thankful are we for the opportunities presented to us through the Scouting movement and the ability to serve our chartered organization, our community, our family, our unit and our country.

Thankful are we for the opportunity to Do A Good Turn Daily by acts of selfless service to those in our family, school and community.

Thankful are we for the blessings of leaders and volunteers who give of their time and their many talents to lead these boys with purpose.

Thankful are we for the bright-eyed enthusiasm as we witness young men take on greater responsibilities and meet challenges they didn't know they could overcome.

Thankful are we for the freedom afforded to all Americans and for those who are willing to fight for it... whatever the cost.

Thankful are we to not get everything we want, but to continue to be grateful for what we have.

Thankful are we for the partnership with nature and the outdoors as we learn to live in harmony with our earth and protect it for the generations that will follow.

Thankful are we for the gift of a merciful and gracious God that hears our prayers. Oh great Scoutmaster of all, please be with all of our Pack families until we can join together again.

Until that time... Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

Blessed Are We and So Very Thankful!

As many of you know we were the victims of a theft that left our outdoor and camping program in danger due to all of our supplies being stolen.  All of the assets accumulated through the Pack are not from collecting dues, but it's through our fundraisers alone that we are able to provide all the materials needed for a successful outdoor program.  When we discovered it all gone in October, we were devastated.  After dealing with the range of emotions, we reached out to the community and the response was... well, it was overwhelming!

We have had people contact us from near and far to make donations, see what they could do to help or just reach out to offer words of encouragement.  We are thankful, truly blessed, for each and every thought and prayer sent our way.

Our leadership team wanted to see if there was a way we could do a donation promotion to at least help us replenish our camping equipment for the next campout and we would deal with the remainder of the loss at a later date... we just wanted to ensure that this campout was not going to be impacted. So, we put up a donation button on our website that linked directly to our PayPal account we use... within two days, we'd raised well over $7,000 and when I saw that, I went in and turned it off!  Even after that I had people wanting to donate reaching out seeing how they could.

We also had several individuals made donations over $200, $500 and of even $1000 through our plea. If there was an address affiliated with your donation, you will be receiving a thank you letter for income tax purposes.

Scouting is a small world... we had a gentleman reach out to us from a disbanded Troop in Denton who wanted to donate their chuckboxes to us.  You guys.... CHUCKBOXES!!!!  What a dream! We had those in the plans to make for the Webelos and Arrow of Light Dens so that they would have them for their den-level campouts and someone GIFTED them to us!  Through further communications, we discovered he was someone in charge of the Toys for Tots program there and we were happy to have leaders and scouts go volunteer this year. Full circle moment!

We had a former Pack QM and Troop ASM reach out to us ready to help make things happen as he had many pack-friendly materials any Pack camp needs. We are so thankful!

We also had one gentleman, David Snell, who heard our story and immediately reached out to news reporter, Scott Gordon, for our contact information upon hearing our story. David basically told April Driggers, you WILL camp this weekend. We WILL get you what you need. And you guys, boy DID HE EVER!  David owns three small business in North Texas and is the epitome of what it means to have a servant's heart. He wants to be a community leader to inspire others that we should all do what we can to help those in need. He's unbelievable! Through one of his companies, he was able to coordinate ... basically our entire camp kitchen!  It doesn't hurt that he knows his way around outdoor cooking, as he's the owner of CajunCrawfishCo.com Through his supplier, David provided three burner camp stoves, pots, thermometers, dutch ovens, griddles, spoons, utensils.  He pretty much single-handedly made sure that our boys would not only have replaced what was stolen, he also wanted to make sure we had enough to account for the fact that our pack DOUBLED in size this year.  We have been abundantly blessed because of him and wanted to make sure he knew just how thankful we are!  Oh, and another cool thing he does -- CHRISTMAS LIGHT AIRPLANE TOURS!  Seriously, if you want to give local areas your business -- check out StarlightFlight.com  So to David, THANK YOU for exemplifying to us all so many of the ideals of the Scout Law... trustworthy, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and cheerful.

So to our community members, to our anonymous donors, to our former leaders (we know who you are), to our family, to friends, to community leaders, to business owners, to Pack families...

Thank you!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for believing in our boys as much as we do!

December Pizza Party Pack Meeting

It's hard to believe but it's time to start thinking about CHRISTMAS already! But hey when there are...

we've gotta do what we've gotta do!

As usual we have a fantastic evening planned for all our Pack families. This year, we are having a Christmas Pizza Party Pack Meeting

Oh yes, FOOD glorious FOOD! NO rushing to try to feed the family before the Pack Meeting.  What can you do to help? Well, I'm so glad you asked!

• Be sure to RSVP on Scoutbook so we know how many to expect.  
• PAY via cash, check or PayPal
• SAVE THE DATE on your calendar!
• SHOP for the hat/glove/scarf drive and go through your coat closet to donate any new/used coats too!
• We will also be doing a SOCK IT TO ME "snowball" war! So, bring a package of NEW solid white socks.

Like a good Scout, BE PREPARED for a holly, jolly, merry good time!
Find and wear your most festive hat! (Parents, Scouts and siblings!!)
Disclaimer -- PLEASE DO NOT BRING ANYTHING WITH NUTS PLEASE! SAVE GRANDMA's FRUITCAKE FOR YOUR FAMILY AT HOME... FOR A MULTITUDE OF REASONS.


The pack will have plates, paper goods and, of course, all the entertainment.

Don't forget this is also the deadline to register for CUB-O that takes place in January.

It's Time To Recharter!

It’s time again to recharter our Pack with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).  As part of this process, each Scout and leader must register for the upcoming year (this includes payment of registration dues and ensuring your Health Form (part A & B) is current). While our Pack operates on a SCHOOL calendar of June - May, registration dues for everyone are paid on a January-December basis.

Recharter dues for returning scouts is $120 ($10 per month)
Leaders are $35.50 each

FEE EXPLANATION

1) National Dues – this fee is paid directly to the Boy Scouts of America and registers your Cub Scout for the period January through December. The annual National Dues are $35.50 ($33 registration fee plus $2.50 for accident insurance) per Cub Scout. 


2) Boys’ Life Fee – Boys' Life is the monthly magazine for the Boy Scouts of America. It’s a fantastic read that reinforces Scouting and the good family values that are part of our program. While registration for Boys’ Life is optional, we feel that the content is so important and relevant, we choose to make this part of your registration payment. Therefore, we incorporate that fee into the dues as well. For more information, visit: www.boyslife.org Boy's Life is $1 per month, so $12 annually, per Scout.


3) Pack Fee – $72.50 (about $6 per month) The Pack charges an annual Pack Fee to help cover the cost of running the Pack. This fee includes all program costs and is set each year by the Pack Committee. At the very basic level, this covers your scout's rank specific handbook ($13) provided at joining, the rank specific neckerchief ($10) and corresponding slide ($6) as well along with a Pack T-shirt ($11). It also cover the rank specific neckerchief ($10), handbook ($13) and slide ($6) for their NEXT rank which they receive at the graduation ceremony in May. It also includes all awards, badges, patches, pins, Webelos activity badges, adventure loops, as well as a pinewood derby car kit, a rain gutter regatta kit, the Pack 1910 unit patches for their uniform ($6) and the Pack 1910 brag vest patch ($6) as well as all patches for participation along with all of the materials associated with monthly Pack meetings/ceremonies/activities. As you can see, there is great deal of tangible goods that each scout receives annually just for doing what they do! This doesn't even cover the other costs... just what our BOYS receive.

Thus, we rely heavily on fundraising to ensure an awesome program for our youth. Simply stated, Popcorn sales fuels Cub Scouts.

Membership renewals are due no later than November 28 as they MUST be submitted prior to 12/1 or we will incur an additional $15 PER REGISTRANT FEE. 

Checks should be made payable to Pack 1910. If you would like to pay via credit card, that can be done as well through Paypal. For your convenience, we have set up a Payments page on our blog to enable parents to utilize PayPal. Be sure you are choosing the correct membership fee structure as there are lists for RECHARTER of current members, NEW members, as well as TRANSFERS. Choose wisely.

Without registration payment commitments, we cannot recharter your Scout. Awards and rank cannot be recorded for unregistered Scouts.

Remember, the fun things we do at the Pack meetings, the prizes, awards, rank insignia, handbooks, patches and all that the pack provides is funded only by dues and fundraisers. We budget and rely on that commitment from every family each year.

While we try to streamline this as much as process, there IS paper involved -- we need a new health form for anyone that hasn't submitted one within the last year. 

Thank you for your assistance in making this as painless and streamlined of a process as possible. I appreciate everyone's prompt attention to this matter.  If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to contact Amber Walker, Membership Chair.

PAYMENT PAGE IS HERE

Adopt - A - Street Clean Up Saturday!

Pack 1910 has partnered with the City of Keller's Adopt-A-Street Program so that we have our own designated stretch of road to pick up which will help keep our city clean and beautiful!

We are responsible for the one-mile stretch of Johnson Road between Chandler and Pearson.

PICK UP IS THIS SATURDAY AT 10AM

All of us working together makes it easy to do our part to continue to...

As a bonus, by participating in this community service event, many of our scouts will earn needed requirement components for their rank advancement.

As always, we will all park on GREENBRIAR. Plan to meet at 9:45 am (this is a residential street located off of Johnson Road.) Chase Muery, Webelos Den Leader and Matthew Strong, Assistant Webelos Den Leader, will be on hand to take attendance, distribute vests, gloves and ensure we all are on the same safety plan.

There IS poison ivy on the SOUTH SIDE of Johnson Road. This is why we need youth to NOT pass the point or be too far behind the kaboose. We want to show them what it looks like. As such, all participants are asked to wear CLOSED TOE SHOES and WORK GLOVES (if you have them). If you can bring a few extra large black trash bags, that would be quite helpful.

This is an all-hands-on-deck event. Families are welcome but please be mindful that the younger siblings that require constant eyes or one-on-one supervision should probably sit this one out. Our pick up road is Johnson Road and there are no sidewalks. The more that come, the faster it goes but it's a great way to show our support for our city and to do our part to help where others have forgotten to Leave No Trace.

Pack Meeting TONIGHT

Tonight is our November Pack Meeting!  We can't wait to see you at 6:30 pm at the Family Life Center.

It's Almost Time To Camp!

Pack families! It's almost time to camp. Be watching your e-mail on WEDNESDAY for all the info on this weekend's campout. But until then, please check out these prior posts on some of the general information for Pack family camping!

Registrations Forms ARE REQUIRED - ONE PER FAMILY and must be signed by all adults who attend. 

CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION FORM

Everyone attending *has* to have a health form ON FILE.

CLICK HERE FOR HEALTH FORM

EVERY adult attending HAS to have taken Youth Protection Training and we need a copy of your card. Don't know what I'm talking about? Create an account at my.scouting.org and take the new YPT training today!

More information on duty roster, menu, parking, etc. will be communicated WEDNESDAY (that's the day we email out everything).

Please print your registration form (link above) and email it to April IMMEDIATELY. THEY ARE PAST DUE. Or, please coordinate with Christopher Mahanna (lives in NW Keller) or April Driggers (lives in SE Keller) for whichever location is more convenient for you to drop it off.
Let me know how to expect payment. Papal,check or cash.

All adults participating need to have read Page 2 and EACH need to have signed the registration form on Page 3 to indicate that they HAVE read and will abide by those rules.

A Paypal option is available if you choose to use that for payment or you may write a check at the Pack meeting.

Don't forget that lunches on SATURDAY will be coordinated at the DEN level. An email went out October 11 from your Cubmaster regarding "Camp out - Quartermaster duties" so search for that communication.

Thank you!

We have LOTS of kiddos on this list that have clicked "YES" but we have no forms on file nor record of payment. Payment needs to be made in advance. That's to purchase the food.

Camping Do's and Don'ts

Camping Is In Tents

And for those wondering just what to bring.... here is an easy list you can modify for your own personal needs/wants.

INDIVIDUAL CAMPOUT CHECKLIST FOR PACK OVERNIGHTER

Your Cub Scout uniform is required for the overnighter. Sturdy shoes, suitable for ourdoor activities (meaning... with TREAD) will be useful. If your Scout has earned his Whittling Chip, he may bring his pocket knife. The following is a list of suggested equipment that may be useful on the campout.

BE SURE EACH CAMPER HAS A REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE AND A MESS KIT OR SOMETHING TO EAT ON AND WITH (no paper plates, disposable cups, etc.)


CAMP
Tent (should come with stakes and guylines)
Plastic mallet (I keep this in my tent bag)
Tent footprint (this is a tarp to place beneath your tent to protect it from rocks, cactus, etc.)
Sleeping pad (unless you're okay with the ground) or air mattress (check the batteries on your pump -- we usually do not have electricity at camps. I've seen people use those cheap blow-up pool floats for their kids... they're quick, easy and if you pop a hole in them, no love lost as they're easily replaceable)
Cot (you won't want to use this in cold weather as the air circulating beneath you will make you colder)
Sleeping bags (with liners if it's chilly)
Extra blankets to keep in the car (just in case)
Pillow (though you can use your sweatshirt as a pillow as well to minimize your packing list)
One folding chair per person
Pop up shade
Folding table (though your cooler may work in a pinch)
Lantern / fuel
small dustpan and brush (I love having this in my tote to help clean up all the leaves, dirt and debris tracked into the tent)

CAMPING KIT
I like to keep a small tackle box prepped with various items that someone always seems to need including:

Multi-tool or knife
Glow sticks
Batteries (for flashlight or headlamp)
Bandana
Duct tape (it fixes everything)
safety pins
Caribeeners
scissors
q-tips


GEAR
Daypacks (to carry your gear for the day -- lightweight backpacks)
Headlamp (I find these are much better to use than flashlights because they keep your hands free)
canteen
Matches/lighter
Compass
Whistle
Sunglasses
Hammock
Rope

CLOTHING
The best motto here is BE PREPARED. I always keep an extra change of clothing in a bag in the car WITH socks and shoes that we hope to just put away at home when we return. However, if there is a surprise downpour, a slip and fall in the mud or a spill, we are prepared. Happy kids = happy parents = great campout! Your weather forecast IS YOUR FRIEND. Be sure to check it the day before you pack and then check the morning before you leave.

long sleeved shirts (moisture wicking is great, flannel is great - these are great to protect from the sun, bugs and to take the morning chill off)
sun-shielding hat
Bandana (these are handy for just about everything including makeshift first-aid)
Close-toed shoes suited for the terrain (NO open toed shoes, flip flops or sandals)
Socks
Sleepwear
Rainwear (a poncho in the daypack can be a lifesaver!)
Weather appropriate change of clothes (could be cold weather / could be shorts)

TOILETRIES
toilet paper
sunscreen
chapstick
insect repellent
hand sanitizer
First aid kit
Toothbrush/toiletry kit
Brush/comb
Soap/washcloth (I like to take a small bar of soap OR cut up a large bar of soap into quarters and put it in a zip loc bag with the soap. Use that to wash your face, wring it out and put it back in the ziploc.
Deodorant (please! ha!)

OPTIONAL CAMPING SUPPLIES
Fishing gear (and license if over age of 17)
solar phone charger
binoculars
maps/guidebooks/local bird or wildlife field guide
books
decks of cards
frisbee
walkie talkies
umbrella
balls (soccer, football -- nerf is best, baseball/glove)
Hacky sack
Kite